A group of 10 men and women were arrested on Thursday for allegedly impersonating representatives of different finance companies and duping people with false assurances of getting them personal loans at easy terms and conditions.
Officers of Bidhannagar police said they had received a complaint in August where the complainant had alleged that he had received a call saying he was eligible for a personal loan of Rs 2 lakh if he agreed to pay a nominal amount as a processing fee.
“The 49-year-old victim said that he paid a total of Rs 25,672 as processing fee in several instalments but did not get any loan,” said an officer.
While probing the complaint, the police arrested one Rohan Nag, 26. Based on Nag’s statement, the police zeroed in on a call centre in New Town.
Nine employees of the call centre, including three women, have been arrested. The call centre was allegedly operating to dupe people on the pretext of giving them easy loans, the police said.
The police said the group has been charged under sections of cheating, criminal breach of trust, fraud and criminal conspiracy.
Several call centres have mushroomed across the city that allegedly dupe people either through telephonic calls or by sending links to the people clicking on which can compromise the entire data of the victim’s phone.
Sometimes the fraudsters impersonate finance company officials while sometimes they introduce themselves as officials of the support group of e-commerce giants to dupe people, police said.
A senior officer of Bidhannagar police said it was not advisable to engage in any form of financial transactions with strangers just on the basis of telephonic conversations.
“Such frauds are rampant. The fraudsters try to lure vulnerable people and convince them with lucrative financial deals. These are traps. It is always advisable not to indulge in financial transactions with strangers over the phone. In case of being cheated, it should be reported to the police immediately,” the officer said.
