Security News > 2020 > November > Indian National Gets 20-Year Jail in United States for Running Scam Call Centers
An Indian national on Monday was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the Southern District of Texas for operating and funding India-based call centers that defrauded US victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2016.
The first-ever large-scale, multi-jurisdictional investigation targeting the India call center scam industry saw the US Department of Homeland Security and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration charging Patel and 60 co-conspirators for orchestrating a "Complex scheme" that involved employees based out of call centers in Ahmedabad masquerading as officials from the IRS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The call center employees were found to engage in telephone call scams designed to con victims by threatening them with arrest, imprisonment, fines, or deportation for failing to pay alleged money owed to the government.
"Upon payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of 'runners' based in the US to liquidate and launder the fraudulently obtained funds."
Patel - who was arrested in Singapore before getting extradited to the US in April last year - had previously admitted to running multiple call centers, including one named HGLOBAL, to carry out his telefraud schemes, in addition to corresponding by email and WhatsApp messages to exchange credit card numbers, telephone scam scripts, and call center operations instructions with his co-defendants.