Seven persons were Tuesday arrested after an illegal call centre targeting United States citizens with bogus loans was busted in Bharuch in Gujarat, police said.
Acting on a tip-off, a team from Bharuch police's Special Operations Group (SOG) raided a flat in the city's Ahmadnagar Society and made the arrests as well as seizure of electronic items, said an official.
"Seven persons, including main accused Asif Pathan, a resident of Ahmedabad, ran the call centre from an apartment. They used to dupe American citizens by offering them loans," the SOG official said.
Explaining the modus operandi, he said, "They would ask these American citizens to deposit certain amount of money to avail the loan, and in the process dupe them. Nine laptops, eight mobile phones, routers, extension board and a car are among the items seized."
Bharuch B Division police station has registered a case, he added.
The state has witnessed several such illegal call centres being busted in the past few weeks, most of them targeting US nationals.
In one such case in Ahmedabad, in which eight people were held, the Gujarat police sought the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation attache posted at the United States Embassy in India.
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