Kolkata Police arrests 66, including 41 women, in fake call centre fraud

Kolkata Police arrested 66 people, including 41 women, for allegedly operating fake call centres and duping victims nationwide. The accused posed as telecom, bank and insurance representatives, using false documents and mule accounts to collect processing fees through fraudulent offers

Kolkata: Kolkata Police has arrested 66 people, including 41 women, for allegedly running fake call centres and duping people across the country by posing as representatives of telecom companies, banks and insurance firms, a senior officer said on Friday. Acting on a tip-off, a police team raided a call centre at Rajdanga Main Road under Kasba police station on September 2, followed by another raid at a similar centre in the same area on Thursday evening, he said.

“These imposters were luring victims with promises of 5G tower installations, lucrative insurance returns and easy loans,” the officer said, adding that the accused persuaded their targets to pay between Rs 90,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh as processing fees. “These operators had created an elaborate setup to make the victims believe that they were dealing with representatives of genuine companies. The use of fake documents and multiple bank accounts helped them establish credibility,” the police officer said.

---

Apart from the documents, police also seized 71 mobile phones, 13 registers and diaries, nine chargers, two debit cards and Rs 16,000 in cash during the raids, he said. The investigation revealed that the rackets had earlier been operating from Patuli and allegedly used around 100 mule bank accounts to receive money from victims.

During the raids, police also seized fake authorisation certificates which were allegedly used to convince people of the authenticity of the offers. “The money is being routed through mule bank accounts before the victims were cheated. We are examining the entire financial trail and the role of each person arrested. The investigation will also focus on the bank accounts used for routing the cheated money and identifying other persons connected with the network,” the officer said.