33 arrested in raid at fake call centre in Noida

Thirty-three people, including 16 women, have been arrested from a fake call centre here for allegedly duping scores of people on the pretext of providing them loans at low interest rates, police said on Thursday.

The accused were held on Wednesday after a raid was conducted at their office in Sector 3 by teams of Sector 20 police station and Noida Cyber Cell, a senior official said.

Gautam Buddh Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna said the accused would call up people across the country and target gullible ones interested in taking loans.

"They also had a website - www.comradefinocone.com - on which they displayed services for home loan, person loan, gold loan. The operators at the fake call centre would call up people for loan at low interest rates. Those who expressed interest would be asked to remit some money in their bank account or transfer via Paytm, PhonePe in the name of registration fee and loan approval fee," he told reporters.

The accused have been working in Noida since last one year and carried out fraud transactions worth around Rs one crore in the last six-seven months, the Senior Superintendent of Police said.

"They have one more branch in Aligarh, and Noida Police is in touch with their counterparts for probe," the SSP said.

The owner of the fake call centre and two others are absconding, he said, adding that search is underway to ensure his early arrest.

Those arrested have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal code, including Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust).

They have also been booked under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, he added.