Maha: Fake call centre busted in Palghar; 49 employees held

Police have raided a fake call centre operating from a farmhouse in Maharashtra’s Palghar district and arrested 49 of its employees, an official said. The call centre was located near Rajodi beach at Arnala in Virar township, the official from Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar police said.

The accused, posing as employees of an online payments company, used to intercept the inbound calls of an Australian firm. They would allegedly steal its customer database and pass it on to the call centre associates to defraud the firm’s customers, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone III Virar, Suhas Bawche told reporters on Monday evening.

The police also seized equipment and gadgets worth Rs 16.19 lakh from the call centre following the raid on Sunday and arrested 49 employees, including 10 women, who hailed from different states, he said.

Efforts were on to trace its owner as well as the property owner who rented the premises for the call centre, he said. The police were probing who all were involved in the racket and how customers of the Australian firm were cheated, Arnala police station’s senior inspector Kalyan Karpe said.

The arrested persons have been booked under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act, Bawche said.