PANJIM: The Crime Branch officials have busted a fake call centre at Colvale, which was run by a group of persons engaged in duping several victims from the United States of America (USA) under the pretext of running an Amazon Customer Service Centre.
Thirty-three persons have been arrested and booked under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This is Goa’s second major raid on fake call centres in four months. Police sources informed that the victims from the USA were cheated through credit cards, gift cards and Unified Payment Index (UPI) payment platforms.
A native of Ahmedabad, Gujarat along with 24 male persons and 8 female accused persons has been arrested for hatching a criminal conspiracy by setting up a fake call centre. The call centre was operating from Kavish Residency, Colvale. The accused persons impersonated themselves as the staff of Amazon Customer Service Centre and were receiving calls from Amazon customers from the USA, enquiring about their queries regarding Amazon purchases, etc.
The accused persons were making calls to random customers in the USA. They were informing them that some unknown person had placed an order to purchase expensive electronic goods by hacking into their Amazon account. The accused then deceitfully obtained the phone and other personal details of the victims. The personal details of the victims were being used to further defraud for cheating purposes.
The accused persons deceitfully took customers’ personal details including bank details and induced the customers to part with money to resolve the issue.
The customers were depositing the amount into the account of the accused persons and the issues were ultimately never resolved.
The police have arrested accused Jigar Parmar, 35, a native of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Twenty-six computers, accessories and a router were seized during the raid. The accused persons have been booked under Sections 419, and 420 read with 120-B of the IPC and Sections 66-C and 66-D of the IT Act.
SP North Nidhin Valsan said, “The call centre was targeting citizens of the USA. The police will be able to quantify the amount of money and number of persons that have been cheated after further investigation.”
“We are also investigating whether there was some illegal transfer of contacts from some authorised call centre from Gujarat,” Valsan added.
Investigations revealed that the premises were rented out to the fake call centre by its owner Tarak Arolkar from Mapusa.
He said that he has laid down the conditions for lease and wasn’t aware of what business has been transacted from the space he rented out.