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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.
It showed up as an upstate New York phone number. In a thick Indian accent, "This is agent Steve Smith with IRS". I played along just to see how it went and they were trying to get me to go to Walmart and buy two pre-paid iTunes gift cards for $490 each and then tell them the numbers on each card. This was supposedly to pay my IRS debt. How does anyone fall for this? Later I amused myself by calling them back and then doing a three way call and calling the number again and listening to the two scammers try and figure out what each other was talking about.
It's a sad indictment of American intelligence that we have citizens who actually believe the government wants to be paid in iTunes gift cards.
I think the bigger problem is a lack of critical thinking skills. If "the IRS" called me up and said I owed thousands of dollars in taxes, the first thing I'd do would be to call my accountant or to call the IRS directly (using a number from their website, not given to me from the caller) to double-check this. Even if I didn't think to double-check it right away, a demand that I pay my tax bill by purchasing gift cards to various stores and giving them the numbers would raise a ton of red flags. What does the IRS need with iTunes cards?
Too many people hear a pitch over the phone or via e-mail and just go along with it because it doesn't even occur with them to think about the request being made.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
When they only took your job not your grandmas savings.
I'm astonished to learn that there are actually people out there that accept that trading gift cards is a viable method for taking care of back taxes. This is less convincing than a Nigerian prince needing payment so that he can collect money for you.
My faith in humanity continues to wither.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Oh stop it. I've dealt with the IRS on numerous occasions. They have inevitably been polite, professional and they at least attempt to be helpful. Yes, they're the IRS. Yes, it's the Evil Big Guberment. But how the hell are you supposed to run a civilization without taxes and how are you supposed to collect taxes without something like the IRS?
Don't rush the answer. Think this through carefully. Please do NOT pick up that copy of 'Atlas Shrugged'.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
His ass, obviously.
Eat the rich.