Cyberabad Police have arrested Devarapalli Pattabhi, the prime accused in the Hyderabad-based fake international call centre scam that allegedly duped Australian citizens of more than Rs 100 crore over a period of two years. The fake call centre, operating under the name Ritz IT Solutions, was busted by the Cyberabad Police in November 2025.
According to investigators, Pattabhi, a resident of Lingala village in Kallur mandal of Telangana's Khammam district, established the fraudulent operation in 2024 along with his brothers, Praveen and Prakash. The call centre functioned from Ayyappa Society in Hyderabad's Madhapur area, where the trio allegedly recruited nine tele-callers to target victims in Australia.
Police said the gang collected email addresses and other personal details of Australian citizens before sending fake pop-up alerts and emails claiming that their computers had been hacked. The messages urged recipients to contact a customer care number to resolve the issue. Calls made to the number were routed directly to the fake call centre in Hyderabad.
Posing as technical support executives, the tele-callers allegedly persuaded victims to install remote access software, including AnyDesk, allowing them to take control of the victims' computers. Using the remote access, the accused gained access to victims' online banking credentials and siphoned off large sums of money from their accounts.
Investigators said the fraudsters used a layered money-laundering network to conceal the stolen funds. Instead of transferring the money directly to their own accounts, they first routed it through bank accounts belonging to Indian students residing in Australia. The funds were then allegedly moved to India through illegal channels, including Hawala networks and cryptocurrency transactions.
Further investigation has revealed that Pattabhi's brothers, Praveen and Prakash, are also accused in several other cybercrime cases.
Police said the investigation is ongoing to identify other members of the network and trace the flow of the defrauded money.
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