Following the complaint from a south Mumbai family that lost Rs1.48 crore to fake bank officials, the Mumbai cyber police have arrested seven well-educated people from West Bengal for allegedly operating a bogus call centre to dupe foreigners. Mastermind Ryan Shahdas, 22, and his accomplices Arunbha Haldar, 22, Ritam Mandal, 23, Tamojit Sarkar, 22, Rajib Shaikh, 24, Sujoy Naskar, 23, and Rohit Baidya, 23, were caught from Siliguri on March 11. Around Rs50 lakh cash, 27 phones, five watches, three air pods, a MacBook, an iPad, among other items, worth Rs60 lakh has been seized from them.
On March 7, the non-resident India woman, 55, lodged a complaint, saying that the cons posed as HDFC officials and took credit and debit details from her elderly parents living in south Mumbai. The gang then used the bank information to do online shopping to the tune of Rs1.48 crore. Led by south cyber police station senior Inspector Nandkumar Gopale, the police team intercepted the accused, all residents of Kolkata, when they were attempting to sell the goods bought from the ill-gotten money.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber and Crime Branch) Datta Nalavade said the gang primarily targeted foreign individuals. “The accused are well-educated and fluent in Hindi and English. They operated a call centre specialising in fraudulent activities, particularly mastering foreign accents for their scams. The investigation is ongoing as they have defrauded several people.”
Their modus operandi involved contacting both Indian and foreign individuals, impersonating international bank employees and offering safety tips regarding credit cards and other related banking facilities. In this manner, they slyly obtained privy information, made fraudulent online purchases and sold the items for profit. “The accused operated their racket from Kolkata, frequently moving in a van to evade arrest. After a week-long pursuit, the Mumbai police apprehended them, while they were watching a movie,” said another police officer.
They have been remanded in police custody till March 19.
