They set up full-fledged call centres, contacted loan seekers from the United States and the United Kingdom, trapped them on the pretext of providing loans and duped them of thousands of dollars. And to avoid suspicion, they even learnt English accent of various countries and used pseudo names of US or UK citizens.
Sophisticated way
Four city-based gangs who fashioned the fraud in a sophisticated way were caught by the police on Thursday. The 14 accused persons who are from various parts of the city set up four call centres complete with entire required paraphernalia at Rein Bazaar, Tolichowki, Golconda and Punjagutta.
Explaining the modus operandi, Police Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy said the fraudsters obtained the details of loan seekers from United States and United Kingdom from one Ishan Pathak of Gujarat, by paying him between Rs. 36 and Rs. 38 for data of each person and made phone calls to the victims.
Once the victim takes the phone call, the conman introduced himself as an executive of a financial company based in the US or UK and said their loan had been approved. “After conversing for a while, the executive would ask the victim to pay the first instalment of the loan as advance through Ukash vouchers or Greendot cards. Once the unsuspecting person buys the card and shares its details, an agent of the gang who stays in that particular place would take the money while the call centre staff here would block the victim’s number,” Mr. Reddy said.
Hawala transactions
The agents then would send the money through hawala operators to Ishan, who after deducting his commission of 60 per cent, would hand over the remaining to the gang. Police said that Ishan, who is the kingpin of the racket, was in contact with several such local gangs and haf a large number of agents in the US and UK through whom he collected the details of loan seekers.
The fraudsters cheated hundreds of persons to the tune of Rs. 1.50 crore in last three to four months. “We have sent a team to Gujarat to nab Ishan Pathak. More details and enormity of the fraud will be known after the man is caught,” the official said.
