Indian-origin man arrested in Canada for alleged involvement in transnational telephone scams

A 25-year-old Indian-origin man in Cana has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a series of transnational telephone scams, wherein he was recruited by overseas scammers to process and launder locally-received money, police said.

Abhinav Bector, who lives in Brampton, Ontario, has been charged with fraud of over USD 5,000, possession of proceeds of crime and money laundering, Royal Canian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a press statement on Wednesday.

arrest came following an investigation, named Project OCTAVIA, initiated by RCMP in October 2018 to combat telephone scams and or interrelated frauds.

"To date, 10 individuals have been charged with respect to this investigation," statement said.

"se telephone fraudsters, operating from overseas, have been targeting Canian public since 2014. Despite a number of police raids on illegal call centres in India, and arrests in Cana, se fraudsters continue to modify ir deceitful pitch and target Canians," it said.

Earlier in October, 22-year-old Naman Grover, ar Indian-origin man, was arrested in same case. PTI SCY SCY