MUMBAI: Eight people, including the founder of a fake call center in Goregaon East in Mumbai, have been charged by police after it was revealed that operators were being asked to pose as Google employees and deceive American and Canadian business owners.
The operators said they worked with the Google verification team and could reinstate business listings that were closed on the search engine. Police said the facility also lacked a registration certificate from the Telecom Ministry, among other documents required to operate a call center.
A business was raided in Jayprakash Nagar, Goregaon East early Thursday. According to police, 23 men and one woman with headphones were hired to operate the phones.
Each of them was given an American nickname and a ready-made script to refer to when speaking to their targets. The defendant had a database of names and phone numbers of American and Canadian business houses. The operators called these business houses and shared screenshots of their business listings on Google that had been shut down.
Calls were made over VOIP through a software program. Targets were asked to fill out a form and pay a fee of $99 each to have their business listing reviewed and restarted.
The defendants could not answer what they did with the foreign currency they received. The police filed an FIR under the terms of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.
The operators said they worked with the Google verification team and could reinstate business listings that were closed on the search engine. Police said the facility also lacked a registration certificate from the Telecom Ministry, among other documents required to operate a call center.
A business was raided in Jayprakash Nagar, Goregaon East early Thursday. According to police, 23 men and one woman with headphones were hired to operate the phones.
Each of them was given an American nickname and a ready-made script to refer to when speaking to their targets. The defendant had a database of names and phone numbers of American and Canadian business houses. The operators called these business houses and shared screenshots of their business listings on Google that had been shut down.
Calls were made over VOIP through a software program. Targets were asked to fill out a form and pay a fee of $99 each to have their business listing reviewed and restarted.
The defendants could not answer what they did with the foreign currency they received. The police filed an FIR under the terms of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.
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