In Maharashtras Palghar district, police busted a fake call centre operating and allegedly cheating people in Canada and threatening them to make payments for online purchases, the officials said.In the operation, 23 people linked to this case have been arrested, the police said.Superintendent f Police Balasaheb Patil said, “Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the call centre, operating from six flats at a housing complex in Nane village of Wada taluka to evade coming under the scanner of security agencies, on the intervening night of Friday-Saturday.”How did the accused execute this plan of fake callingSeveral applications such as Lite, Eyebeam and X-ten were used by the accused and illegally obtained the contact details of various citizens of Canada, they said.The accused would call up people about online purchase orders, which were not made by the victims, and direct them to a number of the fake call centre.Those working at the call centre were given a specific script to communicate with the victims. If the victims avoided them, the accused threatened them saying criminal and legal action will be taken against them, and forced them to make payments through different means including Bitcoin, the official said.Further, the police said that they cheated several people from Canada, adding they suspect the accused made calls to people in other countries also.23 people have been arrestedDuring the raid, the police arrested 23 people from the call centre. Almost four more persons were involved in the racket going on for long and efforts were on to trace them, the official said.The accused have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act, Wada police stations senior inspector Suresh Kadam said.Also, a probe was on into the case, the police added.
