India call centre scams continue to target Canadians despite raids by police in India
The Canadian Bazaar
BRAMPTON: One more Brampton Indo-Canadian man has been arrested and charged in connection with Indian call centre scams.
Abhinav Bector, 25, has been charged with fraud over $5,000, possession of proceeds of crime and laundering of the proceeds of crime.
Police say call centre frauds have cost Canadians over $34 million since 2014. Despite Indian police raids on illegal call centres and arrests in Canada, scamsters continue to target Canadians.
Abhinav is the latest suspect to be arrested in these call centre scams. Indo-Canadian Naman Grover of Mississauga was arrested in October and arrest warrants have been issued against other three absconding scamsters – Bindisha Joshi, 41, Vimal Shrestha, 41, and Thomas Pao, 25, of Mississauga.
Phone scamsters from India target Canadians by posing as representatives of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), banks, immigration and tech support agencies. They scare people into paying money or parting with their financial/credit card information immediately or face action.
The call centre scamsters have also recruited local individuals as ‘money mules’ to receive money from their victims and then launder it to them.
In some cases, students coming on study visas have been recruited even before coming to Canada or while here to carry out these scams, the police says.
In October, Naman Grover of Mississauga was uncovered as one of the ‘money mules/money mule managers’ after investigations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The investigations into India call centre scams under Project Octavia were launched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in October 2018.
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