Noida: 6 held for cheating foreign nationals with app subscription

The Noida cybercrime branch set up a team and busted the gang after being alerted about the complaint on the National Cyber Reporting Portal (NCRP)

Noida: Six individuals were arrested on Thursday from the call centre in Noida for duping foreigners, mainly US nationals, by selling them the subscription to an app that could give them access to various Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms.

The suspects used to contact people from their Sector 2 call centre and offer to provide various premium OTT applications content on a single charge using their application. (Representational image)

They charged customers between 100 to 300 dollars and, after a few months of use, they would then disconnect the facility and charged more, alleging that the customer had used some other paid service, said Shavya Goyal, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP), Noida.

The Noida cybercrime branch set up a team and busted the gang after being alerted about the complaint on the National Cyber Reporting Portal (NCRP).

“The suspects were running their call centre in Noida, Sector 2, for the past sometime. They had duped nearly 35,000 foreigners, the majority of whom were USA nationals and Indians residing abroad,” said a senior police officer, part of the investigation, on condition of anonymity.

The officer added, “The suspects used to contact people from their Sector 2 call centre and offer to provide various premium OTT applications content on a single charge using their application.”

“The suspects have been identified as Tanishka Verma, 24, who is the director of the call centre and a resident of Sector 8, Anil Baghel, 28 and Radha Ballabh, both residents of Sector 113, Manish Kumar, 32, a resident of Sector 20, Gaurav Baghel, 23 and his cousin Yogesh Baghel, 20, both residents of New Ashok Nagar,” said ADCP Goyal

Police said they were running the call centre in Sector 2 for last two months, and during the investigation it came to light that Tanishka used to work at a similar call centre, where she learned the process. Later, she started her own call centre to dupe people. “They were also involved in stealing genuine content from various OTT applications using a technical process,” said the police officer, requesting anonymity.

The suspects were booked on charges of cheating, cheating by personation and forgery of BNS and IT Act at Phase 1 police station, and further investigation is underway, added police.