Fake call centre in Mumbai suburb would offer Americans loans, dupe them of cash

Mumbai city news: Sources said the call centre has as many as 25 employees

Police busted a fake loan racket and detained eight people after raiding a call centre in Ambernath MIDC late on Thursday. Police said the accused would call US nationals and offer them loans, which they had to pay a token amount for. Once the victims paid, the accused would cut contact with them.

Delta IT Park in Mira Road, where the call centres were raided in October last year. (HT File Photo)

Sources said the call centre has as many as 25 employees. Police seized their computers and hard disks. A probe is ongoing.

On October 4, the Thane crime branch had busted a racket in Mira Road, in which call centre employees would pose as American revenue officials. They would make threatening calls to loan defaulters in the US and force them to pay up. The accused were charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code for extortion, cheating, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy, apart from sections of the Indian Telegraph Act and IT Act.