Gurugram, Apr 7 (IANS): A fake call centre duping the US and Canada citizens was busted and 17 people were arrested in this connection from Udyog Vihar in Gurugram on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from the flying squad, Udyog Vihar police station and Cyber Crime police led by DSP Inderjeet Singh Yadav of CM flying wing and Rajeev Kumar, ACP (Udyog Vihar) raided the call centre and recovered Rs 22.50 lakh in cash, six laptops, three desktops, 18 mobile phones and a 64 GB pen drive.

The employees of call centre used to call the US and Canada nationals posing as officials of Microsoft technical support and take $500 to $1,000 as service charge from them, police said.

"The call centre was being run without permission. Also, it did not have any license issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT)," Yadav said.

During questioning, the accused confessed that they used to communicate with US and Canada citizens offering to provide tech support, send pop-ups and take nearly $ 500 to $ 1,000 per client as service charge," he added.

"The employees of the fake call centre disclosed that besides salary, they were also getting a commission. The prime accused of the fake call centre is absconding," the DSP said.

An FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including the IT Act, has been registered at the Udyog Vihar police station for further investigation.