Ahmedabad: The city’s cybercrime police on Saturday busted an illegal call centre allegedly targeting Canadian citizens through fraudulent calls and arrested four persons involved in the operation.According to the complaint filed by PSI Y V Solanki of the Cybercrime police station, officers received late-night intelligence about a group running an illegal call centre from a flat on New CG Road, Chandkheda. Acting on the information, a police team conducted a raid on the premises.Officials said they first approached the resident of the flat before moving to the upper floor, where they found four men sitting on a bed, working on laptops with headsets and mobile phones. The search recovered six laptops, five mobile phones, four headsets and a keyboard allegedly used for the fraudulent operation.Solanki stated that a technical examination of the laptops revealed the use of Eyebeam calling software, enabling internet-based calls to foreign numbers. The accused allegedly posed as officials of the Canada Revenue Agency using voice-over-IP services and scripted dialogues to contact Canadian citizens.Police said the callers gained victims’ trust by claiming suspicious transactions were detected in their bank or tax-free savings accounts. They warned victims of identity theft and instructed them to transfer money through gift card vouchers under the guise of securing their accounts. Investigators added that suspects also collected personal details such as names, addresses and postal codes of the victims.Electronic equipment worth about Rs 1.87 lakh was seized for further forensic analysis. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, and the investigation is underway to identify others connected to the operation.
