Guj: Fake call centre duping US citizens busted, four held

We suspect that manyothers are behind this racket, Raval said, adding that theaccused had duped US citizens to the tune of thousands ofdollars.

A fake call centre beingoperated from near Rajkot city of Gujarat was busted and fourpersons were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly duping UScitizens through it on the pretext of providing them loan atlow interest rates, a police official said.

All the accused are 20-year-old and had previousexperience of working in call centres, Inspector of SpecialOperations Group, Rajkot Police, R Y Raval, said.

''Through this fake call centre, they used to lure UScitizens by offering them low interest loan over phone andthen use their Social Security Number to buy gift vouchers,which were encashed in dollars,'' he said.

The accused- Manoj Sharma, Ratan Karan, Vicky Singhand Sahil Oad- all residents of Ahmedabad, had recently movedto Rajkot to work in the fake call centre opened by anunidentified mastermind near Haripar village on the outskirtsof the city, he said.

''Sahil and Ratan are still studying in college. Thesefour youths were hired on a monthly salary of Rs 12,000 each.

They would earn Rs 3 commission per US dollar that they wouldacquire by duping US citizens. Using contact details providedto them by the unidentified mastermind, they used to callunsuspecting Americans and offer them loan at low interestrates,'' Raval said.

The accused would convince citizens in sharing theirSocial Security Number in the name of processing the loan.

Using the last four digits of that number, the accused wouldbuy gift vouchers of famous US retail stores online and laterencash those vouchers, he added.

It is a matter of investigation as to how the accusedand their mastermind used to transfer those encashed dollarsto India, he said.

''These accused are small fry. We suspect that manyothers are behind this racket,'' Raval said, adding that theaccused had duped US citizens to the tune of ''thousands ofdollars''.