Fake call centre busted, two held

NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai crime branch arrested two men for operating a fake call centre on the pretext of providing loans.

The accused have allegedly duped at least 17 people to the tune of ₹3.49 lakh.

The unit 1 of the crime branch raided their shop in Haware Centurion Mall, Nerul, after tracing their location. The kingpins of the racket Zeeshan Shaikh and Arvind Jadhav, both in their late twenties, were operating from the mall for over two months.

The accused duo had employed four women, who were paid ₹200 per day.

The women call centre ‘executives’ would call people and inform them of a loan offer at a lucrative interest rate. They would ask them to pay a 5% processing fee and 18% fee for GST (goods and services tax) and insurance.

After taking the money, the accused would disconnect and not provide the customers with any loans.

“Interestingly, these women were not aware of the scam. Hence, they are not booked in the case. We have also seized forged letterheads of a private finance firm from them,” said

Subhash Nikam, senior inspector at the crime branch.

The police have seized a laptop and six handsets from the call centre during the raid along with a bank’s debit card used by Shaikh to withdraw the money. The accused men have been handed over to Ahmednagar police, where a case against them has been registered.

Police officers believe these are the known cases registered across Maharashtra, and there may be more victims which will be revealed during further probe.