Fake call centre scam: Four held in Ghatkopar

Mumbai: The city crime branch has busted a call centre operating from Ghatkopar and arrested four persons, including a woman, for allegedly duping people on the pretext of offering them loans.

The crime branch unit 3 received a tip-off that an illegal call centre was being operated from MG Road. A raid was conducted on Monday, and four people were found luring people with different loan schemes without any authorisation, the police said.

The gang members contacted random people and offered them personal and home loans with low easy monthly installments. The interested customers were later asked to send their documents and made to pay on the pretext of insuring the loan amount, the police said.

The gang has duped a Worli resident similarly to the tune of Rs 82,000. However, the total number of victims is more and the police are now scrutinising their database.

The arrested have been identified as Satish Durgude, 34, Sagar Fatak, 27, Prathamesh Patade, 24, and Dipika Mali, 27.

The questioning has revealed that one Akash Bind, who used to provide contact details of victims, is at large. He used to take 60 per cent of the profit, while the rest of it was distributed among the accused, the police said.