Remember back in high school during basketball games a ref would carry one of these babies around to signal the end of a quarter?
Posted on 01/12/2020 3:29:24 PM PST by Impala64ssa
Sick of “Rachel from customer service?”
Tired of those calls about your car’s warranty?
Had it up to your eyeballs with the IRS calling about your “2016 income taxes?”
This story should bring a tear of joy to your eyes.
In Houston federal court on Thursday, the kingpin of an overseas “call center” that scammed thousands of people out of millions of dollars admitted to coordinating a three-year-operation that bilked thousands of people out of millions of dollars, an ending which was lauded by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions as the first time such a takedown had been made.
The scheme utilized callers at numerous facilities across India who used illegally obtained personal information to impersonate IRS and immigration officials.
These callers, who sounded very convincing, usually would call the most vulnerable, particularly elderly and would threaten them with arrest and jail if they did not pay off their “tax debt” owed to the U.S. government.
Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 43, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering and impersonation of a federal officer, according to the Department of Justice.
“Hitesh Patel played a prominent role in this massive, India-base fraud scheme that bilked vulnerable Americans out of millions of dollars,” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said.
Patel is scheduled to be sentenced on April3. He is looking at a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conspiracy and five years for the general conspiracy. Both charges carry the possibility of a $250,000 fine.
Patel had been extradited from Singapore to face the charges for the scheme, which ran from 2013 to 2016.
According to the Houston Chronicle, 24 co-defendants in the scheme have been convicted in Texas, Arizona and Georgia, and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. They have also been ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution. Several other defendants based in India are awaiting prosecution.
Patel admitted in court that he had realized between $25 to $65 million from victims, according to a news release from the Justice Department.
One of Patel’s co-defendants said that Patel was “the top person in India and the boss for whom the other defendants worked,” according to law enforcement officials. The scam was run through numerous call centers in India. He admitted that he used email and the messaging app WhatsApp to communicate with other defendants, exchange credit card numbers, telephone scam scripts, deposit slips, payment information, all center operations information, instructions and bank account information.
The scripts not only alleged being from the IRS, but also from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Canada Revenue Agency and the Australian Tax Office.
In the scam, callers claimed they were from the U.S. government and provided personal information about their targets. They would then demand thousands of dollars in “unpaid fines” be reimbursed on the spot, or victims would face dire consequences, such as arrest, public humiliation and deportation.
In one case, when a man would not give in to their demands, he was “swatted”; in other words, he found his home surrounded by police after the call center notified officers via 911 that he was armed and threatening to kill police officers.
Among the threats were fake deportation warrants, nonexistent arrest warrants and phony unpaid income taxes that needed immediate attention. Officials said that the scheme primarily targeted South Asian immigrants and elderly people.
Former Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell, when the initial indictments were announced in 2016, said:
“They used a variety of schemes to trick frightened individuals over the phone by tapping into their worst fears—that they would be deported and they would face other problems with the U.S. government or state or local law enforcement.”
The scheme involved having victims buy reloadable money cards or wire money to those involved in the scheme. Victims were told they’d be arrested, jailed, fined or deported if they failed to do so.
The callers would actually talk people through the process and gave them very direct instructions on how to comply with the scheme. There was a network of so-called “runners” in the U.S. who liquidated and laundered the funds.
The cracking of the case was announced in 2016 by Former U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson, who explained that dozens of people and several overseas businesses had been indicted in the international scheme, which cheated more than 15,000 U.S. residents out of $300 million.
Despite repeated admonitions from law enforcement and other authorities in the U.S advising people not to fall for scams such as this, people continue to get victimized. At the time the arrests were announced, Caldwell noted that the government does not do business in the way these scammers conducted it.
“The U.S. government does not operate in this manner,” she said. “We never call to demand that money be loaded immediately onto prepaid cards. U.S. government agencies to not call to demand immediate payments to avoid deportation or to avoid arrest.”
She said it was easy for people to be duped.
“The scammers in this case and so many like this are convincing. They are menacing and they are ruthless in their pursuit of their victims,” said Bruce Foucart of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations. “They convey authority and a sense of urgency that leaves their victims terrified.”
Among the victims in this case were an elderly San Diego woman who gave over $12,300 after she was threatened with arrest if she didn’t pay a phony penalty on a fictitious tax violation. Another man from California also paid $136,000 to resolve alleged tax violations after being called repeatedly for over 20 days.
Hopefully these arrests are just the tip of the iceberg and these scumbags get put out of business once and for all.
Heck, that guy who recently torched a rainbow flag on a church got 15 years (it was his third strike and burning somebody else’s property is arson).
I’m generally very displeased when I get any Indian on ANY customer service call. I find most of them working in support don’t know anything. It is very rare I get one who is helpful and can solve my problem.
I describe the person’s intimate relationship with a goat. In Hindi.
This doesn’t work for those with landlines.
I bought a ATT phone that allows you to block people. You can whitelist phone numbers. All others have to enter a number in order for the phone call to go through. Rarely does a telemarketer do it.
It is so peaceful now.
.
Heck, that guy who recently torched a rainbow flag on a church got 15 years (it was his third strike and burning somebody else’s property is arson).
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Remember the sailor that got busted for taking pictures of his ship?
crimes hildabeast, kerry, obammy, jihadi john, clap, & comey are guilty of should be good for several life sentences, IF TRUE
I got a voice mail about my “student loans”. I have never had one, and oh yeah, I’m 74 years old! I wish that person would call back. I’d love to talk to them.
Yup. Handwriting on the wall.
re: the no-nuffin Indians — if you question them or can’t understand their gibberish attempts at the English spoken word, boy do they go in orbit! Arrogance on display at a zenith level.
If one slips through my call filters, I play a recording of “Hello, this is Lenny...”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nOGWrXlhl-i_3g&feature=share
What always cracks me up is that they are never trained on American Given Names vs. Surnames / Family Names. It’s always “Mr. Fred, have you tried restarting?” and “Mr. Fred, did we solve your problem today?”
I find lots of people working in the States do that these days. I figure they are recent arrivals off the boat.
Calling me to scam me ought to be a death penalty offense. I’m not joking either.
Three messages today on my answering machine from an 866 number, saying my electricity would be turned off today.
” He is looking at a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.”
Weak. Better to just use the electric chair on all of the scammers.
Glad they were caught. Scammers terrify my elderly relatives 5x daily. “Your account is closed and you need to tell me your account number to re-open your account!” Downright frightening to people in their 80’s and 90’s.
Yes, Nomorobo is an excellent free service for landlines. But still scammers get through.
Evil. Taking advantage of a trusting, Christian population and the Greatest Generation is evil. No mercy, since scammers freely choose to scam.
yet our trusting instincts get us into so much trouble..
Scammers do leave voice mails! I recently got several calls with a partial message left; it said something about “fraudulent use” and “criminal investigation.” It was a robo call that didn’t recognize that it was getting my voice mail. I got tired of the messages and finally called them back. A man with a European accent told me he was with the “Social Security Administration.” He wanted my name so he could tell me why my number was being called. I told him never mind, I had found out what I needed to know.
I was annoyed by the calls but not worried, partly because I got the calls on my work phone- provided and paid for by my employer and not associated with my name- not on my personal phone.
The calls stopped after I called them. From the accent, I’d guess that this was Boris in Moscow.
All these poor gullible souls should be reeimbursed
as the government now knows who they are. If fines
are levied against these crimminals, where does
the $ go? (court costs and a lawyers’ pocket).
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