Fake Call Centers in India Scam Americans Of Millions (ap.org)

An anonymous reader writes:Indian police have arrested 70 people and are questioning hundreds more after uncovering a massive scam to cheat thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars by posing as U.S. tax authorities and demanding unpaid taxes, a police officer said Thursday. According to police in Mumbai, the yearlong scam involved running fake call centers which sent voice mail messages telling U.S. nationals to call back because they owed back taxes. Those who called back and believed the threats would fork out thousands of dollars to "settle" their case, Mumbai police officer Parag Marere said Thursday. The scam brought in more than $150,000 a day, Marere said without giving a total sum. If the scam netted that amount daily, it would have made almost $55 million in one year. Some victims were also told to buy gift vouchers from various companies, and hand over the voucher ID numbers which the impostors then used to make purchases, Marere said. Police said they are likely to file charges against many of the 600 or more people still being questioned on suspicion of running the fake call centers, housed on several stories of a Mumbai office building.

Comments

Re:These guys called me last week.

[Applehu Akbar]

I get these calls alll the time too. Most people may not know that the IRS always uses mail for communications, but nobody should believe that the government would have you transfer funds using a money laundering service like Green Dot. In my state, Green Dot is used only for meth deals or for paying ransoms.

Re:Let's teach critical thinking

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt it is just the elderly. There is a reason America was targeted after all.