Mumbai: Fake call centre extorting money from US citizens busted

Photo used for representational image

The Kandivli police on Tuesday busted a fake call centre racket and arrested four accused for allegedly extorting money from US citizens by posing as officials from US agencies.

A police team, under the guidance of police inspectors Ravi Adhane and Vijay Kandalgaonkar, raided a house in Gorai at Borivli (west) and arrested the four accused.

The accused have been identified as Irfan Shaikh (27), Umesh Parekh (35), Jiner Umesh Patel (25) and Adil Hussain Advani (21). The police also seized computers, CPU and laptops.

During the investigation, it was revealed that the call centre was started just 20 days back. The accused said that each one of them used to call 20 persons daily.

The accused posed as US agency officials and called US citizens. They asked them to reveal their social security numbers and threatened to trap them in fake crime cases.

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They forced the victim to purchase Ebay scratch card (one card costs about 4,000 US dollars) and share the number. After receiving the number, they used to share it with their accomplice in US, who used to encash the amount, said a police official.

We have registered a case under Sections 419, 420, 384, 120b and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with relevant sections of Telegraph Act.

The accused were produced before the court and have been remanded to police custody.

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