Two ‘call centres’ cheating American citizens busted at Hinjewadi; 23 booked

Acting on a tip-off by police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey, two teams led by inspector Ravikiran Nale of cyber crime police station and inspector Arvind Pawar of crime branch, were formed to raid the two call centres in Hinjewadi on Friday morning.

A press release stated that inspector Nale’s team raided an alleged fake call centre named “Sky High Solution”. Cops found the owner, manager and seven employees of the call centre interacting with American citizens, using communication systems like “TeleCMI” and “Dailer” and “Phound” software. Police seized nine computers, two laptops and scripts from the spot.

Police said the call centre employee used pseudonyms and made phone calls to American citizens claiming to be “Medical Health Department” staffers in the USA. They asked the victims if they were facing any side effects after using certain medicines and talcum powders, causing medical problems like cancer or “Non-Hodgkin lymphoma”.

To the victims who said they have faced any medical problems, the call centre operatives collected their personal information, assuring them that they would help provide compensation by filing cases against the medicine companies. The information extracted was being allegedly supplied to some American law firms, who paid the call centre in dollars, the press release stated.

The police also found that some operatives posing as employees of “Community Choice Financial Company”, collected bank details and confidential information like user ID, passwords from the victims by offering loans. Then they allegedly took online gift vouchers or money in dollars from the victims, as assurances to improve their “credit score” for taking loans, the press release mentioned.

During the raid at “Sky High Solution”, the police arrested its owner Sagar Kumar Yadav (32) of Hinjewadi and manager Anand Pankaj Sinha (29) of Wagholi. Offence was lodged against them, along with their seven employees, at the Cyber police station.

Meanwhile, inspector Arvind Pawar’s team raided another alleged fake call centre at “Tech Law Solution”. Police said, at this place too, the call centre operatives claiming to be “Medical Health Department” officials, were cheating victims, using the same modus operandi.

Police arrested the call centre owner Dhananjay Sahebrao Kasar (25) of Mulshi and manager Harshad Shankar Khamkar (28) of Hinjewadi. A first information report (FIR) was lodged against the two accused and their 11 employees in this case. Police said they have seized a total of 20 hard discs and three laptops during the two raids.

Police suspect several Americans were cheated by the accused. A probe is on to find out the volume of the fraud, police said.

Assistant commissioner of police Vishal Hire said, “Four persons, including owners and managers of the two fraud call centres were arrested. A court has remanded them to police custody till November 18 for further investigation. We have not arrested their employees, but a probe is on to confirm their role in the offence.”

“Prima-facie, it is learnt that the fake call centres took premises on rent at the commercial complex in Hinjewadi Phase 2 a few months before. A probe is on to know how they got the data of these American citizens. It is being investigated whether the accused have any nexus with any American Law firms. How the employees were hired and trained here at these call centres for cheating the Americans is being probed. We are also investigating the bank accounts and other financial transactions done by the accused persons through the fake call centres,” said Hire.