At 23, she boasted a diploma in fashion designing from a leading city institute and a job with a call centre in Sector V. Virtual life’s fast lane beckoned, and Sulagna Roy took to it with a vengeance.

Today, she is wanted by various law-enforcing agencies, from California to Calcutta.

Sulagna was arrested early on Friday at her James Long Sarani residence, in the Thakurpukur area, on charges of cheating foreign nationals by using their credit card numbers and going on a shopping spree, online, for a month.

Accused of duping 42 US clients of the call centre she worked in to buy goods worth Rs 2 lakh — everything from a chocolate bar to an air-conditioning machine — Sulagna was produced in Bankshal court and remanded in police custody till September 12.

Gyanwant Singh, deputy commissioner of police (detective department), said the modus operandi proved that the Sulagna knew the ropes of the new-age tech crime.

“She targeted US nationals, convinced that she was out of reach for the American police and that her ‘victims’ would not lodge or pursue complaints over discrepancies in their credit card transactions,” added Singh.

Sulagna would sometimes go to a cyber cafe for her online shopping adventure, but most of the time, would use her own laptop to access the desired site, police said.

Naseem Ali of the detective department’s cyber crime wing explained how Sulagna would crack the credit card numbers and codes: “When US clients would contact the call centre for online purchases and disclose their credit card numbers, Sulagna would note them down.”

About a month ago, she started cashing in on the credit cards. “She purchased luxury items like an air-conditioner, microwave oven, cosmetics, saris and jewellery on a California-based shopping site,” said Ali.

When cardholders started complaining about the discrepancies in their credit card statements, police in the US zeroed in on the California-based website. The website authorities, in turn, alerted their India network.

Sudip Kundu, the website’s Calcutta agent, came to Lalbazar police headquarters and lodged a complaint.

Police contacted the suppliers of all the goods purchased on the site and realised that they were delivered to a single address in Thakurpukur.

In a pre-dawn swoop on Friday, they picked up Sulagna from home.