Mumbai: In his interrogation, call centre scam mastermind, Sagar Thakkar, has revealed that many of his counterparts ran scams in the pharmaceuticals, banking and grants sectors.
Explaining the grants scam in detail, he said that this was operated mostly from Russia and China. In this, the call centres would call up citizens from English-speaking nations, including the USA, and inform them that they had won a certain sum under a scheme or policy and for the same they needed them to deposit an initial sum and divulge their account details.
The Thane police arrested 25-year-old Thakkar early on Saturday morning after he surrendered to the immigration authorities in India. He is said to be the mastermind behind a multi million-dollar scam that duped thousands of US nationals by making them pay huge fines to fake IRS employees.
According to sources in the Thane police, Thak-kar is revealing details about numerous scams not just in India but also in various parts of the world. Officials said that he told them of scams in the pharmaceuticals, banking and grants sectors that are prevalent in countries like Phili-ppines, Russia, China, Pakistan, South America and Africa.
“He told us that a grants scam is rampant in China and Russia, which invo-lves call centre employees calling up people pretending to be government employees. They would then tell them that they had been granted a certain amount under some scheme. After the person believed them, they would ask them to deposit a certain sum to avail of them as ‘government fees’,” said a police official.
