20 held for duping foreign nationals of several crores using fake call centre

Twenty people were arrested here for duping foreign citizens of several crores by operating a fake international call centre, police said on Thursday.

The accused, aged between 20 and 33, were arrested on Wednesday, they said.

The call centre operators used to contact foreigners by getting access to their personal data gathered fraudulently, Additional Police Commissioner Santosh Chalke said.

The accused used to threaten them for not depositing tax and in some cases lured them on the pretext of provide loans at cheaper rates and asked for some fee to process their request. They used to get the money transferred from them through Western Union, iTune gift card, moneygram, wallmart card and Bitcoin, he said.

The officer said that money was transferred to India through Hawala by middleman living abroad. The network of the gang was spread in the US, Hong Kong and China.