The cyber police station of west Delhi district has busted a fake call centre based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, that allegedly cheated people across the country through bogus forex trading and online investment schemes, police officers familiar with the operation said on Friday.
Six people, including the owners and team leaders of the call centre, were arrested following a raid conducted at the premises in Indore on Wednesday. Police said 47 mobile phones, 46 SIM cards and 29 computers were seized during the operation.
Deputy commissioner of police (west) Sharad Bhaskar Darade said a case was registered in March based on a complaint filed by Manoj Chauhan, who was allegedly duped of ₹10.51 lakh in the name of investment in forex trading. Chauhan alleged that he was induced by a woman identifying herself as “Aastha madam” to invest through a platform called “Meta Quotees Company”.
“The complainant was manipulated through fake trading dashboards and repeatedly induced to deposit money under different pretexts, including leverage charges, GST, penalties, TDS and account unlocking fees,” said Darade.
During the investigation, inspector Vikas Kumar Buldak and his team analysed hundreds of mobile numbers, devices and money trails, which eventually led them to a call centre operating out of a building in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
On Wednesday, the team raided the premises and found a fully operational illegal call centre where 41 people, including 35 tele-callers, were allegedly engaged in contacting victims and inducing them to invest in fake forex trading through the manipulated “Meta Quotees” platform, the DCP said.
“Spot enquiry revealed that Kartik Aggarwal and Raja Aggarwal were the owners and operators of the illegal call centre. It was established that the syndicate was operating through fake identities, mule accounts, fake SIM cards and layered banking channels. Apart from the owners, four team leaders, identified as Harsh Keshre, Nikhil Bhalse, Deepak Umath and Vipin Yadav, were also arrested,” added DCP Darade.
Investigation revealed that Kartik had previously worked in brokerage and trading-related firms before entering illegal forex trading operations. Police said the accused procured fake trading applications and links through Telegram-based networks and integrated mule bank accounts and QR codes into the fake trading platform “Meta Quotees”.
Client databases were allegedly purchased through Telegram channels and online portals. Tele-callers then contacted potential victims using fake identities and induced them to invest in trading products such as gold, silver, Nifty, Bank Nifty and USDT. Victims were shown manipulated profits on fake dashboards to gain their trust and were subsequently persuaded to invest larger sums.
The cheated money was then routed through multiple mule accounts and further layered through gold loan repayments and top-up mechanisms to conceal the money trail, the DCP said.
“The syndicate had also arranged mule accounts and SIM cards through labourers and local agents in exchange for cash commissions,” added the DCP.
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