Patuli: Eight arrested in fake call centre bust

Kolkata: The Kolkata Police (KP) has busted a fake call centre running from a flat in Patuli and arrested eight persons.

Recently, the cops of the Cyber Crime Police Station of Kolkata Police learnt about a suspicious phone number from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) through its Pratibimb portal. Number details were checked and an enquiry was started to gather information. Police initially matched the details with a few other numbers and found it suspicious. After the enquiry, cops began tracing the location from where the number was being used. Accordingly, police found it was being used from a flat in Patuli Township.

A recce of the area was done and the flat was marked. On Tuesday evening, police raided the flat and found several people engaged in calls. It was unearthed that the accused persons used to dupe citizens on different pretexts. They used to demand online payment, posing as courier service provider employees. The accused persons used to tell the citizens that they are facing some technical issues related to the pincode and thus the customer needs to pay the money online. The money which was already paid, will be refunded later. One getting the money, they used to stop communication.

Police registered a suo motu case and the detainees were arrested. Police have seized 18 mobile phones, including 10 dialler phones, 53 SIM cards and a notebook. The flat has been sealed.