Wary of being caught by foreign nationals who are increasingly getting aware of fake call centres duping them, fraudsters have now changed their modus operandi by operating the call centres using automated voice messages in the respective English accent of the victims they are targeting.

The revelation was made by the state cyber cell which recently busted a call centre in Dehradun’s Racecourse Road area where the accused were duping American nationals on the pretext of seeking donations for US police and fire services, using the same modus operandi.

Ankush Mishra, deputy superintendent of police (DSP), state cyber cell, who led the raid on the call centre told TOI, “It was the first call centre in the state which was found operating with pre-recorded automated voice messages.”

“On interrogation, the accused told police that they used to speak with their targets in the US using automated voice messages over the phone. The reason behind doing so was to avoid suspicion in the minds of the foreigners that the caller is a fraudster sitting in India who is speaking to them faking their accent,” said Mishra.

The DSP further said the accused had voice commands for each question from their target.