Mumbai: The Crime branch (unit 12) arrested four persons on Saturday for operating a fraudulent call centre in Borivli (West), where they allegedly targeted US citizens by falsely offering computer software repairs. Police acted on a tip-off about illegal operations being conducted from the third floor of Arpan apartment, an incomplete building situated at Amarkant Jha Marg, Vajira Naka, Borivali West.
The police confiscated six laptops, 20 phones, two routers and six speaker headphones. The arrested individuals – Akshat Surana, Abhishek Gupta, Dipen Dhanwani and Tilak Joshi – are in police custody. The police confirmed that except for Dhanwani, the other three have previous criminal records.
The investigation revealed that the suspects would dispatch deceptive pop-up messages to computers belonging to US citizens, highlighting supposed software problems and providing a toll-free contact number.
When victims called the number, the perpetrators posed as Microsoft representatives. They would then deceive the callers into sharing their banking information whilst pretending to resolve computer issues, subsequently stealing their money.
