Mumbai Police bust fake call center in Delhi, four held

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Mumbai Police arrested four people for allegedly running a fake call center that was indulged in duping people, the police said. According to the police, The officials from NM Joshi Marg police station were investigating a case of online fraud where the complainant, an accountant by profession, was allegedly cheated of about Rs 97000.

The police said, In January 2022, a 48-year-old accountant working in the security firm received a call from an unknown number. The woman at the other end of the call told him that she is talking from a government bank's credit card department. She told him that he was being offered a 'security feature' for his credit card. The woman took the details and last 4-digits of his credit card which he shared. Later, he received two One Time Passwords (OTPs) that were asked by the caller to be shared with her, as he shared the OTPs there were two transactions from his bank account and a total of Rs 96,876 were deducted from his account,

The complainant immediately rushed to the bank and learnt that he had been conned. He later visited the NM Joshi Marg police station and submitted a written complaint to the police. An FIR under sections 420 (cheating), 419 (cheating by impersonation) of the IPC and relevant sections of IT Act on February 4. A team comprising Inspector Sachin Kumbhar, PSI Nikhil Shelke, Police Constables Anil Rathod and Dhananjay Jagdale gathered technical details about the caller and the money trail and found a Delhi connection to the cyber fraud. Senior Inspector Sunil Chandramore decided to send a team to Delhi in June 2022 to trace and nab the suspects, the police said.

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"After working extensively on technical details of the calls and activating the informers network, we were directed to Buddha Vihar colony of New Delhi. Our team raided a commercial shop and nabbed 4 persons from the spot," said Sachin Kumbhar, Inspector (Crime), NM Joshi Marg police station.

"Investigations revealed that two of the arrested accused are bank account holders while the other two were the callers" he added.

Arrested accused are identified as Sonu Kumar, Salman Khan, Vishal Rathore, Vikas Sharma, while one more suspect is absconding in the case, he is said to be the mastermind of the fake call centre. The accused were produced before a court after their arrest and the court has sent them in judicial custody, police sources said.