Turbhe call centre ran dual-shift scam targeting Indians by day, US victims by night; 17 held

Navi Mumbai police busted a call center running dual scams, arresting 17 for defrauding Indians in stock trading and Americans via fake tech support.

NAVI MUMBAI: In one of Navi Mumbai’s largest cyber-fraud crackdowns recently, the Crime Branch and Cyber Police Station have busted a Turbhe call centre that allegedly ran two parallel scams- duping Indian citizens with fake stock-trading schemes during the day and cheating American citizens through bogus Microsoft tech-support alerts at night. Seventeen persons have been arrested, while the police say the scale of the operation is “far larger” than early estimates.

Turbhe call centre ran dual-shift scam targeting Indians by day, US victims by night; 17 held

The raid was carried out on November 18 at Millennium Park, Building No. 3 in Sector 3, Turbhe, after a tip-off about a call centre operating under the guise of multiple shell companies. Inside, investigators found 97 men and women, mostly fresh graduates and college students, working in two shifts for entities such as The Wealth Growth, The Capital Services, Sigma, Trade Knowledge Services and Stock Vision.

Stock-market scam in the day shift

According to DCP (crime) Sachin Gunjal, callers working the 9am to 6pm shift allegedly targeted Indian citizens, promising unusually high profits in stock market trades. “Interested individuals were added to WhatsApp groups and shown fabricated profit charts. Victims were then persuaded to transfer money to activate trading services,” he said.

Police said the funds were routed through a spiderweb of mule accounts created solely to receive and rapidly divert illicit money. Of 71 accounts examined, 61 reflected transactions totalling ₹12.29 crore. Cross-checks on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal revealed 31 complaints linked to these accounts from across the country. The fraud is expected to run higher as the money trail expands.

Defrauding US citizens

The second shift, from 6:30pm to 3:30am, allegedly targeted American citizens through a fake tech-support setup run under the banner of an IT firm named Mac World Solution. “The group deployed malware and ransomware that locked victims’ computers with a fake Microsoft error screen displaying a helpline number,” said ACP Ajay Lande.

The ‘helpline’ was a VOIP number routed directly to the Turbhe call centre. Staffers- armed with scripted dialogues, fake American names and accents- impersonated Microsoft technicians, guiding victims through sham fixes before demanding payment to resolve the fabricated issues. “Each employee had a script detailing how to speak, manipulate and extract money,” said Vishal Patil of the Cyber Police Station.

Police seized 108 computers (21 CPUs taken as evidence), 38 phones, 5 laptops, 5 SSDs and a GSM server. An FIR has been registered under sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and IT Act sections 66(C) (identity theft) and 66(D) (Cheating by personation through electronic means).

Seventeen accused have been remanded to police custody till November 23, while three others have been served notices. At least seven more suspects are wanted.