The Thane police, on Thursday, arrested 11 persons for allegedly running a fake call centre from Thane and targeting American citizens to extort money.
During the raid, police seized laptops, modem, mobile phones, router, registers and computer hard disk computer besides ₹3.25 lakh cash. They have been produced before the court and remanded to police custody till May 26.
Thane police PRO, Sudhakar Humbe, said, “They introduced themselves to the American citizens on phone as American International Revenue Officers. They threatened American citizens by saying that they have evaded taxes and therefore have an arrest warrant against them and would visit their homes soon. They threatened and mentally harassed the US citizens and extorted money. They used to receive money through gift cards with the help of an American accomplice.
“We received reliable information two weeks ago about a fake call centre being run at Wagale, Thane that the call centre employees were cheating foreigners, mostly US nationals. A police team kept an eye on them and laid a trap for the accused. A raid was conducted on Thursday.”
A case has been registered at Shrinagar police station under various sections of IPC and also under Information Technology Act and Indian Telegraph Act. Further investigation has been handed over to Kasarvadavali police station.
Yogesh Avhad, senior police inspector from Kasarvadavali police station, said, “During the investigation, we got to know that one of the accused, Haidar Ali, already had a fake call centre offence against him at Kashmira police station in 2016. It may be that he is the kingpin of this fake call centre.”