At least 54 people have been arrested in India’s capital as authoritiesunearthed an extortion racket run by a “massive syndicate targeting foreignnationals,” police said on Wednesday.

Operating from an illegal call center in New Delhi, the accused wouldimpersonate various law enforcement agencies to dupe people living in theUS and other countries, according to a police statement.

They managed to get over 4,500 people to pay a collective sum of around $14million, it said.

“Foreign nationals from the US and other countries were threatened withlegal action and made to transfer money via Bitcoins and gift cards,” saidAnyesh Roy, a top police officer.

He said the accused used an “elaborate written script” and posed asofficials from law enforcement and other government agencies “such as theSocial Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, andthe US Marshals Service” among others.

“They would tell the victims that their bank accounts and other assets arebeing frozen because their details have been found at a crime scene, orthat bank accounts in their names have been used for transactions relatedto drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia,” Roy explained.

Threatened with the possibility of arrest and jail time, the victims werethen offered two options – legal action or Alternate Dispute Resolution(ADR), he said.

“In the ADR, the victim was told that there is only one way to safeguardtheir assets; they have to either buy Bitcoins or Google gift cards worthall the money in their accounts,” the officer said.

According to the police, initial investigations show a person was managingthe call center’s operations from Dubai.

Police seized 89 desktop computers and a network server set up at thecenter in Delhi.

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