Fake call centre busted in Gurugram; 13, including foreign nationals, arrested

Gurugram cybercrime team allegedly busted a fake call centre late at night on Tuesday (February 28) and arrested 13 persons, including two foreign nationals, for duping people by promising them hefty returns in exchange for investing their money in the stock market, an official said on Wednesday (March 1).

Police said the accused were produced in a city court on Wednesday (March 1) from where the foreign nationals were taken on two days of police remand while the other 11 were sent into judicial custody.

A senior police officer said they used to post advertisements on Facebook using the photo of industrialist Mukesh Ambani to trap people.

According to the police, a recent victim of the fraud filed a complaint, saying he came in touch with the group through an advertisement pop-up on Facebook that promised huge returns on stock market investment.

Fake trading websites were used to scam people

“They used to lure victims through advertisement pop-ups on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networking sites about huge returns on stock market investment. Then these fraudsters used to scam people by making them invest in fake trading websites named Lexa Trade and Grow Line,” Priyanshu Dewan, ACP, cyber said.

Also read: Nine persons arrested for operating fake call centre in Gurugram

“They used to make virtual accounts of victims on these websites and then ask for an amount to invest. After the victims invested some money, initially, they used to return some amount as profit to gain their confidence. Later, they asked them to invest a bigger amount for more profit which they never returned. Then they used to stop replying to them or block their numbers,” he added.

“During the remand, we will recover the amount. Efforts are being made to identify other victims as well,” Dewan said.

(With agency inputs)