Mumbai Crime: Three fake call centres busted for cheating foreigners

Police officers with the seized laptops, hard disks and mobile phones

Malad and Bangur Nagar police on Thursday said they have arrested 10 people for running fake call centres and cheating foreigners by luring them into buying sex enhancements supplements and Google apps online at a low cost. They also detained 30-40 others who used to work for them.

Police officers, under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone XI Vishal Thakur, raided the call centres on Wednesday night after receiving information about the scam. They also seized 40 laptops, hard disks and mobile phones, and would be able to determine the amount the accused extracted from their victims after a thorough examination.

Three teams led by Police Inspector (PI) Sudhir Dalvi and Assistant Police Inspector (API) Vivek Tambe raided the premises of Lotus Business Park, on Rambaug SV Road, Malad. At the same time, two teams, including PI Jyoti Bagul Bhople, PI Ghanshyam Nair, API Sandeep Pachangne and other officers raided two places at Palm Spring in Malad West, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Vishal Thakur.

Thakur said the owners of the call centres stole data and phone numbers of foreign nationals, especially Americans, from the dark web. Using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, employees of two call centres would call up the foreigners and lure them into buying sex enhancements supplements at a very low cost. The third call centre was duping the foreign nationals by luring them into buying Google applications for a low amount.

Police learnt that suspended cops Sunil Mane and Sachin Waze, who have been arrested in the murder case of businessman Mansukh Hiran, had raided two of these call centres in October for operating during the COVID-19 lockdown. The duo had registered a case under the weaker sections of the Unlawful Act, including Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life), 270 (whoever malignantly does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) of the IPC.

Now, police have registered a case under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Telegraph Act and the Information Technology Act. They added IPC Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating).

The employees were handed notices to appear before the police for questioning.