Noida: Police arrested 13 members of a gang, including the two masterminds, that allegedly cheated foreigners on the pretext of booking airline tickets. The accused allegedly targeted American and European nationals via social media sites.Sector 63 police station SHO Amit Kakran said that police received a tip about the illegal operation on Saturday from a source, leading them to conduct a raid at their Sector 63 office and make the arrests. They also seized 13 laptops, 16 mobile phones used in cybercrime, and other digital devices.Police said the masterminds behind the operation are Ravi Khurana (33) and Deepka Kumar (37), both residents of Delhi. The other 11 people were either callers or worked admin jobs at the fake call centre, police said.An FIR has been registered against the accused under relevant sections of cheating, forgery of BNS, and relevant sections of the IT Act.The accused told cops they would lure in targets from Europe and the US via ads on Facebook and Google Ads. When foreign nationals called the numbers provided, the accused would pose as representatives of an airline or travel agency. They would cheat them out of money, extracting information and sending fake tickets scheduled months away. Many of the victims would not realise they had been defrauded until long after the con.“Payment was taken in dollars through international payment gateways. Examination of the seized devices showed transactions amounting to around Rs 10 crore in USD and data stolen from victims. The accused are highly educated and would quickly trap foreign citizens by speaking to them in American and European accents and gaining their confidence,” the SHO said.
