White House, Green House yield 1.2 cr, 100 g diamonds, 400 g gold
Times of India | 27 February 2025
12 Kolkata: The detective department has busted a well-organised call centre fraud that operated from multiple flats located in two buildings of Garden Reach's Iron Gate area — The White House and The Green House. Four persons have been arrested and cops seized Rs 1.2 crore in cash, 100 g diamonds, and 400 g gold. Joint CP (crime & traffic) Rupesh Kumar said these were proceeds of crime as the accused had been operating out of the premises for a long time, defrauding Indian, American and Australian citizens for years.
"This is one of the biggest cash seizures from a fake call centre in the city. We are checking if cash was transferred via hawala routes," said an officer.
A joint team from DD units started the raid on Tuesday morning, and continued till Wednesday. "More arrests are likely in this regard," said Kumar.
Police said the accused posed as a unit of a leading tech company and offered American and Australian citizens software security updates. They would then use AnyDesk software to take control of the victims' computers. In case of Indians, the accused carried out loan frauds by offering attractive returns.
All four accused will be produced in court and will likely be taken into police custody. A case under multiple sections of the IT Act and BNS Act, pertaining to fraud, cheating, and criminal conspiracy, has been registered.
Residents of other flats in the two buildings said they were curious about the accused's flats as different young men and women came to work there. "Most of them worked at night. We came to know that it was headed by a man from Maheshtala and another from the Park Street area. We have seen them learning how to speak English with an accent while having tea during breaks," said Md Sarfaraz, a resident of one of the buildings.
Operating from offices in premium commercial buildings across the city, white-collar fraudsters have been caught duping citizens of France, Germany, Americas, and Australia, siphoning 350-500 Euros from each. This trend has become all the more evident after Covid. However, cops said they have rarely come across so many flats being taken on rent in two buildings to carry out such wide-scale fraud. "The newest raid is at one of the biggest rented spaces we have come across in the port area," said an officer.
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