New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) Four people were arrested on Thursday for allegedly running a fake call centre in west Delhi's Ashok Nagar and duping people seeking jobs or loans amid the COVID-19 pandemic, police said here.

Soumya Ranjan Samal (26), Sonu Singh (24), Saurabh Kumar Gupta (31) and Kuresh (28) ran the fake call centre from a residential colony here and targeted people across the country on the pretext of providing lucrative jobs and loans with no guarantee or minimum interest, they added.

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The police said a probe was initiated after they received several complaints, including one from a Bhubaneswar-based man, Rohan Mohanty, who alleged that he was duped on the pretext of a job opportunity at a reputed bank.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Deepak Purohit said a raid was conducted on the fake call centre situated in Ashok Nagar from where four people were nabbed and several mobile phones, registers, bank account passbooks, cheque books, debit cards, and laptop computers were seized.

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"During interrogation, they confessed to have cheated several people and made lakhs by duping them in the name of providing job or loan. Bank accounts used for receiving and siphoning off the money were also opened by them in fake names," he said.

The accused collected data on job and loan seekers and contacted them over the phone. They would then ask for money in the garb of various charges and persuaded them to transfer the amount in installments, the DCP said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)