News IRS Scammers in India Get Busted! - Page 2

**gblowfish** · 10-06-2016, 09:54 AM

Bout time they shut those a-holes down....

http://www.wsj.com/articles/indian-p...cam-1475674691

THANE, India—Police said three nondescript office buildings on the edge of this booming Mumbai suburb were packed with hundreds of people posing as Internal Revenue Service officials in a scam that has vexed Americans for years.

Authorities arrested 70 people Wednesday alleging they helped manage nine call-centers where around 700 people made thousands of calls a day to try to trick Americans into sending them money.

Police raided the buildings Tuesday night, authorities said. Witnesses near one of the buildings said employees who were assumed to be doing the standard kind of call center work such as helping people manage their bank accounts or buy insurance emerged in police custody covering their faces to hide their identities.

Police said the call center workers had one job: dial people in the U.S., accuse them of failing to pay their taxes and threaten them with jail time if they didn’t pay up immediately. Police didn’t give an estimate on how much money the operation netted, but the ability to employ hundreds of English-speaking people suggests it had significant revenue.

“You can call it a scam center,” said Parag Manere, a deputy commissioner of police in Thane, just east of Mumbai.

Police said those suspected of playing leading roles in the alleged fraud were being held on suspicion of cheating by impersonation and extortion. The role of hundreds of others present was still being investigated, police said. The people arrested were in custody on Wednesday evening and couldn’t be reached for comment. It was unclear if they were represented by lawyers.

U.S. authorities have struggled to combat an epidemic of swindlers targeting taxpayers. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an IRS watchdog, said it has received more than 1.7 million complaints in the last three years from people reporting phone calls from swindlers impersonating IRS agents. More than 8,800 victims have paid more than $47 million as a result of these scams, it added.

Representatives of the IRS and the Tigta watchdog declined to comment on the raid.

Last year a man named Sahil Patel was sentenced to 14 years in prison in New York for running the U.S. side of a huge IRS fraud that used call centers in India.

That scam squeezed about $1.2 million from hundreds of victims in the U.S. by impersonating law-enforcement officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS, and claiming people owed money for bogus financial crimes. The scammers made thousands of calls and used technology to hide where they were calling from and where victims’ payments were being sent.

At a news conference Wednesday, Thane police shared a recording of a call they said was taken off the call center’s computers. A caller with a heavy Indian accent told a man he owed more than $11,780 and was facing arrest within hours, a five-year prison term and $100,000 fine if he didn't settle. The call was handed to a “senior treasury officer,” who told the man he can pay whatever he can afford right away by going to the nearest Walgreens to buy Apple iTunes gift cards worth $1,000.

“Keep yourself on speaker and get dressed,” the man was told at one point. “We are running short of time within two hours you will be taken into custody.”

In the end, the man wasn’t victimized and revealed he was just stringing the caller along to waste his time.

Mr. Manere, the deputy police commissioner, said the centers raided had been set up expressly for fraud. In some cases, they would ask people to buy gift cards for iTunes or other retailers as a way of transferring funds. In others, money was deposited in bank accounts, police said.

Param Bir Singh, Thane’s commissioner of police, said there could be more call centers engaged in similar activities in the suburb. “It could be bigger than this,” he said.

India has long been a home for call center businesses, which are part of an outsourcing industry that employs millions and is rarely connected to wrong doing.

In June, India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies said it was setting up a task force to detect and prevent fraud at outsourcing firms, but it declined to say what had prompted the move. A spokeswoman Wednesday declined to comment on the arrests but said the task force was focused on “dealing with reputational risk” by developing security, privacy and ethical standards; establishing a whistleblowing mechanism; and enhancing investigations into potential cases of fraud.

Legitimate Indian outsourcing companies in the past have been accused of trade theft. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. , India’s biggest outsourcer by revenue, in April said it would appeal a U.S. federal jury verdict that it pay $940 million in damages to a privately held medical-software company. Verona, Wis.-based ‎Epic Systems Corp. alleged TCS illicitly downloaded materials from Epic and used them to develop a competing software product, according to court documents. A TCS spokeswoman said Wednesday she didn't have any updates on the case.

