Fake call centre busted, police say thousands of US citizens cheated of millions of dollars
Pune city police on Saturday claimed they have busted a fake call centre from where thousands of US citizens have been cheated to the tune of millions of US dollars through 'digital arrest' kind of cyber frauds, in the past one year.
Acting of a tip-off, a team of over 150 policemen, led by ACP Ganesh Ingle and senior inspectors Swapnali Shinde, Shabbir Sayyad and Ajay Waghmare raided the call centre located on the ninth floor of the plush Pride Icon project in Kharadi, around 10 pm on Saturday.
The police found that as many as 123 staffers, including 12 women and 111 men were working at the alleged illegal call centre under the name of 'Magnatel BPS and Consultants LLP' since July 2024. Details of the company are being investigated. Meanwhile, during the raid that went on for nearly ten hours, police seized 64 laptops, 41 cell phones, four routers, all worth Rs 13.74 lakh, from the spot. Police found suspicious online applications, VPN software and data of lakhs of US citizens in the seized laptops.
An FIR in this case was lodged at the Cyber police station on Sunday morning, as per sections 316 (2), 318 (4), 61 (1), 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections of the IT Act.
Police said till now they have identified eight persons as prime accused, of whom five have been arrested and a search was on for another three. Police have identified the arrested accused as Sarjitsingh Shekhawat (26) of Jhunjunu, Rajasthan, Abhishek Pande (29), Shrimay Paresh Shah (31) Lakshman Shekhawat and Aaron Christian (29), all from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Police said attempts are on to trace Karan Shekhawat from Rajasthan, Ketan Ramani and one Sanjay More. Besides, police are questioning over a hundred call centre staffers to confirm their role in the cyber scam. Police said legal action would be taken against the staffers depending upon their involvement.
During a press conference, joint commissioner of police Ranjankumar Sharma said that a prima-facie probe has revealed that accused persons received data of about one lakh US citizens daily. The fraudsters called these US nationals on their WhatsApp numbers using VPN software and caller mikes.
Police said the call centre staffers posing as US security or police officers, threatened the US citizens saying they would be arrested as their Amazon accounts were used for smuggling of drugs. Then to prevent legal action, the Americans were asked to purchase Amazon gift cards, which were further encashed in US dollars and transferred to the call centre racketeers via 'Hawala' routes or cryptocurrency, police said.
Asked about the educational background of the accused, DCP (crime) Nikhil Pingle said that the arrested accused and even most of the staffers at the illegal call centre were just 12th pass or less. 'Probe revealed the staffers were given salaries in cash,' he said.
Police said the staffers are mainly from northern and North-Eastern states, who can speak English properly with US citizens. A probe is on to confirm how the prime accused thought of and executed the idea of setting up an illegal call centre in Pune for committing international cyber frauds. Police are also probing how over hundred staffers were recruited and trained for cheating the Americans.
As of now, police suspect the key accused hired the staffers through trustworthy contacts, on a monthly salary of about Rs 25,000, on conditions that they would not leak out the illegal activities done from the call centre in Pune. Police said one of the key accused took an entire floor inside Pride Icon in Kharadi on a monthly rent of Rs 8 lakh for running the call centre.
While the financial transactions, bank accounts and illegal money transfer routes used by the racketeers are being investigated, cops believe a daily turnover of about 30,000 US dollars was happening through the call centre by cheating US citizens. 'The probe is ongoing and the exact volume of the cyber fraud is yet to be known. But it could be millions of dollars. The illegal financial trial is under investigation. The victims who lost their money to the fraudsters may have lodged complaints with the US authorities,' a police officer said.
Police are investigating how the illegal call centre was receiving contact numbers of lakhs of US citizens. Police suspect involvement of more persons in the scam. Police also suspect some of the accused have earlier worked with BPOs or other call centres.
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