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A major fraud scheme operating from Belagavi, Karnataka, preying on United States residents has been taken down by the local cyber police.
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According to the law enforcement agents, the group ruthlessly hacked and duped Americans, duping victims of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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The group reportedly obtained permission to operate as a local call centre, but ran a full-fledged internet scam network.
The Belagavi City Cyber Police unit has shut down a prominent internet fraud racket operating from Belagavi and defrauding Americans. Notably, authorities label the gang as a dangerous group that scammed US citizens out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The gang has allegedly posed as officials and facilitated their calls using VPN or VoIP services.
Belagavi Fraudsters Targeting US Residents Busted by Local Police
The gang allegedly ran its operations from a rented hall in Azam Nagar, duping thousands of Americans through its cyber-fraud activities. As per credible information, law enforcement officials conducted raids and found out the scam that had been in active operation since March 2025.
During the raids, the Belagavi City Cyber Police officials arrested some of the fraudsters from West Bengal and Gujarat.
Notably, the gang had rented the hall from its owner, Ijaz Khan. Also, according to the police, the illegal gang was planning to transform Belagavi into another “Jamtara,” which is a cyber fraud hub.
During the raid operations, police officers recovered more than 37 mobile devices and laptops, which they have sent for forensic analysis.
Belagavi Law Enforcement Officials Comment on the Incident
The Belagavi City Police’s Commissioner, Borase Bhushan Gulabrao, commented on the collapsed gang. Gulabrao said that an anonymous letter and the Karnataka Internal Security Division gave the agency a clue about the gang’s operations.
Originally, the officials believed that the gang targeted Indians, but further investigations uncovered that they were aiming for international victims, he added.
In addition, during the investigation, law enforcement discovered that the suspects called almost 100 foreigners daily, and their key targets were the United States elderly person. The scammers allegedly used mobile numbers obtained from the darknet to call unsuspecting victims, likely sourced from the kind of massive data leaks in India that sparked a surge in Fake ID Extortion Scams that have created a thriving market for personal information, claiming that their parcels had arrived.
Victims who denied sending any parcel were referred to another phone number to call to “cancel” the transaction. However, upon calling the second number, the scammers manipulated the victims, posing as workers from the Federal Trade Commission, and duped them out of money using more than 11 scripted stories.
Furthermore, law enforcement disclosed that every gang member made more than 100 calls each day and was able to dupe 2 to 10 individuals from those call leads. The cybercriminals made these calls using VoIP and VPN.
“After the probe is over, we really will uncover the entire network. Borase Bhushan Gulabrao said, “We believe it is a large network, and we feel that more people are involved in it.”
The Belagavi City Cyber Police Station has currently registered a First Information Report (FIR) under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Also, law enforcement officers are currently conducting further investigations into the matter.
