Palghar: Police bust fake call centre cheating people in Canada; 23 arrested

Police have busted a fake call centre operating in Maharashtras Palghar district and allegedly cheating people in Canada and threatening them to make payments for online purchases the officials told news agency PTI on SundayTwenty three people have so far been arrested in this connection they saidActing on a tipoff the police raided the call centre operating from six flats at a housing complex in Nane village of Wada taluka to evade coming under the scanner of security agencies on the intervening night of FridaySaturday Superintendent of Police Rural Balasaheb Patil told PTIThe accused made use of different applications like XLite Eyebeam and Xten and illegally obtained the contact details of various citizens of Canada he saidThey would call up people about online purchase orders which were not actually made by the victims and direct them to a number of the fake call centreThose working at the call centre were given a specific script to communicate with the victims If the victims avoided them the accused threatened them saying criminal and legal action will be taken against them and forced them to make payments through different means including Bitcoin the official told news agency PTIThe accused made voice calls and robotic calls to avoid being identified he saidThey cheated a number of people from Canada the police said adding they suspect the accused made calls to people in other countries alsoFollowing the raid the police arrested 23 people from the call centre At least four more persons were involved in the racket going on for long and efforts were on to trace them the official saidA case was registered against the accused under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act Wada police stations senior inspector Suresh Kadam told PTIA probe was on into the case the police saidIn another incident a woman operating a photocopy shop in Maharashtras Palghar district was injured after another woman allegedly attacked her with a knife following a dispute police told PTI on SundayThe incident took place at the shop located in Virar area on Saturday evening senior police inspector Rajendra Kamble told PTIThe accused went to the victims shop for getting a photocopy done The two had some dispute following which the accused attacked the victim with the sharp weapon he saidThe victim received injuries and was rushed to a local hospital where she was undergoing treatment the police saidA case was registered against the accused under relevant provisions and a probe was on into it they saidWith inputs from PTI