Six people have been arrested from a call centre in Salt Lake on Saturday for allegedly duping hundreds of people by offering loans on easy terms and low interest rates and siphoning money from their bank accounts without their knowledge.
A team from the Bidhannagar North police station raided a house in BD Block early on Saturday after they received information that a call centre was operating out of a residential building from where people across the country were being duped.
A senior officer said they got to know about the call centre after questioning eight people who had been arrested from a Sector V call centre that used to dupe people by promising high returns and rent in return for space to install cellphone network towers.
In BD Block, the callers would pose as officials of financial institutions and call people and offer them loans on easy terms, the officer said.
“Once a person agreed to apply for a loan, the callers would ask them for their KYC details including their identity cards, bank account and other details. After the victim was convinced, they would then as them to deposit a processing fee to a bank account number that they would provide,” he said.
The callers would try and extract 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 cops seized a number of smartphones, a laptop and several documents from the call centre in Salt Lake that has now been sealed off.