They found 25 computers and 18 people working there. They were communicating with US nationals through emails and VOIP calls. (Representational/File)The Vanrai police recently arrested six persons for allegedly working at a dubious call centre run illegally from a commercial complex in Goregaon (east) where they made Voice over Internet Protocol calls (VOIP) to citizens in the United States and tricked them into sending money.
Police said the call centre had been operational from June this year and has cheated at least over 100 US nationals. “They did not have the Department of Telecommunication Registration Certificate (DOT) issued by the Telecom ministry. They called up US nationals and told them that their personal computers are affected by a virus or malware and offered their services to debug them. On this pretext, they made them buy gift cards and asked them to share the 16-digit code. This code was passed on to their aides who used it to convert the dollars into rupees,” said an officer of Vanrai police.
Acting on a tip-off received by the Anti-Terror cell (ATC) of Dindoshi police, on August 26, a special team from Vanrai and Dindoshi police raided the call centre being operated from a flat on the fifth floor of Vihan commercial complex in Goregaon (east).
They found 25 computers and 18 people working there. They were communicating with US nationals through emails and VOIP calls.
Of these 18 people, 8 were booked and six arrested. David Alphanso (22), the owner of the call centre and his partner Del Jasinto, who operated it are untraceable. David was earlier booked for running a similar dubious call centre in Bandra.