AHMEDABAD: Police have busted a fake call centre being operated from Ahmedabad and targeting US citizens on the pretext of providing them quick loans, and arrested three persons in this connection, officials said on Monday.
Based on a specific tip-off, a cyber crime team raided the call centre located in Jagatpur area on Sunday and nabbed the trio, identified as Bharatsinh Mandola (35), Akhilesh Nair (23) and Ajay Sonavane (28), all residents of Ahmedabad.
The accused used to call unsuspecting Americans by identifying themselves as representatives of the 'USA Speedy Cash Loan Centre' and lure people by offering them quick loans, a release by the cyber crime branch said.
To win the trust of people and project their firm as genuine, they used to make calls using a specialised software, and persons on the other side would see a US telecom number on their phone screen rather than an Indian number, it said.
Once the victims expressed willingness to take loan, the accused would tell them that the loan could not be disbursed because of less credit score.
They would tell the victims to first deposit a transaction fees to increase their credit score and get the loan, the release said.
For the payment of transaction fees, they used to ask the victims to share the 16 digit number of gift cards of various e-commerce companies and then encash those gift cards from India, it said.
The police came to know that Mandola had roped-in the other two accused and started the illegal call centre at his residence in Jagatpur area of the city.
The three accused were booked on charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, the police said.