Gurugram, Jun 27 (IANS): The cyber crime branch of the Gurugram Police have busted a fake call centre. The alleged call centre was duping US nationals through pop-ups in the name of social security number (SSN).

The fraudsters were allegedly threatening the US nationals of blocking the SSN and force them to pay up $100 to $800, the police said on Sunday.

The police have recovered two laptops, three mobiles and three I-watches from their possession.

Those arrested were identified as Jinal Alkesh Acharya, a resident of Ahmedabad, and Vaibhav Susaniya, a native of Mumbai. They disclosed they had duped many foreigners and the call centre had been operational for the past six months.

They revealed that the kingpin is their partner Parth Kesu, a native of Daman and Diu.

"The police received a tip-off that a fake call centre was being run from Udyog Vihar phase-3. A cyber crime police station team conducted raids at the call centre where 16 men and four women employees were talking to their clients in the English language on computers," said a police officer.

The alleged call centre was running without any valid OSP licence of the Department of Telecommunications or any other agreement related to their work, he said.

During the preliminary probe, it came to the fore that the accused used to buy data of the American people from different websites. After that, they used to send bulk messages to the American people by uploading the data to their server.

"The culprits called up the American people and demanded $100 to $800, threatening them to block their SSN if they don't pay up," said inspector Chander Vallabh, the investigating officer.

An FIR has been registered at the cybercrime police station. The police are conducting raids to nab the mastermind.