Mumbai: Fake call centre dupes 11,000 Americans, 3 held

Pune police busted a call center scam in the Koregaon Park area earlier this week, which is suspected of having cheated more than 11,000 US citizens by issuing threats of punishment for tax evasion. Three men operating the call centre were arrested.

How did the callers dupe people?

The suspects have used the names of American agencies extensively while issuing the threats. They used to call up US citizens and say they are from American agencies and tell that they are being investigated for tax evasion.

They forced US citizens to pay amounts ranging from $500 to $1,000 by threatening them with severe punishment if caught by the IRS for evading taxes."

During the raid, the police got details of two similar call centres operating in two other states in the country. The police did not identify the locations or the people behind the two centres, citing ongoing investigations, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, the United States (US) federal government's Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have lent their support to the Pune police's economic and cyber crimes cell in the investigation of the call centre operations.

Police suspect similar rackets are operating in at least two other cities, though details haven't been made public as investigations are ongoing.

OneIndia News