Five Mehsana men operating illegal call centre in Thane held

SLUG: INVESTMENT FRAUD
Ahmedabad: The cybercrime cell of state CID (Crime) on Wednesday arrested five men from Mira Road in Thane, Maharashtra, for allegedly running a call centre to cheat people under the guise of providing stock market investment tips.
The cybercrime cell began an investigation after two victims — Ashok Patel from Surendranagar and Kalyani Patil from Rajpipla — filed complaints about being deceived by fraudsters posing as brokers.
Those arrested include Mohammed Zahid Shaikh, Shakeel Chauhan, Faizan Chauhan, Mohammad Junaid Shaikh, and Rameez Shipai. They were charged under various sections of the BNS Act and Information Technology Act. All of them belonged to Mehsana in Gujarat, said CID officers.
According to the victims, they were contacted by the accused who identified themselves as a broker from a stock market analysis firm. The fraudsters claimed that investing in different companies' shares would yield high returns. Initially, the victims were convinced to invest small amounts like Rs 35,000. However, the fraudsters continued to push for larger amounts, claiming that offline trading would generate more profit. Eventually, the victims ended up investing a total of Rs 9.5 lakh.
However, the fraudsters failed to return the invested money, signalling a clear case of fraud, stated a release from the CID (Crime). The cybercrime team launched an investigation and tracked the cellphones used by the fraudsters. It was discovered that the fraudsters illegally obtained dummy sim cards to carry out the operation.
A raid was carried out at the flat of the suspects on Mira Road and arrested five men, and seized 13 mobile phones, four debit cards, and a list of mobile numbers used to contact victims, said the release.