Panaji, Jul 13 (IANS): Goa crime branch police on Wednesday busted a fake call center involving nine accused persons who were cheating citizens of the United States.

Superintendent of Police (Crime branch) Nidhin Valsan informed that the police conducted a raid on an illegal call centre at Majorda, Salcete in South Goa, where nine accused persons were arrested.

“During raid, we have seized nine laptops with headphones, three routers, two modems, nine mobile phones, along with all accessories, cables and cash of Rs 65,000 -- all valued at Rs 15,00,000,” a senior police official said.

The accused persons are identified as Vinayakwana Makhwana, 32, native of Ahemdabad-Gujarat; Ghachi Alfarz, 28, Gujarat; Akash Biswa, 26, Meghalaya; Akash Sunar, 23, Meghalaya; Kesang Tamang, West Bengal; Rahul Sarsar, 29, Mumbai; Ajay Biswa, 25, Meghalaya; Tanmoy Dasgupta, 20, Assam; and Rehan Shaikh, 27, Mumbai- Maharashtra.

He said that all these accused persons with their common intention set up a fake illegal call centre and procured personal details of citizens of the United States through X-lite app.

“Later by using laptops resources and Virtual Private Network(VPN), they contacted the victims through an active voice response system by impersonating a Bank Loan official of the United States and convinced the victims that they are officials of US Bank and offered them a loan facility,” police said.

According to police, the accused persons told the victims, whose credit score was low, to pay a fine/penalty in the form of electronic payment and looted the money by converting it into Indian currency.