Lucky draw fraud: Rachakonda cops raid call centres in Kolkata, nab nine

Hyderabad: Nine persons, who were allegedly cheating people on the pretext of lucky draws, were arrested by the Rachakonda Police after raiding shady call centres in Kolkata on Wednesday. The police seized Rs.1.62 lakh and other material, together Rs.20 lakh from them. The arrested persons were Uttam Kumar Yadav (21) of Bihar, Mudavath Ramesh, Jarupula […]

Hyderabad: Nine persons, who were allegedly cheating people on the pretext of lucky draws, were arrested by the Rachakonda Police after raiding shady call centres in Kolkata on Wednesday. The police seized Rs.1.62 lakh and other material, together Rs.20 lakh from them.

The arrested persons were Uttam Kumar Yadav (21) of Bihar, Mudavath Ramesh, Jarupula Shankar, L Raju, K Ramchander, Mukesh Kumar, K Jagan Mohan Reddy, Orse Chandu and Gadhe Srisailam, all natives of Telangana.

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Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat said the gang was operating three call centres in West Bengal and on the pretext of gifts and lotteries, were cheating people. Uttam Kumar was operating the call centres since 2017 in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Mumbai and duped several persons on the pretext of personal loans, jobs, lotteries, redeeming credit card reward points and KYC updating.

“He collected the customer data from data providers such as Just Dial and Facebook Ads. The gang sent envelopes/ letters containing a scratch card to the victims saying they had won a lottery. They are asked to scratch the card, which would tell them they had won a Mahindra XUV vehicle or equivalent amount,” Bhagwat said, adding that the ‘winners’ would then be asked to deposit money for claiming the vehicle towards GST, registration, delivery charges, security deposit and so on.

“After collecting the amount, they switch off the mobile phone and stop communication with the victim,” he said.

Following a complaint from a victim, a special team was formed with the team on Wednesday raiding three call centres with the help of Kolkata police. The police also found that the gang had hired executives who were fluent in Telugu and were paying them a commission of 30 per cent for each case.