Kolkata scam trail leads to foreign cyber gangs; Salt Lake residents targeted
KOLKATA: Bidhannagar Police, probing a series of digital-arrest cases where hundreds from Salt Lake, New Town, Kolkata and adjoining areas have been duped of several lakhs, is preparing to send a team to South-East Asian nations following evidence of the involvement of foreign cybercrime syndicates.
Cops have traced the source of several such frauds to syndicates operating out of Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand that are allegedly run by Chinese cartels who employ Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalese and Bangladeshis. An officer said they have initiated steps to coordinate with local authorities in South-East Asia and contacted the MEA and Interpol for assistance.
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'We have found clear evidence of the involvement of multiple foreign syndicates and traced the money flow to Chinese cartels.
We are preparing a team to travel to Cambodia and Vietnam and bust these rackets in coordination with local police,' said a senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police.
'South-Asians, including Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Nepalese, are being actively recruited by these syndicates. We have arrested multiple such employees who confided that they were lured by fake job offers and then forced to work in call centres involved in cybercrime,' the officer said.
He added that the Centre was recently able to bring back from Cambodia and Thailand 600 Indian employees who are now helping cops with the investigation.
In the country's first digital-arrest conviction, where a Kalyani trial court sentenced nine criminals to life imprisonment on Friday for conning a Ranaghat man to pay them Rs 1 crore, investigators traced the origin of the video calls to Cambodia even though the WhatsApp number being used was linked to a SIM card issued by a private Indian telecom company.
Police said the scammers' fluency in Bengali and Hindi was the first red flag.
The nine persons convicted were part of a gang that, investigators claimed, had amassed Rs 100 by duping 108 people across the country.
'The multilingual operatives could easily deceive the victims, particularly the elderly and those unfamiliar with digital systems,' said the officer. The scammers also recruited individuals across India to act as mule account holders or those who allowed their bank accounts to be used in exchange for a commission.
Once victims transferred funds under threat, the money was quickly moved through these accounts.
'The stolen money was then converted into USDT (Tether), a cryptocurrency, and later withdrawn. Telegram channels and Chinese messaging apps were used to coordinate these activities and transfer information. To bypass banking safeguards, the scammers used software tools that forwarded OTPs and banking details to handlers abroad, allowing remote access to victims' accounts,' the officer added. The funds were routed through bank accounts in Cambodia, Singapore, China, and Nepal, making it difficult for Indian authorities to track them, he said.
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