Ahmedabad: Khadia police arrested three men for running a fake call center from a hotel room in Sarangpur and allegedly cheating US citizens through a fraudulent loan approval scam. The accused reportedly collected payments via gift cards and routed the money through cryptocurrency and hawala channels.

Police said the men used multiple Google Voice IDs to contact victims while posing as representatives of “Lending Tree Corporation.” They allegedly claimed loans were approved but demanded charges for credit score improvement and insurance. Victims were convinced to buy Walmart, Green Apple Pay, and Target gift cards worth $100 to $500 and share the voucher codes, which were later converted into Indian currency using USDT.

Following a tip-off, police raided Hotel Sangam and arrested Clayton Rodrigues (30) from Mumbai, Kapil Padhiyar (39) from Ahmedabad, and Dhaval Darji from Akhbarnagar. Phones and laptops seized from them contained US citizen data, chats, emails, and transaction records. Police believe the group has been operating similar fake call centers in different cities since 2021. DeshGujarat