2 held for running fake call center in Hyd

Hyderabad: The detective department of the Hyderabad police arrested two persons for running a fake customer care call center in the city. A case was registered against the two under various sections of the IT Act and IPC.

Also, 555 basic mobile phones and two smartphones were seized from the two men who have been identified as Mohammed Saleem and Mohammad Airfat.

The details of the case were revealed at a press meet by Gajarao Bhupal, the Joint CP of Central Crime Station, on Tuesday.

Mohammad Saleem and Mohammad Arifat are residents of Ramanthapur in Hyderabad. They created fake Google Maps in the name of Samsung, LG, Godrej, and Whirlpool brands in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Vizag, Bangalore, and some other places in India.

These locations were made to appear as the first option if anyone searched on Google for these companies. Calls were then directed to the contact numbers provided on Google. The fraudsters had set up about 555 phones at their fake call center and about 1000 SIM cards were used. These mobile numbers were uploaded on Google Maps and a fake servicing center was shown to exist in the name of branded companies like "Sky Line Customer Care Repair Servicing Center and IFB 1 Global Techno Service" in Ramanthapur.

The accused had hired some technicians. When they received calls from customers, they forwarded them to technicians, who in turn would go to the customers' addresses as if they were from the company's service center and thereby cheat the customers. Such customers were charged Rs. 2,500 to 5,000 for a repair, which is 30 to 40% above the price charged by the original call centers.

At the press meet, details of a dating fraud were also shared by the police.

Dating fraud

The Hyderabad cyber crime police arrested one person, Arun, in Delhi for dating fraud. A case was registered against him under various sections of the IT Act and the IPC.

Arun, along with his friends Mohit, Deepak, Manjeet, Neetu Solanki, and others, set up a call center in Delhi where he recruited some girls to answer calls. These girls talked to the customers and lured them to transfer money to the bank accounts.

According to the complaint filed by a victim, he talked to some girls through a dating app called Gigolo Playboy Services and transferred a large amount of money to various bank accounts as directed by the fraudsters. Since 2020, he transferred a total amount of Rs. 1.53 crores to different bank accounts.