Four men and two women have been arrested for allegedly being part of a gang that had been sending text messages to people asking whether they were interested in being friends with “high-class men or women” against payment.

Those who responded to the messages were asked to deposit money in several accounts but the promised friendship allegedly remained elusive.

“Based on specific inputs, we have arrested four men and two women. We suspect the gang has cheated more than 100 people across Calcutta over the past few months,” said an officer of the anti-cheating section of the detective department.

The gang is believed to have duped its victims of around Rs 25 lakh. One of the victims paid Rs 5 lakh.

“The gang would send text messages to various mobile numbers asking the recipients whether they were interested in developing friendship with high-class men or women,” the officer said.

“Many people responded. A large number of them paid multiple times as the racketeers kept demanding more on one pretext or another.”

The sleuths said they were yet to find out how the gang got the numbers where the messages were sent.

Giving out mobile numbers at stores while shopping is a common practice. Police suspect such database is sold on the internet.

Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, an officer said they would first send text messages to people at random. The next step would be to contact those who would show interest and explain to them the “terms and conditions”.

“They used to run a call centre of sorts. They would call up their prospective clients, ask for their preferences and explain to them the mode of payment. The prospective clients were asked to transfer money to several bank accounts,” the officer added.

A minimum registration fee of Rs 5,000 was sought. Once a person was registered, he or she was given a WhatsApp number where the “friend” could be contacted. The “friend” would talk for an hour on the first day but from the next day the number would be switched off.

“When the clients would complain to the gang, they would be lured into a new scheme. This time they would be told that they would get their money back if they got new clients,” a source said.

The police launched a probe after Bowbazar police station received a complaint. The case was later handed over to the anti-cheating section of the detective department.

The cops identified the six accused after tracking down the bank accounts where the payments were made and the phone numbers from where the messages were sent.