Panaji: The cyber crime police busted a fake call centre at a rented bungalow in Karmali, Tiswadi, on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday and arrested seven individuals.
Police said the accused were duping US citizens under the pretext of providing loans.
During the raid conducted, police seized laptops, mobile phones and other digital items valued at approximately Rs 23 lakh.
The accused were found impersonating agents of a loan company named ‘Payday,’ cheating victims by inducing them to pay large sums via gift cards, including Sephora, Macy’s, Green Dot Money Pack, Apple, Razer Gold and Xbox, under the false promise of providing instant money.
This marks the second such case within a month, following a similar raid in the last week of March at a rented bungalow in Khorlim, Mapusa. In that instance, police also arrested seven individuals and seized digital equipment worth Rs 21 lakh for scamming US citizens through a nearly identical loan scheme.
The suspects arrested in the current case have been identified as Jay Vijay Acharya and Adrian Kinsten Mariasevan from Mumbai, Nilesh Satish Singh from Nagpur, Yogesh Mali, Ashutosh Yogesh Pratap and Thakkar Parth Bharabhai from Ahmedabad and Rishab Dipakkumar Shah from Gandhinagar.
The operation was carried out by a team led by police inspector Deepak Pednekar under the supervision of Superintendent of Police Raju Raut Dessai.
