The Vejalpur police on Friday arrested a 25-year-old Fatehwadi resident for allegedly running an illegal call centre scam that cheated American citizens by taking “loan processing fees” through gift cards and converting them into cryptocurrency.
According to the FIR, the accused, Soyabbhai Isubbhai Ghanchi, was caught around 8.30 pm near Qadri Party Plot after police received a tip-off about his fraudulent telecalling activities. A police team with panch witnesses detained him and seized a mobile phone worth ₹5,000. The device contained data of US citizens, screenshots of Walmart, Visa and MasterCard gift cards, foreign bank details and crypto transaction records.
Investigators said Ghanchi sourced US citizen data from a WhatsApp group called ‘Professor 2’, accessed via a Telegram link. He then shared the data with “vendors” who allegedly tricked victims into buying gift cards in the name of loan approvals. The gift cards were processed in WhatsApp groups such as ‘Dragon 2025 Post Vich RQ Q Dhamaal New’ and converted into USDT through the ‘Trust Crypto & Bitcoin Wallet’.
Police said Ghanchi transferred the USDT to three people believed to be part of the scam network — Shoaib Qureshi of Fatehwadi, Saqib of Mirzapur and Yasir Makwana alias Mac of Juhapura — and received payments in Indian currency through various firms.
Officers added that none of the operations were legally authorised and all transactions were illegal. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and the IT Act, and further investigation is underway to trace other suspects and money trails.