Fake Call Centre In Delhi Cheated 500 People Of Over Rs 2.5 Crore, Busted: Cops

The Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police has busted a fake call centre and arrested seven men who allegedly duped more than 500 people of over Rs 2.5 crore by promising them to provide loans from reputed companies offering financial services, officials said on Tuesday.

Three among the seven are pursuing Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the School of Open Learning, they said.

The fake call centre was running from Vikas Nagar in west Delhi's Ranhola. The accused used fake SIM cards issued in the name of foreigners to dupe people, they said.

A probe was initiated after receiving a complaint from a man who told the police that while trying to avail a personal loan, he came across a contact number of a reputed firm offering financial services online.

When he called the number, the person who received the call promised to get him a loan at a low interest rate and asked him to deposit over Rs 2 lakh in various bank accounts on some pretext or the other.

Using technical surveillance and details provided by the service providers about the alleged contact number, one of the accused -- Pawan Mittal (28), who works as a sales promoter with a telecom company was, arrested.

This led to the arrest of his associates -- Mohammad Irfan Saifi (28), Vishal Tiwari (21), Vidhata (21), Amit Kumar (23), Gyan Singh (39) and Rishabh Mohammad (25), police said.

Irfan, who earlier worked as a telecaller in an insurance firm, was the mastermind who has been running the fake call centre from Vikas Nagar for the past two years.

His associate Mittal used fake documents and photographs of foreigners and got fake SIM cards activated which were used by them, according to police.

Senior police official (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said, "Irfan and his associates would post advertisements on various platforms offering a loan in the name of reputed companies and when contacted, they would ask the victim to first deposit money in the name of processing fees.

"Later to win their trust, they would even send them mails from a mail ID that looked deceptively similar to that reputed company."

The officer said once the victim deposited the money, they would block his number or switch off their number and start using another SIM.

The accused -- Vishal, Vidhata and Amit have all been working with Irfan for several months. They are all second and third year BA students from School of Open Learning and used to get a fixed salary along with a commission from the cheated amount, Mr Roy said.

Gyan and Rishabh are associates of Mittal who helped him in selling the fake SIM cards for a substantial profit, he said.

Several mobile phones and fake SIM cards used in the crime have been recovered from the fake call centre, police said, adding that efforts are being made to identify the others.