Another call centre racket busted in Mumbai

The Thane police on Tuesday busted another alleged bogus call centre scam and arrested two men from a flat in Kasarwadavli area. The racket was allegedly run on the lines of the huge call centre scam unearthed in 2016 following raids at nine call centres in the Mira Bhayandar belt from where callers posing as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials called US citizens and threatened them into making payments. While the scale of operation in the latest case is small, police are still to find out how much money was swindled.

According to police, the accused identified as Rakesh Kondwani (29) and Jorawat Rajput (28) were running the call centre. “They used to call American citizens using VoIP and pose as members of a lending club. They would then offer loans at cheap interest rates. Once the victim agreed, they would demand a processing fee, by way of iTunes or Target cards,” explained DCP Sunil Lokhande.

According to officers investigating the case, the way of demanding and encashing the money through gift cards was a feature similar to the call centres run by Sagar Thakkar, arrested last year. “They were making substantial money, however, we are yet to ascertain the figure. It will come forth during investigation,” an officer said.

Police lodged a case against the duo and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act. “We seized 2 laptops and 8 cell phones. There might be more people involved, we are investigating,” said an officer from Kasarwadavli police station.

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