A pan-India cheating racket that duped hundreds of people of several crores of rupees with investment, insurance and tour packages has been busted. Three persons, including two directors of a fake investment company, have also been arrested, police said on Thursday.

Deepak Tiwari and Suresh Shukla were directors of Capital Square Cards, while Rishabh Varsney was a business manager of the company. Police said the arrests came following investigation into a cheating case filed by a person who was duped of Rs 9 lakh by the company.

The complainant told police that a man named K D Pathak had introduced himself as an officer of Central Government Insurance Authority.

“Pathak advised him to invest money in Capital Square Cards which would multiply to two or three times in short time. A telecaller from the company briefed the scheme to the complainant in such a way that he got convinced and invested around Rs 9 lakh in two different investment schemes,” said S N Shrivastava, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

However, when the victim did not receive any profit, he filed a police complaint. During investigation, it was revealed that the company was running from a flat in Noida sector 6 even as it was registered at an address in Indirapuram.

“The accused also hosted a website and taken a toll free number. The company had around 40 employees mostly working as telecallers. They enticed people from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab and their sccomplices were operating in various cities,” Shrivastava added.

The accused devised various modus operandi which they call ‘pitching techniques’ to dupe people of their money. They contacted potential victims over telephone and obtained their insurance policy details.

The cheats would later inform them that a bonus of Rs 1-4 lakh against his policy is pending with them. And, to dispatch this bonus to them, they would demand between Rs 20,000 and 40,000 to be transferred in certain bank accounts.

“If the victims refused to send the money, they threatened them with setting off the Income Tax officials after him,” another police officer said.

Police said the cheating was done on the pretext of buying attractive tour packages, installing mobile phone towers or bank ATM booths at their respective properties.