The Cyber Police Station of Kolkata Police on Thursday arrested five persons in connection with a “fraudulent call centre” that allegedly targeted residents of the United States. The arrests were made following a raid at a premises on Park Street in the early hours of the day.

Police said the accused were picked up between 2.15 am and 2.35 am from a first-floor room on Park Lane.

The arrested have been identified as Ashutosh Ray (28) of Park Street, and Md Sarfaraz (22), Akeel Ahmed (22), Nawazish Hussain (23), and Md Rashed Hussain (22) — all residents of Bright Street in the Karaya area.

According to police, the accused were running a fake call centre from the Park Lane address.

“They made Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to residents in the United States, impersonating tech support and utility service providers such as PayPal, Norton, and McAfee. They then allegedly cheated victims by remotely accessing their computers and siphoning money,” said a police official.

During the raid, police recovered several items, including “leads” (lists of potential victims) and conversation scripts used in the fraudulent calls. Ray was allegedly identified as the owner of the call centre, while the others were “working under him”. Police said more members of the group are absconding.

Four laptops, five mobile phones, and two routers were seized along with “incriminating documents”, police said, claiming the devices contained evidence of dialers used for VoIP calls and remote access software.

The accused will be produced in court on Friday, with police seeking their custody for further investigation.

A case has been registered under Sections 66, 66C, 66D, 84B, and 43 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and Sections 61(2), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 318(4) (cheating), 336(2) and 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), and 340(2) (using forged documents) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.