Racket which duped loan defaulters in US busted, 7 arrested

Madhya Pradesh police have arrested seven persons, members of a gang which allegedly duped hundreds of loan defaulters in the US by pretending to be officials of law enforcement agencies in that country.

The accused, working in cahoots with fraudsters in the United States, sent fake arrest warrants or notices to loan defaulters and convinced them to transfer money to settle the loans, police said.

Arrests were made in Bhopal, Betul and Vidisha districts of MP and Ahmadabad in Gujarat, said special Director General (Cyber Cell) Aruna Mohan Rao Friday.

The action followed a raid at a fake call centre run from a rented flat in Indrapuri area in Bhopal, she said.

Abhishek Pathak (22), a Class XII drop-out from Ahmadabad was alleged leader of the gang, while Rampal Singh (29) from Bhopal was his alleged right-hand man, the DG said.

"The duo had worked at a call centre in Ahmadabad earlier where they attained proficiency in dealing with US citizens using American accent," Rao said.

Vatsal Dipeshbhai Gandhi (25), Ahmedabad resident, allegedly helped them obtain financial data of 12 lakh US citizens from the 'Darknet' (clandestine Internet sites).

Farhan Khan (19), Shubham Geeta (19), Saurabh Rajput and Shravan Kumar Mourya (19), all students, allegedly worked as call centre operators, she said. All of them have been arrested.

Additional director general of police Rajesh Gupta said the accused sent fake notices and arrest warrants by email, pretending to be officials of US law enforcement agencies, to loan defaulters in that country.

If the recipient believed them and responded, the accused, either by email or by telephone call, asked them to 'settle' the loan dues by making payments into certain bank accounts.

Some of the money thus deposited into these accounts by gullible loan defaulters was transferred to the accused's accomplices in the US, he said.

"So far we have managed to track down around Rs 20 lakh which these youngsters got as commission (from fraudsters in the US)," said additional superintendent of police Rajesh Bhadauria.

Two years ago, police in Maharashtra's Thane district had unearthed a similar racket which duped tax payers in the US by pretending to be officials of the tax authority in that country.