Four persons operating a call centre in India were arrested on Thursday by Gujarat Police for conning Australians by posing as tax officials.
Police raided their call centre operating from a residential building in small town of Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat.
The accused posed as tax officials and sought settlement of tax amounts through prepaid cards owned by the Australian residents.
The accused obtained data of Australian residents and their phone numbers and then called them claiming they were from the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
They threatened the victims over the phone stating that their tax was due and if it was not paid, they will have to pay heavy penalty and even face legal proceedings.
Computers, mobile phones and other material was seized from the premises.
Those arrested include Jaydeep Makwana, Vikki Parmar, Mahavir Makwana and Pratik Lathiya.
Source: Divya Bhaskar
While Parmar is a resident of Petlad in Anand district, all other accused belong to Bhavnagar.
Anand district superintendent of police, Saurabh Singh told that Jaydeep had worked at a similar call centre in Ahmedabad earlier.
Singh, however, added that so far no connections had emerged between the racket at Vallabh Vidyanagar and the one busted in Ahmedabad last month.
Singh said that the accused obtained data from someone else and the payments were processed by another person. "We are trying to track down both these persons," he said.
It is believed the four accused accumulated around $40,000-$50,000 from the victims.
