Maharastra: Thane Police Raid Fake Call Centre Offering Loans To US Citizens, 16 Arrested

The police acted on a tip-off and raided the call centre located in the Wagle Estate area of the city on the intervening night of Friday-Saturday.

The accused would contact people in the US and offer them loans for their bank account details.

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New Delhi: A fake call centre was busted in Thane and 16 people were arrested as the call centre allegedly duped US citizens in the name of offering them loans. 

After a tip-off, the police raided the call centre located in the Wagle Estate area of Maharashtra's Thane city on the intervening night of Friday-Saturday and nabbed the people working there, including three women, senior police inspector V B Murtadak said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

Among the 16 arrested are the call centre owners - Siddesh Sudhir Bhaidkar (33) and Sania Rakesh Jaiswal (26), the official said.

According to him, the accused would contact people in the US and offer them loans for their bank account details, they would then siphon off funds from their accounts.

“The suspects would call the American citizens offering them loans. Later, they would convince them to share their login details. They would send the bank details from the citizen's ID and the bank would offer a few dollars as temporary credits. They, along with their aides, would redeem the money", a police officer said, as quoted by the Times of India in a report.

An agent coordinating in the US would collect the money and transfer it to India through 'hawala' after taking his share from it. Hawala denotes an illegal transaction of funds by skirting the legal banking channels.

A juvenile was also detained in connection with the offence and later handed over to his parents after completion of legal formalities, PTI reported the senior police inspector as saying. 

During the raid, the police seized various equipment, gadgets and data from the call centre. According to PTI, offences were registered against the accused under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act, the official said. 

The accused on Saturday were produced before a local magistrate who remanded them in police custody for seven days, the official informed.

(With Agency Inputs)