Hyderabad: A call centre (bpo) cheated about 600 people of around Rs 25 crore by offering non-existent loans for a fee. The firms employed 62 persons and reportedly called up 10,000 citizens, according to the cyber crime police who unearthed the racket.
All the staff and two kingpins have been arrested. Police seized Rs 80,000 in cash, two laptops, router, 34 wireless telephones, 42 mobile phones, 21 SIM cards. The police also froze a bank account containing Rs 6 lakh.
Police said Elite Connect Care, with branches at Panjagutta and Banjara Hills, with managers Asha Kumari and Rangaswamy Gopi recruited 60 tele-callers and other staff.
The accused used to provide the tele-callers data containing contact numbers of general public to be contacted. They would call up the numbers and offer them personal loans up to Rs 10 lakh at 6.5 per cent interest per annum.
Those interested were asked to send their Aadhaar and PAN card copies on Whatsapp number 7305798729.
Once that was done, the firm would ask for two months EMI.
Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said, “In the guise of transferring two months’ EMI from the savings account to the loan ledger for about 24 hours, they would collect the debit card and CVV numbers, card expiry date and OTP number from the customer”.
The commissioner said that the companies would then transfer the money from the customers’ account to Just Dial PayU e-commerce merchant and from there to the bank accounts of the main accused. Police said that according to available information, the firm had obtained the debit card details and OTP numbers from about 600 customers and cheated them to the tune of about Rs 25 crore.
