TelecomLive January-2019

126 arrested in Noida for running fake call centre, duping US citizens The Noida police arrested 126 people from a fake call centre involved in extorting money from US citizens after threatening them with arrest for having discrepancies in their social security number. In a raid at the call centre in Noida, Sector 63, the police arrested a total of 126 people including operators and callers, besides seizing 312 computer systems and cash worth over Rs 20 lakh. The workers at the fake call centre would call up US citizens and intimidate them saying there were problems with their social security number, a nine- digit identification number issued to the US citizens, and tell them to pay penalty to get it fixed or face arrest. T he callers would ask for up to $3,500 and transfer it through target purchasing of "playstore cards" in the US which the call centre owners would get encashed with the help of their aides abroad. The call centre would make $50,000 every night on an average by duping gullible Americans. They have extorted crores of US dollars. The call centre owners have been operating the centre fromdifferent places in the National Capital Region for last three years. They would keep it shutting and restarting every now and then to avoid detection. The call centre would function [ News Bytes ] 60 www.telecomlive.com from7 pmto 5 am. An initial probe has revealed that they had partners in the US, Dubai and China where these "playstore cards" would be encashed. A c a s e h a s b e e n registered against the arrested persons under I n d i a n P e n a l C o d e sections 308 (extortion), 420 (cheating) and under various relevant sections o f t h e I n f o r ma t i o n TechnologyAct. Tata Sky launches short format content with London's Shorts TV T a t a S k y L t d announced a partnership with Shorts TV, a Lon- don-based te l ev i s ion channel dedicated to short films. The newly l a u n c h e d T a t a S k y ShortsTV will come for a subscription rate of Rs 75 per month besides being available on the Tata Sky website and mobile app. It houses about 2,000 titles in languages like English, Hindi and Tamil and from countries like Britain, Latin America, Russia, Germany and France, running into 600 hours. “ Th e p o i n t o f t h e collaboration is to bring our international content together with local Indian f i l m s a n d c r e a t e a platform that appeals to Indian viewers in an inexpensive way across the country,” said Carter Pilcher, CEO at Shorts International Ltd. Wh i l e t h e s e r v i c e brings some Indian films i n p a r t ne r s h i p w i t h Subhash Gha i ' s f i lm i n s t i t u t e Wh i s t l i n g Woods International, critically acclaimed titles Telecom LIVE January 2019 BPO & Broadcasting like Chutney, Ahalya, Shunyata, Aamad, Kheer, Arre Baba, Urmi's Cat and Naughty Amelia Jane, currently out on the web, will also be available. International offerings include Academy Award a n d S u n d a n c e F i l m Festival movies like God o f Love , Bear Story , Atlantic, Henry, Bor- rowed Time, Curfew, Blood Money, A Sense of History, Neighbours, Wa l l s , B l ue Se a s on , Midnight of My Life and Picture Paris. IndiaCast inks OTT deal with Thailand's JKN Media for Viacom18 content T V 1 8 ' s c o n t e n t d i s t r i b u t i o n a r m IndiaCast Media Distri- bution has partneredwith Thailand's JKN Media to offer Viacom18 content to Thai viewers. Under the p a r t n e r s h i p , t h e Viacom18 content will be available on soon-to- launch digital channel of J K N M e d i a ' s O T T