Fake call centre targeting US, Canadian citizens busted in Mumbai; 5 held

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) Police have busted a fake international call centre in Mumbai that was cheating people in the US and Canada, and arrested five persons in this connection, officials said on Wednesday.

The police had received information that a person, Sagar Gupta, was running a fake international call centre in Mulund Colony with the help of an associate by impersonating a loan official of a US-based lender and making phishing calls and messages, they said.

They were cheating US and Canadian citizens by offering them quick loans and fraudulently obtaining proceeds of crime via gift cards or cryptocurrency, a police official said.

The police on Tuesday arrested five persons and seized two laptops, 11 mobile phones, two routers and Rs 76,000 in cash from them, he said.

Those arrested have been identified as Sagar Rajesh Gupta (27), Abhishek Suryaprakash Singh (28), Tanmay Kumar Rajneesh Dhadsing (27), Shailesh Manohar Shetty (27) and Rohan Ansari (28), the official said.

Search was on for a person, identified as Prashant Rajput from Surat in Gujarat, who was helping the accused to convert the dollar gift cards into Indian currency, and the other accused in the case, he said.

The accused have been booked under relevant provisions of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, the police added. PTI ZA GK