Breakfast orders at 4 am help Mumbai Police bust fake call centre in Virar

Mumbai police have managed to bust a fake call centre following bulk breakfast orders placed at 4 am, daily.

The call centre, located in a house along Rajodi Beach, housed dozens of employees who were not allowed to leave the building to prevent them from interacting with outsiders.

However, police received a tip-off that someone was regularly ordering breakfast from a nearby eatery at 4:00 am.

"The beach resort is full of tourists on weekends and almost deserted on other days, police officer Suhas Bavche told AFP adding that the 50 to 60 tea and breakfast orders early every morning for several days raised their suspicion after which they started secretly monitoring the place.

Police raid the property

Police eventually raided the house on the night of April 11, which had a floor with 60 workstations, and arrested the owner and 47 employees.

They have been charged with impersonation, cheating and fraud under Information Technology Act. 

The investigation so far has revealed that young employees were trained to receive calls from unsuspecting bank customers from Australia, Bavche said.

The officer claimed that they extracted sensitive information from them, including one-time passwords and personal information, and passed it to managers via email.

Authorities also began a forensic examination of the computers.