Indian extradited to US from Singapore in call center fraud

Yahoo – AFP, April 20, 2019

Workers in a call center in India: in 2016 US authorities charged five such call centers
with operating fraud schemes targetting South Asians living in the United States
(AFP Photo/AFP)

Washington (AFP) - Singapore has extradited an Indian national to the United States to face charges in a call center fraud that scammed millions of dollars from victims in the United States, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 42, of Ahmedabad, India, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in a Houston, Texas federal court for his role in a case that was first announced in 2016, charging 60 people with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Patel ran the HGlobal call center, one of five India-based operations which allegedly worked together in an operation which targeted mostly South Asians living in the United States.

Callers pretending to be US tax or immigration officials threatened them with arrest and deportation if they did not remit money to the government.

The victims were then directed to people working with the call centers in the United States to collect the "fines" through prepaid debit cards or wire transfers, and the money was quickly laundered out of the country.

"This extradition once again demonstrates the Department's unwavering commitment to disrupt and dismantle the India-based call center scam industry and to work with our foreign partners to hold accountable those who perpetrate schemes that defraud our citizens," said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski in a statement.

Justice officials said that in the past six years more than 15,000 people have been cheated of over $75 million in scams in which callers pose as agents of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal tax agency.

So far, in the Indian call center case, 24 domestic US defendants have been convicted and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, the Justice Department said.

"The remaining India-based defendants have yet to be arraigned in this case," they said.

Related Article:

US charges dozens in India-based call center fraud racket

End of the line: government plans to ban unsolicited sales calls

DutchNews, October 8, 2018

The service allows people to report malpractice anonymously. 

The government has set out plans to ban cold calling by companies in favour of an ‘opt-in’ system for telephone marketing. 

Junior economic affairs minister Mona Keijzer said the move would provide better protection than the current ‘bel-me-niet-register’, which allows people to choose to be excluded from sales calls. 

Call centre managers said the ban would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs, many of them part-time posts for students and parents who are looking after children at home. 

Keijzer said half of all consumers were irritated by unsolicited sales calls, making a ban desirable. In future companies will only be allowed to make marketing calls to people who explicitly agree to receive them. 

Consent could be sought by opting in through companies’ websites, in the same way that consumers have to be asked to be added to mailing lists. 

Companies that repeatedly fail to observe the ban will face fines, Keijzer said. ‘At first there’ll be a polite request, but if people still don’t listen, they’ll have to feel it.’ 

Nikos van der Laan, owner of telemarketing firm Convins, said the largest call centre companies with more than 100 booths would be hardest hit. ‘I have to wonder how far this plan has taken into account the consequences for jobs,’ he told NOS. 

Keijzer also said she wanted to introduce more stringent safety standards for domestic appliances that are connected to the internet, such as thermostats and smart TVs. Companies will be obliged to offer free security upgrades unless customers opt out.

US charges dozens in India-based call center fraud racket

Yahoo – AFP, Paul Handley, October 27, 2016

US Justice Department arrested 20 people in connection with Indian call centers
that cheated American of hundreds of millions of dollars (AFP Photo/Ali al-Saadi)

Washington (AFP) - US justice authorities announced action Thursday to shut down a group of Indian call centers that had cheated victims in the United States of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Justice Department said tens of thousands of victims, most of them from South Asia, were extorted by callers pretending to be US tax or immigration officials threatening them with arrest and deportation if they did not remit money to the government.

But the victims were then directed to people working with the call centers in the United States to collect the "fines" through prepaid debit cards or wire transfers, and the money was quickly laundered out of the country, according to the Justice Department.

The agency said it had arrested 20 people and unveiled charges against five call centers and 32 individuals in India in the Ahmedabad-based operation.

The US attorney in the southern district of Texas set charges against a total of 56 people and five Indian companies for conspiracy to commit identity theft, false personation of an officer of the United States, wire fraud and money laundering.

The department will seek the extradition of those in India charged in the case.

"These individuals demanded immediate payments from the people they called to avoid deportation, to avoid arrest or to cover supposedly unpaid income taxes," said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell.

"In the process, these criminals took hundreds of millions of dollars from this scam alone. The victims include people all over the United States... and targeted primarily immigrants and the elderly."

The call center racket made use of informal money transfer businesses known as hawalas to move the money. Many of those businesses did not know the money being transferred was part of an extortion scheme, according to the Justice Department.

Caldwell said the five call centers and individuals targeted were apart from the arrests early this month of some 70 people by Indian authorities also involved in call center scams.

"We want to commend the Indians for having done that because we think it's important that they come in, in addition to our enforcement efforts," said Caldwell.

The indictment names the call centers involved as HGlobal, Call Mantra, Worldwide Solution, Zoriion Communications and Sharma BPO Services.

Caldwell said the call centers worked together on the scam but did not identify any one individual or group leading the scheme.

She said it was unlikely any of the victims, most of them cheated between 2012 and 2015, would get their money back.

"Often once the money's paid, its gone," she said.

Caldwell warned that the arrests do not mean the end to such scams.

"These people are persistent. If you get phone calls, and I do expect these people are resilient and will not give up, my advice to you is just hang up," she said.