Investigations into the telecalling racket busted by the Thane police have revealed a highly organised set-up, in which young men and women were interviewed, trained, paid monthly salaries, and were even given bonuses for meeting weekly targets set by the masterminds.
The Thane police in simultaneous raids on three ‘call centres’, picked up 772 people in connection with the racket where telecallers were contacting U.S. citizens posing as officers of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and conning them into paying ‘fines’ for ‘tax default’. The accused are believed to have cheated thousands of Americans into paying hundreds of crores of rupees in the last one year.
According to police sources, the masterminds regularly held interviews for their call centres, promising a high pay for the right candidates.
“Telecallers were selected based on their command over English and trained in the American accent after being hired. There was a group of people working as trainers. Monthly salaries begin at Rs. 30,000 and there was even a system of giving bonuses if the telecallers were able to meet or surpass the targets,” a police officer said.
Another officer said, “The telecallers were made fully aware of the illegality of their jobs. A large number of candidates refused to take up the job on learning what was expected of them. However, most of telecallers were unemployed youth or drug or liquor addicts in dire need of money, and were ready to break the law.”
The police have identified 630 people working as telecallers in the three call centres raided on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Thursday, several American citizens reached out to the Thane police after getting news of the racket being busted.
“We have had calls from several victims, who contacted us through the American consulate here or the Indian consulates or embassies in the U.S. We are working on setting up a system for the victims to reach us easily,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Parag Manere, Thane police.
Meanwhile, the 70 accused arrested in the raids were produced in court on Thursday and remanded in police custody for four days.
