70 call centre employees arrested in Mumbai for conning Americans
According to a report of The Indian Express, the arrests were made in raids conducted on Tuesday night on nine call centres in the satellite township of Mira Road, about 40 km off Mumbai.
About 700 more call centre employees have been booked.
Reports said the victims in the US were threatened with a “tax investigation” by Mira Road call centre executives impersonating as American Internal Revenue Services (IRS) officials.
The reports quoted police officials as saying that to escape tax investigation, many Americans agreed to pay between US $500 and $60,000.
The call centre employees were trained to speak with an American accent.
Police identified eight main accused in the operation as Haidar Ali (24), Hamza Bolesar (34), Kabir Vardhan (26), Arjun Vasudev (24), Abdul Zariwala (22), Johnson Dontosa (24), Govind Thakur (28) and Ankit Gupta (19). These eight, and 62 others, were arrested on charges of cheating under the Indian Penal Code, along with relevant sections under the Indian Telegraph Act and the IT Act.
Police suspect that one of the owners of the call centres worked in the US and stole information that was misused.
The police said they seized 851 hard disks, internet servers, DVRs, laptops, all worth more than Rs 1 crore.
Key words : Call centre employees arrested,Mira Road,Dupting American citizens
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