61 charged in US over $300m Indian call centre scam

The US Justice Department yesterday charged 61 people and entities with taking part in a scam involving India-based call centres where agents impersonated Internal Revenue Service, immigration and other federal officials and demanded payments for nonexistent debts.

The scam, which had operated since 2013, targeted at least 15,000 people who lost more than $300 million. Twenty people were arrested in US, while 32 individuals and five call centres in, reports Reuters.

Biggest frauds in India's history

The scam is said to have netted more than $150,000 a day, making it one of the biggest frauds in India's history.

The defendants, including 24 people across nine US states, were indicted by a grand jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The indictment alleges that the defendants were involved in a "sophisticated fraudulent scheme organised by conspirators in India, including a network of call centres in Ahmedabad", the Department of Justice said.

Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, call-centre operators allegedly called potential victims while impersonating officials from the Internal Revenue Service or US Citizenship and Immigration Services, The Hindustan Times reported.

According to the indictment, the call-centre operators then threatened potential victims with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay taxes or penalties to the government.

If the victims agreed to pay, the call-centres would then immediately turn to a network of US-based co-conspirators to liquidate and launder the extorted funds as quickly as possible by purchasing prepaid debit cards or through wire transfers, federal prosecutors alleged.

The prepaid debit cards were often registered using misappropriated personal identifying information of thousands of identity theft victims, and the wire transfers were directed by the criminal associates using fake names and fraudulent identifications, the indictment said.

Mumbai Police unearthed the scam, after raiding seven call centres on Mira Road.

One of the call-centres extorted USD 12,300 from an 85-year-old victim from San Diego, California, after threatening her with arrest if she did not pay fictitious tax violations.

"Of that number, approximately 10,000 people have acknowledged they have fallen victim to this scam in the amount of USD 50 million," he said. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, John Roth, said the case was massive. "Over USD 250 million in stolen money," he said.