Ten people were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly running a call centre in Kasba where they were allegedly impersonating representatives of lottery organisers.
They duped people by convincing them that they had won a lottery, which they would be able to claim by paying a “small processing fee”.
Police said the raid was conducted based on specific information.
“We found that they were making phone calls and sending WhatsApp messages to individuals, by impersonating as representatives of Kerala Lottery, L&T Finance, Dhani Lottery,” said an officer of the detective department of Kolkata Police.
As part of their modus operandi, they would send the URL of a website via WhatsApp to people, asking them to transfer money as a processing or registration fee, the police said.
The police suspect the involvement of one or more persons based in Kharagpur in the alleged racket.
“We are investigating,” the officer said.