Six arrested as Delhi Police bust Indore-based fake investment call centre

Six people were arrested after Delhi Police busted an inter-state cyber fraud syndicate allegedly running a fake investment call centre from Indore, an officer said on Wednesday.

The call centre allegedly duped investors by luring them into bogus stock and forex trading schemes, the officer said.

The six accused were arrested on August 3 by the Dwarka district police during an investigation into a complaint by a Delhi resident who was allegedly cheated of Rs 17.3 lakh on the pretext of investments in stock and foreign exchange markets, he said.

The police said the illegal call centre was operating from a shopping mall in Indore under the guise of a reputed investment company. During the raid, police seized 28 CPUs, 25 mobile phones, including three allegedly used to contact the complainant, and several electronic gadgets.

More than 1,400 spreadsheets containing personal and financial details of thousands of investors were recovered from the seized computers, police said.

According to police, the accused initially encouraged victims to invest in the Indian stock market to gain their confidence before persuading them to shift to a fake forex trading platform, where fabricated profits were shown to lure them into making larger investments.

“When investors sought to withdraw their money, they were either given false excuses or shown fictitious trading losses,” a senior police officer said.

The six accused, all residents of Indore, worked as callers or team leaders at the fraudulent call centre and allegedly received monthly salaries along with performance-linked commissions based on the money cheated from victims.

“Analysis of the seized data has so far linked the syndicate to cyber fraud complaints worth more than Rs 54.70 lakh registered through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal by victims from Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and other states. Efforts are on to trace the kingpin and other members of the racket,” the officer said.