Hyderabad: Nine people were arrested by the Balanagar special operations team and cybercrime unit of Cyberabad police on Saturday, November 29, for allegedly operating a fake call centre and duping Australian citizens out of Rs 8-10 crore.
According to a press release, the main accused have been identified as cousins Praveen and Prakash, who hail from Khammam district.
The two established a fake call centre called Ridge IT Solutions in 2024 at Ayyappa Society, Madhapur and also brought 7 people from Kolkata to make fraudulent calls.
Two others, identified as Ganesh and Keshav, also from Khammam, were hired to oversee daily operations and manage accommodation of the Kolkata employees.
Modus Operandi
During the investigation, police uncovered that Praveen’s team used to receive ‘leads’ from another unidentified group, which would send fake pop-ups/emails to Australian citizens, claiming that their computer had been compromised.
The pop-ups would also contain a customer care phone number, which, when contacted, would route the victims to the fake call centre in Madhapur.
The fraudsters would convince victims to allow remote access to their computers, subsequently gaining access to their bank accounts. They would then proceed to transfer large sums of money to bank accounts belonging to Indian nationals residing in Australia.
The funds were eventually routed to India through hawala, cryptocurrency, and other clandestine channels.
During the raid, police arrested Ganesh and Keshav along with the seven Kolkata employees. The main accused are currently absconding.
Police also recovered details of 45 bank accounts from the mobile phones of the accused and suspect that hundreds more were acquired in the last two years.
A case has been registered under sections 318 (4), 319 (2), 336 (3), 338, 330(2) read with 3 (5) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sec 66 (c) and (d) of IT Act.
