Kolkata: The Cyber Crime branch of the Kolkata Police Detective Department arrested 10 people from two flats in the Narkeldanga area on Tuesday night for allegedly duping US citizens on the pretext of technical support, money refunds and other schemes.
During the raid, police recovered over Rs 10 lakh in cash, a large quantity of gold jewellery, nine expensive watches and several incriminating documents.
According to sources, detectives had recently received information about suspicious activities by a group of men in two flats inside a housing complex in the Sealdah area. On September 9, a case was registered at the Cyber Crime police station based on a written complaint against one Zawed Khan and others.
On Tuesday night, police raided the two flats where 10 persons were found making calls to the US using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to avoid detection. Interrogation revealed that the accused had been contacting US citizens and duping them by impersonating employees of financial technology companies such as PayPal, offering false assurances of technical support and refund of money.
The raid led to the seizure of 10 mobile phones, eight high-end laptops (including seven MacBooks), a router, incriminating screenshots, three registers containing financial records of the fake call centre and information regarding its operations. Investigators also recovered Rs 10.15 lakh in cash, gold ornaments, 10 luxury watches, a deed of conveyance belonging to Khan for Villa No. 11 at Aqua Golf Villa Phase I (measuring 3.5 cottas), and two cars. All 10 persons, including Khan, were arrested after completion of legal formalities. They are being interrogated to determine how many people they have cheated and the total amount involved.