Police bust bogus call centre operating from Navi Mumbai mall and targeting people in US; FIR against 23 persons

Thane: Police have busted a bogus call centre operating from a mall in Vashi area of Navi Mumbai township and registered an FIR against 23 people in this connection, including its owner and manager, an official said on Sunday.

The accused posed as representatives of US companies and sold medicines like Viagra and Cialis to people there. They obtained details of credit/debit cards of the people and cheated them, the official from Vashi police station said.

Several gadgets, besides hard discs and electrical accessories worth Rs 3.97 lakh were recovered following a raid at the call centre on Saturday, he said.

The accused made outbound calls using VCdial/Nextiva software. They made the calls through gateway bypass and VOIP, the official said, adding the accused were caught red-handed while indulging in such acts.

The call center owner allegedly purchased the data of people in the US from a person based at Malad in neighbouring Mumbai and the employees used pseudo names to call up those people to sell the drugs.

The drugs sale proceeds were credited into the account of an Indian company at a bank branch in Kharghar area, the official said.

An FIR was registered against 23 people under Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) as well as provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act, the official said.

On Saturday, the Navi Mumbai police also busted a similar bogus call centre operating from a mall in Nerul area and registered a case against 13 persons in that connection.