Mumbai, Mar 14 (NIE): A call centre in New Delhi from where phone calls were made to several victims in Mumbai, who were then defrauded of various sums of money as ‘processing fees’ for employment, had been operating from the premises, which was raided by police, for three months.

The Bandra Kurla Complex cyber police team that raided the 10ft by 10ft room on Friday found that the 10 arrested accused, comprising two men and eight women, kept relocating the call centre every few months in order to avoid being traced.

Investigators also found that there were usually around 15 people working in eight-hour shifts at the tiny centre. They would call up aspirants promising them jobs at well-known companies and then ask them to make payments as processing fees or as other charges.

DCP Vishal Thakur said the accused would collect data of job seekers from employment portals and then pass these on to the 10 accused. Vipin Yadav and Mohit Yadav, two of the accused, would then send emails to the prospective victims offering them jobs, asking them to call the call centre numbers. Several women, including the eight arrested, who were paid between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 per month, would then promise the victims jobs with a pay of over Rs 20,000 per month if the candidate has completed Class XII.

“Some of the accused have claimed that they were under the impression that they were working at a real call centre. However, we are not buying these claims as they themselves were being paid less than the salaries they were promising. They were very well aware these were fake offers,” Thakur said.

The women would then tell the victims that they had secured the job and then also send them forged offer letters. After the job aspirant was convinced, the processing fee or other charges would be levied. It was after several such complaints came to the notice of a well-known international automobile company whose name was being used to cheat people that a formal complaint was registered with the cyber police earlier this year.

During the course of investigation, the police found that the fraudulent phone calls were originating from Delhi. After a raid, they arrested Vipin and Mohit, who then led the police to the eight women who were actually making the calls. The police are interrogating the 10 accused to get details about others involved in the scam. In the past too, the Mumbai Police has busted such call centres operating out of Delhi.