Such incidents are rare, said Dinesh Goel, a partner at outsourcing consultancy ISG India. “Generally speaking larger and more well-known firms have more sound and contemporary practices in place” when it comes to security, he said, since they work for large global clients.

**Iowanian** · 10-06-2016, 12:35 PM

I kind of hope the govt is embarrassed and flogs them in public so we can watch it online.

FlaChief58 · 10-06-2016, 01:56 PM

Good. Those ****ers called me 2-3 times a day for weeks. Anyone who fell for it, deserved what they got. The IRS will never go after you via phone.

thabear04 · 10-06-2016, 02:33 PM

So how many gift carts do I send them lol.

**Iowanian** · 10-06-2016, 02:37 PM

I'd like to find out where they are all jailed and start an internet campaign to con them...'if you'll send me $50,000 Rupees I'll have you bailed out and help you immigrate to the US".

psych/80s

ping2000 · 10-06-2016, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnorix

I'd be fine with extradition to the US and putting them in our jails for 5-10 ****ing years. Whoever is in charge can rot in ****ing Guantanamo Bay for the rest of his life for all I care. Be great to recover some of the money, but good luck with that.

Our jails are better than their homes. **** that. Firing squad.

**Mr. Flopnuts** · 10-06-2016, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonzo

Now go get those ****ers from "Microsoft support"

I can't believe no one recognized the beauty of that zinger.

**fan4ever** · 10-06-2016, 03:22 PM

Considering these guys called with thick Indian accents, I was never fooled for a minute...played along once for shits and giggles and got to the Walgreens/Itunes card...told him to hold while I ran down to Walgreens...he hung on for about 5 minutes and then hung up and I laughed my ass off. Recently my go to trick is to hold the phone up to my son who's non-verbal...he loves to hear people talk on the phone, guffaws, and the telemarketer doesn't know what to make of it and eventually hangs up...wastes their time and gives my son some laughs...win-win.

Valiant · 10-06-2016, 05:09 PM

**** no we should not extradite. Indian prison sounds like a worse deal let alone normal India.

I do think people should pose as lawyers and **** them over.

Hog's Gone Fishin · 10-06-2016, 05:24 PM

Yes, bring them to the US jail system and appoint someone to call them everyday and offer them a get out of jail free card if they will provide their CC info.

**Dunit35** · 10-06-2016, 05:30 PM

I've taken so many police calls involving these scammers, always from the elderly. Glad to see they were caught.

**HemiEd** · 10-06-2016, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loochy

Ha ha, one of those guys just left me a message yesterday.

*in a computer synthesized voice*

This is an agent from the Internal Revenue Service. You have not been returning our calls. We have filed a lawsuit against you in the amount of $2000. Please have your lawyer return our call. This is urgent.

Yeah, I have had that call a couple times and they have left voicemails.

The one that I get a lot calls from are the ones "about your credit card account." They will call at crazy hours, 3 or 4 times a day sometimes, with the area code varying from my old Illinois code to all zeros.

I don't owe any credit cards but I would sure like to stick it to these assholes.

Herewego · 10-06-2016, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonzo

Now go get those ****ers from "Microsoft support"

Sometimes I wonder if these scum are sharing the same lists. I've been getting both kinds of calls for about three years now, and they always seem to come in clusters.

I am surprised and delighted that any of them have finally been arrested.

**Rain Man** · 10-06-2016, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valiant

**** no we should not extradite. Indian prison sounds like a worse deal let alone normal India.

I do think people should pose as lawyers and **** them over.

That would be pretty funny.

**Rain Man** · 10-06-2016, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnorix

I'd be fine with extradition to the US and putting them in our jails for 5-10 ****ing years. Whoever is in charge can rot in ****ing Guantanamo Bay for the rest of his life for all I care. Be great to recover some of the money, but good luck with that.

