Thirty-four persons were arrested on Thursday from a call centre at Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas district that was allegedly duping people by offering loans at low-interest rates and siphoning off money from their bank accounts.
A team from the Airport police station raided a house in Madhyamgram’s Bankimpally based on specific information, a senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
“The call centre was being operated from a residential building in Bankimpally. These persons would callpeople across the country posing as officials of various banks and non-banking financial institutions,” the officer added.
They would offer loans for buying electronic appliances and other items on easy terms, the officer said.
“Once a person agreed to apply for a loan, the callers would ask him or her for bank account and other details. After the victim was convinced, they would ask him or her to transfer a processing fee to a bank account number that they would provide,” he said.
The callers would try and fleece more money from the victims on the pretext of “verification fees” and other charges for the loan to be disbursed, the officer said.
“They have duped hundreds of people in this way. We are trying to arrest others involved in this call centre fraud.”
The police seized a number of smartphones and several documents from the call centre during the raid.