Fake call centre busted in Mohali, two kingpins among 37 nabbed

Mohali, June 25

The police today claimed to have busted a fake call centre running from Phase 8-B, Industrial Area, and arrested a total of 37 persons, including 12 females. The fake call centre was being run to scam foreign nationals.

SSP Dr Sandeep Garg said as many as 45 laptops with 45 headphone mics, 59 mobile handsets (23 used for office and 36 for personal use) and a black Mercedes-Benz car (DL-08-CAK 5520) have been recovered from the suspects.

Disclosing the modus operandi of the gang, the SSP said they used to send fake emails to foreign people citing that a transaction was to be done from their PayPal account for which they could contact a customer care number, which was of the fake call centre. Gullible people making the call were tricked and duped.

The police said they had received a tip-off about the functioning of a fake call centre under the garb of an IT company, Webtap Private Limited, at Kailash Tower in the Industrial Area following which a team under the supervision of DSP (City) Mohit Aggarwal was constituted. Inspector Sukhbir Singh and SHO Abhishek Sharma were members of the team.

The team unearthed the fake call centre and arrested 37 persons, including Gujarat-based kingpins Kaivin Patel and Parteek Dudhat. Most of the suspects belong to northeastern states.

A case under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against them.