Mumbai: Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy, the mastermind behind the US call centre scam, has told Thane police that his role in the scam was small as compared to the other accused.
Thakkar has claimed that he was not the “mastermind”, but was reluctant to disclose the identities of others involved. However, he said he would cooperate with the police to reveal his role.
In the Internal Revenue Service call centre scam, thousands of Americans were defrauded to the tune of US $300 million. Call centre agents impersonated IRS, immigration and other federal officials and sought payments for non-existent debts.
The police are trying to find out how the scamsters converted dollars from iTunes extorted from US nationals into Indian currency.
Police said during interrogation Sagar had said that he was not the mastermind and his role was just to get data from white pages and supply it to call centres. An investigation officer said, “ Sagar told us that police who made him a kingpin of the scam but it wasn’t true. There are other masterminds who continue to do these con jobs.” Police officials further said, “He has been responding to all questions.
He has given some names of people who are absconding. But he is still protecting his sister, Reema, who is said to be involved and used to handle accounts. A police team went to find her but could not trace her,” the official added.