I'd lean more toward locking the doors from the outside and setting the building on fire. I suspect that's a legitimate legal avenue in India.

rabblerouser · 10-06-2016, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fan4ever

Considering these guys called with thick Indian accents, I was never fooled for a minute...played along once for shits and giggles and got to the Walgreens/Itunes card...told him to hold while I ran down to Walgreens...he hung on for about 5 minutes and then hung up and I laughed my ass off. Recently my go to trick is to hold the phone up to my son who's non-verbal...he loves to hear people talk on the phone, guffaws, and the telemarketer doesn't know what to make of it and eventually hangs up...wastes their time and gives my son some laughs...win-win.

I played along for a second, but I didn't get to the card. When they told me that I would have a court appearance, I laughed.

I told them they better find someone who speaks English a hell of a lot better if they want me to believe that they're from the IRS.

"Excuse me?" in a heavy Indian accent.

I scream "ENGLISH, MOTHER****ER!! DO YOU SPEAK IT?? Get me someone who speaks English. If you're from the IRS, get me a ****ing American. You ****ing DOLT."

He hung up.

**** them assholes.

10-06-2016, 09:54 AM
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17596178 VARSITY	IRS Scammers in India Get Busted! Bout time they shut those a-holes down.... http://www.wsj.com/articles/indian-p...cam-1475674691 THANE, India—Police said three nondescript office buildings on the edge of this booming Mumbai suburb were packed with hundreds of people posing as Internal Revenue Service officials in a scam that has vexed Americans for years. Authorities arrested 70 people Wednesday alleging they helped manage nine call-centers where around 700 people made thousands of calls a day to try to trick Americans into sending them money. Police raided the buildings Tuesday night, authorities said. Witnesses near one of the buildings said employees who were assumed to be doing the standard kind of call center work such as helping people manage their bank accounts or buy insurance emerged in police custody covering their faces to hide their identities. Police said the call center workers had one job: dial people in the U.S., accuse them of failing to pay their taxes and threaten them with jail time if they didn’t pay up immediately. Police didn’t give an estimate on how much money the operation netted, but the ability to employ hundreds of English-speaking people suggests it had significant revenue. “You can call it a scam center,” said Parag Manere, a deputy commissioner of police in Thane, just east of Mumbai. Police said those suspected of playing leading roles in the alleged fraud were being held on suspicion of cheating by impersonation and extortion. The role of hundreds of others present was still being investigated, police said. The people arrested were in custody on Wednesday evening and couldn’t be reached for comment. It was unclear if they were represented by lawyers. U.S. authorities have struggled to combat an epidemic of swindlers targeting taxpayers. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an IRS watchdog, said it has received more than 1.7 million complaints in the last three years from people reporting phone calls from swindlers impersonating IRS agents. More than 8,800 victims have paid more than $47 million as a result of these scams, it added. Representatives of the IRS and the Tigta watchdog declined to comment on the raid. Last year a man named Sahil Patel was sentenced to 14 years in prison in New York for running the U.S. side of a huge IRS fraud that used call centers in India. That scam squeezed about $1.2 million from hundreds of victims in the U.S. by impersonating law-enforcement officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS, and claiming people owed money for bogus financial crimes. The scammers made thousands of calls and used technology to hide where they were calling from and where victims’ payments were being sent. At a news conference Wednesday, Thane police shared a recording of a call they said was taken off the call center’s computers. A caller with a heavy Indian accent told a man he owed more than $11,780 and was facing arrest within hours, a five-year prison term and $100,000 fine if he didn't settle. The call was handed to a “senior treasury officer,” who told the man he can pay whatever he can afford right away by going to the nearest Walgreens to buy Apple iTunes gift cards worth $1,000. “Keep yourself on speaker and get dressed,” the man was told at one point. “We are running short of time within two hours you will be taken into custody.” In the end, the man wasn’t victimized and revealed he was just stringing the caller along to waste his time. Mr. Manere, the deputy police commissioner, said the centers raided had been set up expressly for fraud. In some cases, they would ask people to buy gift cards for iTunes or other retailers as a way of transferring funds. In others, money was deposited in bank accounts, police said. Param Bir Singh, Thane’s commissioner of police, said there could be more call centers engaged in similar activities in the suburb. “It could be bigger than this,” he said. India has long been a home for call center businesses, which are part of an outsourcing industry that employs millions and is rarely connected to wrong doing. In June, India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies said it was setting up a task force to detect and prevent fraud at outsourcing firms, but it declined to say what had prompted the move. A spokeswoman Wednesday declined to comment on the arrests but said the task force was focused on “dealing with reputational risk” by developing security, privacy and ethical standards; establishing a whistleblowing mechanism; and enhancing investigations into potential cases of fraud. Legitimate Indian outsourcing companies in the past have been accused of trade theft. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. , India’s biggest outsourcer by revenue, in April said it would appeal a U.S. federal jury verdict that it pay $940 million in damages to a privately held medical-software company. Verona, Wis.-based ‎Epic Systems Corp. alleged TCS illicitly downloaded materials from Epic and used them to develop a competing software product, according to court documents. A TCS spokeswoman said Wednesday she didn't have any updates on the case. Such incidents are rare, said Dinesh Goel, a partner at outsourcing consultancy ISG India. “Generally speaking larger and more well-known firms have more sound and contemporary practices in place” when it comes to security, he said, since they work for large global clients.
Posts: 40,843

