Navi Mumbai cyber police arrested four men for operating a fake Apple tech support center. (AI image)
Vishal Patil, senior inspector of the Navi Mumbai Cyber police station, said the arrested accused were Parth Bharatbhai Patel, 27, a partner and manager at the fake call center and a resident of Ghansoli; Jobin Jacob Balumal, 28, from Powai, Mumbai, a team leader who allegedly spoke to US citizens using the fake name John; Naeem Haroon Rashid Sheikh, 41, from Panvel, a team leader who allegedly impersonated a US citizen named Tom; and Sameer Farid Sheikh, 31, from Thane, also a team leader at the call center. Preliminary scrutiny of computer data revealed that the accused had allegedly defrauded several US citizens of around Rs 5 lakh collectively. Police seized six mobile phones, 255 Vodafone Idea company SIM cards, nine chequebooks, two servers, two CPUs, two SIM boxes, a laptop and printouts of scripts used by the accused to speak to US citizens. They were identified as Tennis Donald Pinto, 31, from Palghar; Dev Rajesh Dhotre, 23, from Kandivli; Ashish Saylo Dulaketi, 24, from Nalasopara; Darshan Shatrughan Rawat, 27, from Nalasopara; Karan Ajay D’Souza, 26, from Badlapur (West); Jovind John Monteiro, 24, from Nalasopara; Arun Mohan Acharya, 35, from Mira Bhayandar; Rizwan Mohammad Isak Sheikh, 36, from Thane; and Rehan Masood Khan, 26, from Kurla. During questioning, manager Parth Patel allegedly told police that he and his partner Mustafa Khan, a resident of Mumbra, had been running the fake call center on the night shift since May 2026. The owner of the call center, Mustafa Khan, would send a message to the Apple devices of US citizens claiming that $499 had been deducted from their bank accounts, according to police.
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The amount is likely to increase as the probe progresses, police said. Patil said police acted on a tip-off about a fake call center operating at Trade Expert Services in Millennium Business Park, Mahape, and conducted a raid late Thursday evening. One Iggy and Sheikh provided Mustafa Khan with large amounts of money through USDT TRON QR codes and ‘Apple for Everything’ gift vouchers obtained by defrauding American citizens, according to police. Patil said the call center was allegedly being operated without a licence and was used to cheat US citizens through a fake Apple tech support operation. The agents would allegedly tell victims that a virus named “CHAMPI” had been detected on their devices and then pressure them to transfer money or send ‘Apple for Everything’ gift cards to remove the purported virus.
The accused allegedly impersonated Apple tech support customer care representatives and used fear, urgency and technical jargon to trick victims into believing that their Apple ID had been compromised or their device was infected with malware. Under the pretext of resolving the technical issue, the accused allegedly compelled victims to transfer US dollars to various wallets or purchase and send ‘Apple for Everything’ gift cards. Nine agents were found operating computers and using scripts while speaking to US citizens. Police also learned that Mustafa and his wife, Zareen, were allegedly running a call center for illegal stock market trading. Zareen reportedly handled the administrative operations of the call center during both day and night shifts. The message would then ask recipients to contact a given number if they had not made the transaction. When targeted US citizens called the number, their calls were allegedly routed to the fake Apple tech support center. Call center agents would then pose as Apple tech support representatives, gain the victims’ trust and claim that suspicious activity had been detected on their Apple devices and that money had been withdrawn. Download the TOI App.
NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai Cyber police arrested four men on Thursday for allegedly operating an illegal Apple tech support fake call center from a rented office at Millennium Business Park in Mahape and defrauding US citizens using Apple devices.