Pune, 27 October 2025: The Pune Crime Branch has uncovered a large-scale international cybercrime racket operating through bogus call centres in the city and other parts of India. The investigation revealed that the fraud network sourced personal data from servers in the US, Europe, and India to defraud foreign nationals through elaborate phone and malware-based scams.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingale said the gangs illegally obtained personal data and set up call centres in rented commercial spaces across different cities. These centres hired trained executives who posed as officials to threaten or deceive citizens in the US and other countries.
The fraudsters demanded payments in cryptocurrency, making it difficult for authorities to trace the transactions. Once received, the cryptocurrencies were converted and distributed in cash to employees through local handlers.
The crackdown began in May when the Pune Crime Branch raided a bogus call centre in Kharadi and arrested five people, booking 123 others for duping US citizens. In July, the CBI raided another illegal call centre in the same area, arresting three more suspects.
The latest raid took place on October 1 in Hadapsar, where 32 people were booked for similar crimes. Pune rural police had also exposed a linked online betting racket in Narayangaon last year.
According to police, the employees used two main methods to cheat victims, digitally “arresting” them by pretending to be officials or installing malware on their computers. Each fake call centre earned between ₹2 crore and ₹3 crore per month and employed 50 to 200 staff members, most of them graduates.
These employees frequently shifted cities and lived comfortably under the supervision of local coordinators known as ‘mukadams.’
The investigation revealed that several groups from Gujarat and Rajasthan were behind the operations. They rented commercial spaces in cities like Pune to run these centres, using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to mask their location while contacting victims abroad.
Police said the network shows a growing link between organised crime, cyber fraud, and cryptocurrency misuse, a trend posing new challenges for law enforcement agencies in India.