New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI) The CBI has held a range of bilateral meetings with countries attending the Interpol's 90th General Assembly to boost criminal intelligence sharing, tracking fugitives, combating terror financing and child abuse, among others, officials said on Thursday.

The general assembly is being held here from October 18 to 21.

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The delegation of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has at the bilateral level met delegations from at least 20 countries, including the UK, the US, Australia, the UAE, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Austria, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, Bhutan, Namibia, Bahrain, Russia, Canada, Oman, Serbia, Malaysia and Mongolia.

The team also met with Europol officials to discuss strengthening and working out an arrangement for cooperation in policing, the CBI said in a statement.

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The Austrian delegation led by General Andreas Holzer, director of the Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service Bundeskriminalamt, appreciated the CBI for its prompt action against cyber criminals due to which frauds have drastically reduced in his and other neighbouring countries. The next general assembly of the Interpol will be hosted by Austria.

"The two agencies will further collaborate in ongoing investigation," a CBI spokesperson said.

Holzer refused to comment about the ongoing investigation against cyber criminals probed by the CBI but said cooperation is going on between the two agencies.

"I can, however, tell you, that there is an ongoing cooperation between CBI, Interpol and the Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service regarding Indian scammers, a prime example to how international police cooperation should look like and what can be accomplished, when professionals work together," General Holzer told PTI over email.

He said scammers and frauds using telephone are increasingly problematic issues in Austria and Europe. "We have hundreds of victims who lost millions of Euros to these scammers. Scammers are employing very sophisticated technical tools and tools of social engineering to accomplish their criminal goals," Holzer said.

Holzer said the fight against scammers cannot take place within one single country or even a single continent – scammers use the whole world as their stage, so we have to do the same.

"In that context I would like to extend my sincerest professional gratitude and appreciation towards INTERPOL and the CBI, who are very important partners in our fight against international criminal activity," he said.

In the last week of September, the CBI had busted a call centre in a village in west Delhi. It was being operated by people who impersonated law enforcement and Europol officers to dupe foreigners by telling them that their identities had been stolen and crime pertaining to narcotics were committed in their names.

"In order to clear themselves of this suspicion, the victims were compelled to transfer money to a trust account through bank transfers, crypto wallets, gift card codes or voucher codes," the statement said.

"During the operation, another call centre was busted in Noida," it said.

The agency had seized 25.83 Bitcoins (approximate) and froze Rs 31 lakh in different wallets of the accused along with Rs 30.43 lakh in the bank account of one of them.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)