Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch busted a call centre operating out of Andheri MIDC and arrested nine persons who were duping American nationals by luring them with delivery of banned medical drugs to cure Erectile Dysfunction by posing as representatives of United States (US) pharmacy.
The unit X of crime branch busted the call centre and found that the accused persons would promise them delivery of the medicines at their doorstep and would make them pay. Following questions pertaining to their nationality, they claimed to be a part of venture that outsourced the phone calling service.
The police received a tip off that a group of persons were making calls via Skype to American nationals and cheating them by promising delivery of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. A team of unit X searched the place late on Friday night and found that a staff of nine persons was calling up American citizens and offering them the banned medical drugs.
“They also told some of their supposed clients that the customer care of the said company provided the contact details of those persons to the call centre as it operated from India. They were fraudulently making money in US dollars,” said a crime branch officer.
The nine accused were detained and a team of cyber police was then summoned to the spot. They seized the router, server connectors, computers, headphones, microphones and mobile phones that were being used in the crime. The data on the servers and the computer hard disks are being scanned for further clarity in the case.
The nine persons arrested by the crime branch include one of the owners of the call centre. The police are on the lookout of other accomplices and possible partners in the illegal business.
A case of cheating, forgery and acts of common intention as per the Indian Penal Code along with the sections of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act has been filed with the MIDC police station. All the accused have been remanded to police custody till Monday for further investigation in the case.