10-06-2016, 12:35 PM	#16
Iowanian Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Utopia Casino cash: $4628454	I kind of hope the govt is embarrassed and flogs them in public so we can watch it online.
Posts: 61,557

10-06-2016, 01:56 PM	#17
FlaChief58 SuperChiefs Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Florida Casino cash: $1919822	Good. Those ****ers called me 2-3 times a day for weeks. Anyone who fell for it, deserved what they got. The IRS will never go after you via phone.
Posts: 19,039

10-06-2016, 02:33 PM	#18
thabear04 MTFU Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: The Valley Heat Casino cash: $5570450	So how many gift carts do I send them lol.
Posts: 7,231

10-06-2016, 02:37 PM	#19
Iowanian Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Utopia Casino cash: $4628454	I'd like to find out where they are all jailed and start an internet campaign to con them...'if you'll send me $50,000 Rupees I'll have you bailed out and help you immigrate to the US". psych/80s
Posts: 61,557

10-06-2016, 03:22 PM	#22
fan4ever Supporter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Scottsdale, AZ Casino cash: $5704389	Considering these guys called with thick Indian accents, I was never fooled for a minute...played along once for shits and giggles and got to the Walgreens/Itunes card...told him to hold while I ran down to Walgreens...he hung on for about 5 minutes and then hung up and I laughed my ass off. Recently my go to trick is to hold the phone up to my son who's non-verbal...he loves to hear people talk on the phone, guffaws, and the telemarketer doesn't know what to make of it and eventually hangs up...wastes their time and gives my son some laughs...win-win. __________________ "You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw rocks at every dog that barks" - Winston Churchill
Posts: 9,337

10-06-2016, 05:09 PM	#23
Valiant Valiant 'The Thread Killer' Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $6222380	** no we should not extradite. Indian prison sounds like a worse deal let alone normal India. I do think people should pose as lawyers and ** them over.
Posts: 18,370

10-06-2016, 05:24 PM	#24
Hog's Gone Fishin Fish are scared of me Join Date: Nov 2001 Casino cash: $1380477	Yes, bring them to the US jail system and appoint someone to call them everyday and offer them a get out of jail free card if they will provide their CC info. Last edited by Hog's Gone Fishin; 10-06-2016 at 05:46 PM..
Posts: 40,415

10-06-2016, 05:30 PM	#25
Dunit35 Keepin it Real Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oklahoma Casino cash: $1207045	I've taken so many police calls involving these scammers, always from the elderly. Glad to see they were caught.
Posts: 10,490