20 Held in Navi Mumbai for Running Fake Call Centres

The Navi Mumbai Cyber Police and Crime Branch have arrested 20 people for running fake call centres. These call centres cheated people in India with stock-market trading scams and also attacked US citizens with ransomware.

The police raided an office at Millennium Park in Turbhe after a tip-off. They found that the group had used 71 bank accounts to move almost ₹12 crore. These accounts were linked to 31 complaints.

During the raid, officers found 97 people working on computers. They used WhatsApp calls and chats to promise victims high profits in stock trading. Many victims later realised they were cheated and demanded refunds.

Police found many WhatsApp numbers logged in, bank details used to collect money, and chats from victims.

The same call centre also ran a ransomware scam aimed at people in the US. From 6.30 pm to 3.30 am, they froze victims’ computers and showed a fake Microsoft error with a fake customer support number. The staff then acted like Microsoft agents and took money from victims by pretending to fix the problem.

Police seized 38 phones, 21 CPUs, 5 laptops, 5 SSDs, and a GSM server. Out of 108 desktops, only the important CPUs were taken.

Three main accused are Sanjay Shikre, Gagan Thapper, and Akshay Sharma. A case has been filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and the IT Act. All 20 arrested people are in police custody until November 23.

The police say more people involved in the scam are still wanted. The case is being handled by API Vishal Patil, supervised by ACP Ajaykumar Landge and ACP Prerna Katte, with support from cyber experts Ajay Pancholi and Gaurav Karkhele.