Fluent english-speaking Northeast employees, a 2-day script rehearsal: How Noida fake call centre duped US citizens

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Noida came under scrutiny as a major scam unfolded, involving a network of employees predominantly recruited from the northeastern states of Manipur and Nagaland. As per a TOI report, the call centre, merely four months old, initially operated with a modest team of 25 individuals, each possessing a good command of English and trained to flawlessly emulate American accents.

Police have arrested as many as 84 people related to this scam.

The fake call centre got access to lakhs of American social security numbers released on the dark web. Accent-trained to sound like Americans, these group of largely young but experienced BPO workers impersonated people from the US Social Security Administration in order to terrify their targets about the release of personal information.

Vivek Kumar, a 29-year-old resident of Crossings Republik in Ghaziabad, played a key role as the manager of this call centre.

During the early stage of the operation, he extended job offers to potential candidates via social media platforms, targeting those with English fluency. Notably, most recruits were chosen from the northeastern regions, chosen for their distinctive accents.

Among the employees was Ringthang Bo, a 25-year-old from Manipur, who shared his experience with the police.

Bo, along with his friend Martams Bai Ki Chu, joined the call centre to earn monthly salaries of Rs 35,000 and Rs 32,000 respectively. Investigations reveal that Bo and Chu took on the role of trainers, instructing new hires on English language usage and guiding them on conversational tactics for their illicit operations.

The scam followed a well-structured modus operandi.

New employees were provided scripts and instructed to practice them over two days. On the third day,