Duping people off Rs 500 crores, gifting an
Audi to impress his girlfriend, making Rs 150 crore a day- this may sound like a typical
Bollywood movie centred on an underworld don. You might also wonder if this is the real Wolf of the
Wall Street. But wait, this is as REAL as it gets- this is the brief description of a 23 year old guy from Mumbai.
Sagar Thakkar aka
Shaggy, the mastermind of the multi-crore extortion racket used to run a call centre at
Mira Road.
As per media reports, Sagar’s father couldn’t keep his business afloat, which is when they shifted their home to
Nallasopara from
Borivli. To make both ends meet, Sagar started working in call centres. While he was still working with call centres in
Ahmadabad, he used to sell private data of common people to fraudsters.
Soon after he formed a team with his school mates and started a call centre. They had all the data from previous organizations they have worked for. They would call unsuspecting US citizens and threaten them to reveal their income details to
FBI. They would blackmail these US citizens and earns money. Each day they were earning Rs 150 crores.
The modus operandi, according to Thane Police Commissioner
Param Bir Singh, was simple. The caller would begin the conversation telling the listener the badge number and name of the
IRS official. They would threaten the Americans saying if they didn’t pay up, then the police would raid their home in the next half hour. Investigations showed the calls were made through Voice Over Internet Protocol (
VoIP). The accused had spoofed the toll number of IRS. So when the victim received a call,
Internal Revenue Services would flash on their phone. Most victims paid between $500 (Rs 30,000) to $60,000 (Rs 4o lakhs).
Sagar’s ambition to become rich and his fantasy for luxury knew no bounds. He owns a Audi TT, Bentley, BMW, Bugatti and some more luxury cars in his stable. He would come to office in chauffeur driven cars surrounded by body guards. On one occasion, he gifted his girlfriend an
Audi R8 priced at around Rs 2 crores.
However the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) working on a tip off along with the Thane police busted the racket. It is also informed that Sagar has similar operations in Delhi and
NCR as well. Sagar has his businesses in
Dubai where the 23 year old accused would transfer the money too.
