Telangana: 8 people held for alleged bank fraud of about Rs 25 crore

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], Mar 25 (ANI): Eight people have been arrested for allegedly cheating around 600 people and collecting Rs 25 crore from their bank accounts without their knowledge, police said on Monday.
Anjani Kumar, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, said, “Cyber Crime Police raided two illegal loan service call centres and apprehended two main accused—Asha Kumari and Rangaswamy Gopi."
He said that notices have been served to 54 tele-callers who were running illegal loan call centres in the name of Elite Connect Care at Panjagutta and Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.
“They used to contact gullible public in the name of providing loans at a low-interest rate and collecting their debit card details including OTP numbers and fraudulently transferring amounts from their bank accounts without their knowledge," he said.
Kumar said: “Police seized cash Rs 80,000, two laptops, router, 34 wireless telephones, 42 mobile phones, 21 SIM cards, 60 long note-books and freezed bank account of  accused containing Rs 6 lakh.”
“They used to tell the people that they were calling from Mahindra Finance and provide personal loan up to Rs 10 lakh at a low interest of 6.5 pc per annum," he said.
Talking more about their modus operandi, Kumar said: “After collecting the debit card details of the customers, they used to transfer the two months' EMI amount to their accounts.”
“As per the information available so far, they have obtained debit card details and OTP numbers from about 600 customers and cheated them to the tune of about Rs 25 crore in Telangana and other states,” he said. (ANI)