400 Cr Call Centre Scam Busted in Hyderabad: What’s The Inside Story?
| The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four more individuals in connection with an alleged digital arrest scam targeting US citizens. The ED's Hyderabad office arrested Harshil Nayanbhai Raval, Jaswant Singh, Chetan Munjal and Pranav Pithadia on November 3 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). With these arrests, the total number of accused in the case has reached seven. A Special Court in Nampally has remanded them to judicial custody. According to the ED, fake call centres in Patiala and Pune impersonated US federal officers and cheated victims, collecting around $27.39 million between July 2025 and September 2026. So far, 549 US citizens have been identified as victims.
The kind of abnormal scam activities concerning the Indian communities in the United States has been going up consistently. Recently we saw the case of multiple Indian individuals scamming the elderly American population in the name of digital arrest fraud.
Subsequently, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the United States have started to crack down on the call Centre operations here in India.
Now they are working closely with the local law enforcement agencies here in India, including the enforcement directorate, and the repercussions are being felt already.
The ED has communicated that their Hyderabad office arrested Harshil Nayanbhai Raval, Jaswant Singh, Chetan Munjal and Pranav Pithadia on November 3 under PMLA, taking total arrests in the case to seven.
The Special Court in Nampally has remanded them to judicial custody, according to the latest comment from the ED on this matter.
Callers at fake call centres in Patiala and Pune impersonated US federal officers and cheated victims, with recorded collections of $27.39 millio between July 2025 and September 2026. ED says 549 US nationals have been identified as victims so far, and proceeds were routed through different channels.
It is evident that the American authorities are also very serious with these Indian scam operations through call centres. It should be a matter of time before more call centres come under the scrutiny of the United States authorities, and it could get very ugly now.