Mumbai Police busts illegal call centre, six held for cheating US citizens

The accused used to speak in the American accent to convince their targets, an official said

Mumbai Police's crime branch on Monday busted an illegal call centre and arrested six persons who prima facie cheated US citizens under the pretext of selling them drugs like Viagra, an official said, reported the PTI.

The accused used to speak in the American accent to convince their targets, he said.

Mumbai Police officials seized six hard discs, two mobile phones, a pen drive, and some documents after raiding the purported call centre operated from a room in a building located in Sakinaka area.

Police found that the accused used to make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to bypass traditional phone lines to target US citizens, an official said, as per the PTI.

The official further said the accused used to call up their targets and asked them to send money online by offering to sell Viagra and other drugs.

The arrested persons are identified as Asad Saleem Sayed (32), the alleged mastermind of the crime and the owner of the call centre, Zaid Ehsan Shaikh (31), the manager, Owais Ehsan Shaikh (27), Taufiq Wasim Shaikh (20), Adnan Ahmed Sayyed (21), and Rehan Yaya Khan (18) who worked as telecallers, the news agency reported.

A case has been registered at Sakinaka police station, while the crime branch is investigating further, the official added.

Bank account KYC fraud case: Two held from Tamil Nadu for cheating Mumbai man

Two persons were held from Tamil Nadu for alleged involvement in a bank account KYC fraud case registered by Sion police in Mumbai, an official said on Friday, reported news agency PTI.

A Sion resident received a call for KYC verification of his bank account, but soon realised he had lost Rs 1 lakh in 20 transactions carried out by cyber fraudsters, the official said.

"Our probe zeroed in on Karthik Vishwanathan (27) and Nandakumar Kumaran (27), who were held from Tamil Nadu. Two others were allowed to leave after being served notices in the bank account KYC fraud case," he said, reported PTI.

"The accused provided bank accounts to cyber criminals operating from outside the country on a commission basis. The accused were held after we found money was transferred to accounts in Chennai," the Sion police station official informed, reported PTI.

(with PTI inputs)

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