Mumbai Police raids two fake call centers in city, 19 held

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The Mumbai Police Friday said that it raided two fake call centers in the city for allegedly impersonating Google services and the other running Forex trading scam.

The police said that it as many as 19 people were held in the matter.

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According to the police, the Mumbai Crime Branch's units 10 and 11 have busted two illegal call centers. The operation was part of a well-coordinated effort following inputs regarding the alleged fraudsters targeting foreign nationals and Indian citizens alike.

The police said that the investigations revealed that certain individuals were running illegal call centers, impersonating Google services, and deceiving foreign nationals and Indian citizens were allegedly being lured into illegal Forex trading schemes and scammed for money under the false pretext of high returns.

Unit 10 Raid

The police said that a team from Mumbai Crime Branch's Unit 10 raided a bogus call center located in Andheri East. The suspects were found to be posing as Google representatives, telling foreign nationals that their Google business profiles were about to be shut down unless they paid for upgrades and green verified checks.

Victims were asked to make payments via credit cards, but no such services were ever provided, an official said.

Unit 11 Raid

An another team from Unit 11 uncovered a similar scam in Kandivali West. The individuals were allegedly found contacting Indian citizens and enticing them with promises of high returns from Forex trading and they convinced people to invest through fake payment gateways without engaging in any actual trading activities.

"In total, the police seized 12 mobile phones, 22 hard disks, 1 monitor, 2 CPUs, 1 router, 1 laptop, 1 keyboard, 12 headsets, and several important documents during the raids," said a police official.

The arrested individuals include 2 business owners, 5 team leaders, 1 call center sales manager, 11 operators, and 19 total accused, he said.

The police said that the successful operation was carried out under the guidance of Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, Special Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam, Additional Commissioner (Crime) Shashi Kumar Meena, DCP (Detection-1) Vishal Thakur, and Assistant Commissioners of Police, Prashant Raje and Rajendra Shiratode.

The Crime Branch officials who conducted the raids included PI Dipak Sawant, PI Manoj Sutar, Ganesh Todkar, Rohit Narvekar, Afroz Sheikh, and others from Unit 10, as well as PI Mahesh Nivatkar, PI Kakade, and other officers from Unit 11, the police said.