HYDERABAD: Jarupula Shankar, an autorickshaw driver from Gollabanda tanda in Mahbubnagar, used to be hardpressed for money, and migrated to Kolkata around a year ago. He has since acquired the trappings of prosperity.
He now takes a flight home every time. While the sudden ‘rags to riches’ story has surprised his village, the real picture emerged after police arrested him. He was found to be working for a fake call centre, duping people across the country and looting them.
What has stunned police personnel is that like Shankar, several people from remote villages in Mahbubnagar district were migrating to Kolkata to work for gangs involved in cyberfraud.
The cybercrime wings of Rachakonda and Cyberabad commissionerates recently arrested several such migrants from different parts of Kolkata. Inquiries revealed that some of those migrants are running rackets and hiring people from different parts of the district.
“A good number of people from Mahbubnagar district are working in fake call centres in Kolkata. This type of migration is slowly spreading to other districts,” an official told Deccan Chronicle.
While some migrants were directly contacted by the fake call centre operators through social media platforms, some are contacted by ‘well-settled’ migrants, who were running the show.
The bait is a 30 per cent commission on completion of each ‘transaction’. It is a massive earning given the zero investment from their side.
“On an average each person is earning around Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 per month. The figure doubles if the trap is bigger. In addition, they are provide accommodation, food and other facilities,” another official said.
While this is a decent offer, some migrants working for these fake call centres are even accommodated in flats with all facilities in the city’s posh areas, added the official.
