The Delhi Police have busted a fake call centre that was operating in Sector-1 Avantika, Rohini, by the name ‘Indian Gigolo’ that offered escort services, apart from selling pills and sprays to enhance sexual vitality.
More than 50 people across India were duped of several lakhs of rupees by the fake call centre, officials informed on Friday.
The mastermind of the racket, a Delhi University graduate who owned the call centre, has been arrested, while eight women who worked as telecallers to induce people to pay, have been served notices and asked to join the investigation.
The police have recovered 12 basic mobile phones, one smartphone used for running a digital payment application, 16 small notebooks for recording details of victims and their financial transactions, one register to maintain attendance of employees and 10 bottles of sexual power enhancement pills and sprays.
The call centre had been operating since July 2021, said deputy commissioner of police (outer-north) Brijendra Yadav.
“We have frozen the digital payment account that was used for transactions amounting to ₹5.67 lakh,” DCP Yadav said.
Police said that the call centre was busted following an investigation carried out by the cyber cell police station of outer-north district based on the complaint of a man who was duped of ₹70,000 after being offered the job of an escort.
During investigation, DCP Yadav said, the technical surveillance team tracked the location of the beneficiary of the digital account and found that a call centre was being run for similar fake dealings.
A raid was conducted and the mastermind, identified as Mehtab, was arrested on Thursday. The eight women employees were also rounded up at the call centre.
“The women were employed for making calls and giving advertisements on porn sites. They called random numbers and asked people to buy sexual enhancement products. If anyone claimed his vitality and vigour was strong and did not require any medication, the telecallers offered them to join escort services in lieu of lucrative remuneration. Those who agreed were duped of money in the name of registration and other processing charges,” Yadav said.
The women used to call around 500 random numbers every day, of which 50-100 calls materialised. Of those, they managed to convince 10-20 people to become escorts for handsome remunerations.
Police said Mehtab graduated from Delhi University but stopped his studies during post-graduation. He then started preparing for civil services and worked in a few call centres during that period.
“After gaining experience in the sector, Mehtab started the fake call centre with the idea of selling sexual power enhancement pill and spray ‘Karya Sukh Power’, and convince people to join the escort services with the promise of earning fast and easy money,” the DCP added.