India, July 2 -- LUCKNOW It looked like just another bustling corporate office inside the upscale Summit Building in Lucknow's posh Vibhuti Khand area. But behind the 11th-floor glass doors, a highly sophisticated cybercrime syndicate was operating a multi-layered, international fraud machine in plain sight until a midnight raid by the Lucknow Commissionerate Police brought it crashing down late on Wednesday.

Following the crackdown, authorities sent 119 individuals to jail on Thursday, hours after they were detained during the raid. The massive international call centre racket preyed exclusively on US citizens, weaponizing Internet calling platforms, intense psychological pressure and fake US government identities to extort savings from...