Call centre scam: Search on for Andheri businessman
The MIDC police is looking for an Andheri-based businessman, who is said to be the mastermind behind the fake call centre scam in which people from the United States were duped under the pretext of giving them loans.
Police raided the call centre’s office in Marol, Andheri on Tuesday night and arrested 19 people. They were presented before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday.
“There are four more people we are looking for. In our initial investigation we identified a man known as Arish Lokhandwala from Andheri to be the mastermind,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP), zone 10, Ankit Goyal, said.
On Thursday, police produced all the 19 accused, including three women, before Andheri metropolitan magistrate court. They were remanded in police custody for one day. An officer said that those arrested in the raid were just employees. “These people were not aware of the money trail, they only managed to get the bank account details of the American nationals and soft copy of cheques, and they passed this information via WhatsApp to a person probably in USA or China,” added the officer.
Police seized 20 laptops, 32 mobile phones, and VPN systems from the call centre.