Americans involved in call centre scam

The Thane police suspects that US-based acquaintances of alleged call centre scam mastermind Sagar ‘Shaggy’ Thakkar (24) were helping his gang extort American citizens in the name of the country’s tax and immigration authorities.

The police is sending a team to Ahmedabad to probe financial transactions made by the accused to trace the person who used to provide money to the call centres.

A police officer said, “The money used to reach all the call centres concerned via angadias (traditional couriers) from Ahmedabad. An Ahmedabad-based angadia confirmed that Thakkar’s sister, Reema, used to come by with money every fortnight and had the cash sent to Mira Road. On joining the dots, we discovered that Reema used to receive money via hawala from a US-based person (who is suspected to be a relative or family friend), after which she would take 35 per cent of the amount while distributing the rest — around Rs 1 crore — among eight call centres in Mumbai and other places in Gujarat.”

The officer added, “Reema used to send Rs 70 to 90 lakh via angadias to each call centre. The directors of the Mira Road call centre used to visit a Bhuleshwar-based angadia to get hold of their parcel.”

The Thane police on Thursday issued a lookout notice against Thakkar and Reema, who are absconding. The notice will ensure the accused’s detention at the country’s entry points. The police has, so far, arrested 72 of the call centres’ employees and is searching for five more accused, who are believed to be the brains behind the scam.