Hyderabad Police bust fake call centre; five held for 'cheating' aspiring stock market traders

The Hyderabad Police on Wednesday said it has busted a fake Call centre in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and arrested five persons for allegedly cheating many aspiring stock traders on the pretext of providing share market tips. Based on the investigation so far it was revealed that the accused have cheated about 140 members to the tune of Rs 1.08 crore, a release from Hyderabad Police said.

A city resident lodged a complaint at Cyber Crime Police Station of Hyderabad Police on July 11, stating that some fraudsters cheated him of Rs 2.6 lakh on the pretext of providing share market tips and insisted him to deposit money in the bank accounts provided by them instead of his Demat account, it said.

After depositing the money, the fraudsters stopped responding to his phone calls, the complainant said.

Following the complaint, a case was registered.

On the modus operandi of the fraudsters, police said the accused established one Trading Advisory company without having any SEBI registration and also without obtaining any permission from appropriate authorities they appointed 38 women tele-callers.

The accused purchased traders data from online sources. As per their instructions, the tele-callers contacted the aspiring stock traders through their mobile numbers and said their company has qualified and experience analysis team and they will provide huge profits by giving share market tips, police said.

The tele-callers informed the stock traders that their Demat account will be operated by the professional traders. They then asked them to deposit money in bank accounts provided by them instead of Demat account. Later, they did not respond to their calls whenever they asked for refund, police said.

Six mobile phones and 31 laptops were seized from the accused, the release said adding further investigations are on.