Call centre used third party data to con people

An internet-based call were made to many phone numbers simultaneously, called ‘blasting’ in technical terms, and the potential victims were made to listen to it which allegedly used to threaten them, they said. “Some of the victims got frightened with this and called back. When the call was returned, the call centre executives, through the phone number of the caller, surfed through the websites (having information about people’s name, addresses and other details) in real time to understand the paying ability of the person at the other end,” a police official said. Those having a higher ability to pay were prioritised over others and the (call centre) agents engaged with them in deeper conversations which led to negotiating a sum the victim had to pay, the official said. 

“During investigation it was revealed that the scam’s alleged mastermind, Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy, and his associates used to blast the VOIP calls from Ahmedabad,” the official said. These calls were made with Direct Inward Dialling (DID) by which at a time 10 US citizens could get calls with the help of a software, he said. The call was spoofed and contact numbers similar to those in US’ were displayed on the cell phones, by which the American citizens were made to believe that it was a call from the US Tax Department.