Vishing racket busted, seven arrested in Mumbai
The Mulund police on Tuesday arrested seven persons formerly employed with an insurance company for allegedly making calls to people and cheating them. So far, police have found 22 alleged victims of the vishing calls by the accused, who also ran a small call centre in Navi Mumbai from where they made the calls.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone 7) Akhilesh Singh said, “We have busted a racket run by youngsters who were earlier employed with an insurance company. After quitting work they took the details of customers with them. Using these details they would call up people. They would demand money saying they were due for a bonus but would need to pay a certain sum to avail of the bonus.”
Police inspector Prashant Warke said, “As the callers had details of the insurance policies, people did not suspect anything amiss. In the first FIR registered with us, a doctor received a call confirming all the insurance details, including the policy number. Then the fraudster told the doctor that he would be eligible for a bonus of Rs 9 lakh but would have to pay Rs 50,000 to avail it. The doctor made the payment but later realised he had been cheated.”
Assistant police inspector Mahedra Puri said the accused earlier worked at call centres of the insurance company. Rakesh Shinde (31), who was their team leader at the company, is the alleged mastermind. “The accused took a flat on rent in Ghansoli from where they would call up customers,” he said.
“We are sure there are more victims. So far police have recovered Rs 1.7 lakh from the accused, some gold ornaments in addition to mobile phones and debit cards they used in the fraud.”
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