Twelve people were arrested during a raid on a call centre that was operating out of a rented residential house in Lake Town late on Friday.
A team from Salt Lake Cyber Crime police station raided the call centre in Lake Town’s Block A. The 12 were arrested for allegedly duping many by promising high monthly returns and a one-time yearly rent in return for space to install cell phone network towers. The callers also allegedly offered loans at low-interest rates by posing as bank officials, officer said.
“Once a victim agreed to let out their rooftop or piece of land on rent for setting up cell phone towers, they would take huge sums of money from them by listing a host of fees. And in case a person agreed to take a loan, they would take an ‘easy processing fee’ by telling them that no bank verification will be carried out,” he said.
The arrested were produced before a Salt Lake court on Saturday that sent two of them to police remand for two days and the rest to jail custody for 14 days.
“We are looking for several victims who had been conned by this group so we get more information... We will also question the men in our custody to find out more about the racket,” the officer added.