NT Reporter
Panaji
The Goa cybercrime police busted a fake call centre at a rented bungalow in Khorlim, Mapusa and arrested seven persons for reportedly scamming US citizens under the pretext of providing loans.
The fake call centre was busted on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. During the raid police seized laptops, mobile phones and other digital items, all worth around Rs 21 lakh.
The accused arrested are Laxmandra Kaushik, Sourabh Ghodke, Pravesh Sawant, Rajas Bhagat, all native of Maharashtra; Nisarg Thakkar and Harsh Barut, both from Gujarat; and Avinash Verma from Uttar Pradesh.
The police said the accused were found impersonating loan company agents under the name ‘Payday’, cheating innocent citizens of the US by inducing them to pay large sums in the form of gift cards (Sephora, Macy’s, Green Dot Money Pack, Apple Gift Card, Razer Gold, and Xbox), under the pretext of providing loans and instant money.
It is pertinent to note that in the last three years the Goa police busted around 10 such fake call centres mostly targeting US citizens.
Speaking about the modus operandi in such fake call centres, a senior police officer said the accused pose as customer service representatives of an online shopping site and trick foreigners in paying a certain amount on the pretext of resolving their purchase issues, or under the pretext of providing loans, or technical support and security upgradation of systems/devices, making them pay in the form of gift cards and so on.
The Khorlim raid was conducted by a Goa cybercrime team under the supervision of SP, cybercrime, Raju Raut Dessai.
