The police have seized 45 hard discs of computers, 14 laptops and 24 mobile phones used to commit the crime. (File Photo/Representational) In a joint operation, Malad police and Bangur Nagar police on Wednesday busted three bogus call-centres being operated in Malad (west), where the accused callers impersonated as employees of a private company and of Google and duped several US nationals by offering medicines and software applications.
Vishal Thakur, deputy commissioner of police, zone 11, confirmed the development adding that a probe is on to find out how many US nationals have been duped so far.
The police said one of the three bogus call centres used to be operated in an office at Lotus Business Park on S V Road, while the remaining two from Palm Spring on Link Road.
The police have registered an FIR against 41 people and arrested 10 of them. They have seized 45 hard discs of computers, 14 laptops and 24 mobile phones used to commit the crime.
The accused accessed the mobile numbers of the US nationals from the web for a fee. They then impersonated as officials of a private company and duped them by offering medicines.
While in two cases this modus operandi was used, in one of the call centres, the accused impersonated as Google employees and duped US nationals by offering them software applications.
On April 24, the MIDC police had busted a similar bogus call centre and arrested 10 people for cheating US nationals by offering them to clean their computer system, saying that they have been infected by virus/malware.
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