Gujarat: Call centre cheating US citizens busted in Bharuch, seven arrested

BHARUCH/SURAT: The Special Operation Group (SOG) of Bharuch police nabbed seven persons from an illegal call centre office on Tuesday. The call centre started operations a month back and its seven staffers include a telecaller, computer operator and hacker. The centre was functioning from a residential flat at Ahmednagar Society near Manubar Chowkdi at Bharuch.


According to P N Patel, police inspector, SOG in Bharuch said, “Main accused Asif Khan is identified as the mastermind behind the said illegal call centre. Earlier, he was running the same centre at Ahmedabad but later on, he shifted to Bharuch for a safer place to operate.

He recruited six young computer savvy boys a month ago and trained them to speak in English. They were sending emails and then making international calls to the US residents. They gathered personal credit/debit card information of the US residents by offering them loans at reasonable rates. They asked the customers to pay $50 through their credit/debit cards into their account based in the US. They also asked them to provide card details for verification. Later on, call centre owner Asif misused the details.

Asif and his gang members collected around $3,500 in this fraudulent manner. Police have seized nine laptops, eight cell phones, three routers and a Hyundai i20 car from the place. The arrested accused include Ahmedabad residents Asifkhan Yusufkhan Pathan (31), Nadim Gulam Muhammad Sheikh (31), Sanjay Vanier (23), Balkrishna Acharya (21), Rahul Koli (21) and Karan Bhatt (23).

Another accused, Mohammad Salaman Saleh Mohammad Pathan (24), who belongs to Kutch is doing diploma in mechanical engineer course at Abu Road in Rajasthan.