Gujarat 'hub' for illegal call centres, scamming foreign nationals of money: CID

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat police's CID (crime) investigation has revealed that the state has emerged as a "hub" for receiving money from foreign nationals by illegal call centre, a scam that is being operated from multiple states in the country.

The police have attributed vast network of angadia (courier) firms through which money gets transferred to Gujarat using hawala channels.

CID has said in a detailed FIR that 22 key individuals are alleged to be running the fake call centre across the country, cheating foreign nationals from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, among others.

Citing a statement of one of the key accused, Dhaval Rajesh Vazani, the FIR said that "financial frauds are being operated across various regions in India, such as Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam (Vizag), Chandigarh, Dehradun, Lucknow, Raipur, Kochi, Goa, Bengaluru, Noida, Mohali, Jirakpur as well as foreign nations including, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines."

"Within the network of illegal call centres, the fraudulently obtained money is funneled through hawala networks, particularly the Angadia network in Gujarat, and via online cryptocurrency methods, to reach those operating these illegal call centres," as per the statement.

Vazani was arrested by CID after raiding his location in Gandhinagar and seized narcotics drugs as well from his possession. From his phones, the police retrieved massive data indicating operational details of fake call centres he was allegedly running along with co accused not only in the country but also abroad.

The report stated that the analysis of accused persons "suggest that Gujarat is hub of processors and collection of fraud money as Gujarat has one of the largest angadia networks and most of the payment processer are from the state."

The FIR mentioned names of few firms including NR Angadia, NK Angadia, PM Enterprise, HM Angadia and Prime Angadia.

Citing a confidential input, the FIR, which runs into ten pages, stated that illicit money is being invested in "real estate, jewelers, clubs/dance bars of Mumbai, Goa, Pune, Chandigarh, Mohali, Ahmedabad etc."

Giving an example, the FIR mentions that in July, a fake call centre in Panji (Goa) carried out a tech support scam in California where they cheated a person of Rs 1.40 crore worth of gold. It said that the centre after covering their operational cost, invested in a dance bar "Longstay On Time Bar" at Chakala, which is reported to be owned by Harsh Patel.

The frauds included false identification, health care scams, online shopping scams, negative reviews, insurance-related frauds, prizes, sweepstakes, lotteries and various types of computers and internet services. The CID has mentioned names of 22 key accused who are behind operating call centres across several cities in the country and whose names figure in various FIRs lodged by different state police.

The FIR filed in October is based on a complaint made by JG Amin, police inspector, CID (crime) against Lakhvinder Singh Gill, Narendra Gujar alias Nehru, Deep Thakor, Bhagirath Nimbark, Hardik Bharat Patel, Meghrajsinh Gohil alias Banna, Rocky Ailani, Maldevsinh alias Ajaysinh Rathod, Harshil Nayanbhai Rawa and Kandarp Nalin Jani, apart from Vazani. They are all residents of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar district.

Police said that the group of accused have been running the scam in an organised manner and "have managed to keep themselves out of police cases by showing their employees as owners of these centres" during raids.

The FIR also cited data from the Federal Trade Commission, United States stating that in 2023, a total of 26,06,042 complaints about fraud committed by call centres were registered, which resulted in a loss of approximately Rs 84,860 crore for American citizens.