Seven held for duping foreign nationals posing as loan agents
PANAJI
In a late-night operation, the Cyber Crime police busted an alleged fraudulent call centre operating from a rented bungalow in Corlim and arrested seven persons accused of cheating foreign nationals under the guise of loan services.
The raid was conducted between 11:30 pm on Friday and 4 am on Saturday with digital equipment, including laptops and mobile phones, collectively valued at Rs 21 lakh approx, seized from the premises.
The police revealed that the accused have been identified as Laxmandra Kaushik (Thane), Sourabh Ghodke (Raigarh), Pravesh Sawant (Kandivali East, Mumbai), Nisarg Thakkar (Ahmedabad), Rajas Bhagat (Kandivali East, Mumbai), Avinash Verma (Shamli, Uttar Pradesh), and Harsh Dilip Barut (Ahmedabad).
“The accused were operating a call centre posing as agents of a loan company under the name “Payday”. They allegedly targeted citizens in the United States, inducing them to transfer money through gift cards including Sephora, Macy’s, Green Dot MoneyPak, Apple Gift Card, Razer Gold and Xbox, on the false promise of facilitating instant loans,” the police said.
