NASHIK: Police busted two fake call centres operating in the city and arrested 11 persons on Saturday for allegedly duping US citizens of thousands of dollars.Police officials said the staff of the fake call centres would randomly send scripted and pre-recorded voice mails to US citizens, threatening them with severe legal action for alleged misuse of their Social Security Numbers (SSNs).SSN is a numerical identifier assigned to US citizens to track their income and determine benefits. It is also used for a wide range of purposes, such as to identify individuals for tax purposes, to track their credit records and to open bank accounts, obtain government benefits and buy homes or cars.“In the voice mails, the US citizens were told that they would be investigated by the US government for misuse of their SSN numbers. They were directed to call up a phone number sent to them in the voice mail if they wanted to avoid being investigated,” police officials said.In the last two years, such voice mails were sent to more than 54,000 US citizens. Hundreds of them had fallen into the trap, the police said.Police officials said the arrested call centre employees are fluent in English.“Once the gullible US citizens called up the telephone number given in the voice mail, the fake call centre employees would direct them to buy gift coupons worth a minimum of 500 US dollars. In some cases, the coupons were worth even 1,000 US dollars or more,” police sources said.After the US citizens bought the coupons, they would call up the fake call centre employees, who would note down the number on the gift coupon and pass it on to their counterparts in Ahmedabad. The Ahmedabad counterparts would in turn pass on the gift coupon number to their associates in the US, who would encash the coupon.“The US associates would then transfer that amount to their Indian counterparts either in the form of Bitcoins or through hawala ,” a police official said. A police team from Nashik has gone to Ahmedabad to nab one more person involved in the racket.Nashik police commissioner Ravinder Singal confirmed the arrest of the 11 persons. “We are probing the scam thoroughly and will leave no stone unturned to take it to its logical conclusion. Our investigating officers are working overtime to crack the case and nab all involved,” he said. A case has been registered against the 11 persons at the Upnagar police station under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 384 (extortion), 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and various sections of the Indian Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act. A local court has remanded the 11 persons in police custody till September 26.Senior inspector Prabhakar Rayate of the Upnagar police station said they have sought the help of the city’s cyber crime cell for the investigations.“It seems that the 11 persons from Nashik are part of an international racket that has been duping US nationals. We have to ascertain whether there is any terror funding link or drug cartel link. We need feedback from government agencies overseas for which we have asked our central agencies for help,” a police official said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Nashik headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.