Pune: Fake Amazon Call Center in Kharadi Dupes US Citizens with ‘Digital Arrest’ Threats, 5 Nabbed  

Pune, May 24, 2025

In a significant operation, Pune Police have uncovered a major cyber fraud racket involving an unauthorized call center in Kharadi, which targeted American citizens through a fake “digital arrest” scam. The fraud involved duping victims of millions of U.S. dollars by impersonating Amazon representatives and threatening them with arrest over alleged drug trafficking activities linked to their accounts.

The raid was carried out by officials from the Cyber Police Station and the Crime Branch of Pune City Police, following a tip-off regarding the illicit activities at Magnetel BPS and Consultants LLP, located on the ninth floor of Pride Icon building, Kharadi-Mundhwa Road, Pune.

123 Staff Worked Between 6 PM and 2 AM At Call Center: 

The call center operated during U.S. business hours, from 6 PM to 2 AM IST, and employed 123 staff members — 111 men and 12 women. The accused allegedly used fake Amazon account alerts to scare American victims into believing they were involved in illegal transactions. Victims were then coerced into buying gift cards, which were later redeemed by the fraudsters for personal gain.

Five Key Accused Held: 

Police detained five key accused individuals: Sarjitsingh Girawat Singh Shekhawat – currently residing in Kharadi, originally from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, Abhishek Ajaykumar Pandey – Kharadi resident, originally from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Shrimay Paresh Shah – residing in Kharadi, originally from Ahmedabad, Laxman Amarsingh Shekhawat – residing in Kharadi, originally from Ahmedabad, Aaron Aruman Khischan – residing in Kharadi, originally from Ahmedabad. 

The investigation revealed that the employees used VPN-enabled applications and voice changers to impersonate foreign customer support. Police also recovered lakhs of U.S. citizens’ contact details stored on seized laptops.

Police seized equipment worth ₹13.74 lakh:

During the raid, Pune Police seized: 64 laptops worth ₹9.6 lakh, 41 mobile phones worth ₹4.1 lakh, 4 routers worth ₹4,000, Employee ID cards and Scripts used to conduct fraudulent calls. The total value of seized equipment was ₹13.74 lakh.

The Cyber Police Station has registered a case under Sections 316(2), 318(4), 61(1), 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Sections 66(C), 66(D) of the Information Technology Act. 

According to police, the operation has international links, with the accused laundering fraudulently obtained U.S. dollars via Indian banks, hawala networks, and cryptocurrency platforms. Authorities believe the racket is part of a wider international cybercrime syndicate, and a technical investigation is ongoing.

This high-impact action was executed under the leadership of Commissioner of Police, Pune City – Amitesh Kumar Additional CP – Ranjan Kumar, DCP (Crime) – Nikhil Pingale, DCP (Economic & Cyber Crime) Vivek Masal, ACP Crime 1 – Ganesh Ingle, Senior PIs: Swapnali Shinde, Shabbir Sayed, Ajay Waghmare, Pratap Mankar, Wahid Pathan, Officers including API Ashish Kavathekar, PSI Tushar Bhosale, Santosh Tanawade, Ram Dalvi, Vaibhav Magdum, and others from the Cyber and Crime Branch

Further investigation is ongoing to trace the broader financial network and digital infrastructure used in this sophisticated international scam.