Mumbai: Illegal call centre busted for duping Americans, four arrested

Police are looking for a fifth man, who also works at the call centre. The arrested men were remanded in police custody till December 26.

The Meghwadi police station had received information that a call centre was operating from a chawl in Prem Nagar, Jogeshwari (East). According to police, four men employed in the call centre were impersonating employees from American finance companies and making international calls during early morning hours.

Senior Inspector Sudhir Nigudkar from the Meghwadi police station said the accused rented a room in the chawl two months ago and set up laptops, routers and headphones to make phone calls.

Police said that as with other such call centres busted in Mumbai and Thane over the past three years, the men in Meghwadi also prepared for the phone calls using an easily available script.

“The accused told American citizens, who expressed an interest in availing loans, that their credit scores were low,” Nigudkar said.

He added that the callers then asked the Americans to purchase gift cards, ranging between $100 and $200, to improve their credit scores, after which their loan applications would be cleared. The accused would then route the money to their bank accounts.

Police said they were investigating records maintained at the call centre to arrive at the total figure of Americans citizens cheated and the amount of money the accused took from them.