Police bust fake call centre at hotel in Calangute, arrest 7

Panaji: Goa’s cybercrime police on Friday arrested seven persons for allegedly running a fake call centre.

The accused impersonated themselves as agents from loan companies, Amazon headquarters’ staff, bank employees, govt agencies and law enforcement agencies and cheated US citizens, superintendent of police (SP) cybercrime Rahul Gupta said.

The investigation revealed that the accused made voice calls to US citizens. “Those who continued with the calls were induced to transfer money,” Gupta said.

Cyber Crime police station registered a first information report (FIR) based on a complaint from PSI Sanit Kavlekar of the cybercrime police station in Ribandar. The complaint states that between July 12 and July 13, at a hotel in Calangute, seven persons were caught operating an illegal call centre.

Gupta said thatupon technical surveillance, cybercrime police searched a hotel in Calangute, and apprehend the accused. He said that the accused have been identified as Vishal Vaghela (34) and Acharya Balkrishna (28) from Gujarat, H Puloto Awomi (20), Inovi Zhimomi (21) and Vikito (21) from Nagaland, Dhananjay Singh (27) from Rajasthan and Chunjang Lung Rongmei (31) from Assam.

“A total of four laptops, one router and a switch were recovered. All items will be sent for cyber forensic examination,” the SP said. PI Deepak Pednekar is investigating the case further.

Gupta asked the public to remain vigilant and to report such calls to the nearest police station or cyber police stations to help apprehend such criminals.


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