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Mumbai, India, June 8, 2023 - Eight people, including the founder of a fake call centre in Goregaon East in Mumbai, were booked by the police after it was learnt that phone operators were asked to pose as Google employees and dupe American and Canadian business owners.

The operators said they worked with the Google Verification team and could restart business listings that had been shut down on the search engine. Police said the establishment did not have a Department of Telecommunication Registration Certificate besides other documents required to run a call centre.

A raid was carried out early on Thursday on a company located at Jayprakash Nagar, Goregaon East. Police said 23 men and a woman, wearing headphones, had been hired to operate the phones.

Each of them was given an American nickname and a ready script which they had to refer to while conversing with their targets. The accused had a database of names and phone numbers of American and Canadian business houses. The operators called these business houses and shared screenshots of their business listings on Google that had been shut down.
Calls were made on VOIP through a software program. The targets were asked to fill up a form and pay a fee of 99$ each if they wanted their business listing to be verified and restarted.

The accused weren't able to answer what they did with the foreign currency received. Police have lodged an FIR under provisions of IPC and Information Technology Act.

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Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Date Posted: Friday, June 9, 2023