Borase Police Commissioner Bhushan Gulabrao and the CEN police team along with those arrested from the Belagavi call center on Thursday. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The Cyber, Economic and Narcotics Crime Branch of the Belagavi City Police busted an international cyber and financial fraud network by arresting a gang running a call center in Belagavi.
Boras Commissioner of Police Bhushan Gulabarao told reporters in Belagavi on Thursday that CEN officers, acting on a tip-off, raided the office on Bauxite Road in the city and arrested 33 people.
They seized 37 laptops and 37 mobile phones, along with cloud applications used to store and delete evidence. Officers are analyzing the device to investigate the full extent of the fraud.
Borase Police Commissioner Bhushan Gulabrao and the CEN police team pose with electronic devices seized from a call center in Belagavi on Thursday. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The accused are from various states including Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttarakhand. Some are from Nepal.
Two people, one from Gujarat and the other from West Bengal, are believed to be masterminds of the scam.
An investigation is underway to see if others are involved.
The gang hired agents with monthly salaries ranging from ₹12,000 to ₹40,000 with other incentives.
The call center opened in March 2025 and the gang planned to expand by hiring more staff, police said.
Officers discovered that the fraudsters were running a fake call center posing as US officials. They called US citizens and told them that they had received a package or letter from an international courier agency or online store and that the payment had been pre-authorized.
They forced them to pay them money in physical form or through vouchers. They also impersonated US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officials and collected sensitive personal information from US citizens. The accused used 11 different scenarios to convince the gullible victims.
The accused used voice over internet protocol to make international calls. They told recipients that they had ordered an item online and that they needed to call a number to confirm or deny the claim. All calls were made through cloud systems to avoid detection.
When victims called back, the operators posed as officials and even displayed fake websites. They also made them speak to “senior officials or banking authorities” who obtained account details and asked victims to verify balances.
Victims were then instructed to purchase Walmart gift cards and share the codes with the fraudsters under the guise of securing refunds or preventing fraudulent transactions.
The raid was carried out by a team of officers, including Deputy Commissioner of Police MR Raghu, Police Inspector BR Gaddekar and others.
The Police Commissioner congratulated the team.
“The scale of the fraud appears to be dangerously large. We found that each operator made almost 100 calls a day,” he said.
The CEN police have registered cases under the Information Technology Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act and other laws.
Published – 13 Nov 2025 20:25 IST
