<![CDATA[A tele calling racket was busted by the Navghar police as they arrested seven people in Bhayander on Saturday. The callers were cheating US Nationals by showing themselves as U.S. Internal Revenue Service and making them pay the Pending Taxes. The accused have been identified as Zubair Sheikh (26), Savio Gonsalves (42), Raju Rathod (29), Harsh Kaaji (23), Siddharth Pillai (22), Saurabh Jha (29) and Siddhi Nair (29). Mr. Atul Kulkarni, Additional Superintendent of Police, Thane Rural Police, said that the accused are believed to have paid hackers to secure the personal details of targets such as name, social security number and tax history. They then underwent language and accent training and followed a written script while speaking to their targets. Mr. Kulkarni said the accused also persuaded their victims into purchasing ‘anti-virus products’ by claiming that they had detected viruses in their computers. The payment for the software would be accepted as iTunes gift cards. The amount would then be converted from US dollars to bitcoins and then into Indian currency. The police have recovered a large database on U.S. citizens, six computers, seven CPUs, Rs.1.4 lakh in cash and mobile phones. The accused have been charged with cheating under the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. Investigations are now being done by the Navghar police to ascertain if there are any links between the racket and the ones busted earlier and whether the arrested accused have shared the database of U.S. citizens with any other gangs. This is the fourth instance in the country over the past few years. In June 2016, the Thane Police Crime Branch arrested 70 people for running a similar racket and extracting money from U.S. nationals for settling tax irregularities. In June 2017, eight people were arrested for being involved in a tele calling racket in Ambarnath, and the Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s Unit III arrested 13 people in November 2017 for running a similar racket. In February 2018, two accused were arrested for offering loans to U.S. citizens at low interest rates and taking ‘processing fees’ from them.]]>
