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Goa: Police bust fake call centre duping US citizens, nine held
They impersonated loan officials of the US bank through illegal means using the X-lite app, said police, adding the accused used laptops and Virtual Private Network (VPN) to contact the victims through an interactive voice response system
The Goa Police have busted a ‘fake call centre’ and arrested nine people in connection for duping US citizens by posing as customer service executives of US-based banks and promising them loans, officials said.
The Goa Police crime branch raided premises at Majorda in South Goa and arrested nine people found operating from the centre. They were making calls to potential victims in the US, police said.
“The callers, who had procured personal details of US citizens through illegitimate means, would contact their potential victims through an interactive voice response system, and when a customer responds seeking a loan, they would tell them that their credit score was low, which they said could be ‘corrected’ by paying a ‘penalty’ that would usually be asked to be paid via Google Pay into electronic currency and later withdrawing the money in Indian currency,” an official familiar with the development said.
They impersonated loan officials of the US bank through illegal means using the X-lite app, said police, adding the accused used laptops and Virtual Private Network (VPN) to contact the victims through an interactive voice response system.
Police said that they targetted their victims having low credit scores and the callers then used to convince them (US citizens) that are they from the bank offering loans and later asked the victims to pay a fine/penalty in the form of electronic payment mode ie thus cheating the citizens of the US.
Police have identified the nine arrested as Vinay Makwana, 32, from Ahmedabad in Gujarat; Ghachi Alfarz, 28 of Mehsana, Gujarat; Akash Biswa, 26 from Shillong in Meghalaya; Akash Sunar, 23, from Shillong, Meghalaya; Kesang Tamang, 20 from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal; Rahul Sarsar, 29 from Matunga in Mumbai; Ajay Biswa, 25, from Shillong in Meghalaya; Tanmoy Dasgupta, 20 from Dimapur in Nagaland and Rehan Shaikh, 27 from Mumbai.
