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Feds Charge 61 People In Indian-Based IRS Phone Scam Case (consumerist.com)
BUL2294 writes: Following the arrests earlier this month in India of call center employees posing as IRS or immigration agents, USA Today and Consumerist are reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice has charged 61 people in the U.S. and India of facilitating the scam, bilking millions from Americans thinking they were facing immediate arrest and prosecution. "According to the indictment (PDF) -- which covers 20 individuals in the U.S. and 32 people and five call centers in India -- since about 2012 the defendants used information obtained from data brokers and other sources to call potential victims impersonating officers from the IRS or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services," reports Consumerist. The report adds: "To give the calls an air of authenticity, the organization was able to 'spoof' phone numbers, making the calls appear to have really come from a federal agency. The callers would then allegedly threaten potential victims with arrest, imprisonment, fines, or deportation if they did not pay supposed taxes or penalties to the government. In instances when the victims agreed to pay, the DOJ claims that the call centers would instruct them to go to banks or ATMs to withdraw money, use the funds to purchase prepaid stored value cards from retail stores, and then provide the unique serial number to the caller. At this point, the operations U.S.-based counterparts would use the serial numbers to transfer the funds to prepaid reloadable cards. The cards would then be used to purchase money orders that were transferred into U.S. bank accounts of individuals or businesses. To make matters worse, the indictment claims that the prepaid debit cards were often registered using personal information of thousands of identity theft victims, and the wire transfers were directed by the organizations using fake names and fraudulent identifications. The operation would then use 'hawalas' -- a system in which money is transferred internationally outside of the formal banking system -- to direct the pilfered funds to accounts belonging to U.S.-based individuals.
What makes them any less legitimate than the 'real' IRS? It's a scam either way.
... the call centers would instruct them to go to banks or ATMs to withdraw money, use the funds to purchase prepaid stored value cards from retail stores, and then provide the unique serial number to the caller.
It's technically trivial to block that type of spoofing. The only hold-back is that there's no penalty for the phone companies that sell to the scammers. Charge their US provider with accessory to the crime, and fine them $100M and this could never happen again. Require that all CLID sent be a valid call-back for the number sent.
Yes, I know that this will be annoying for the outsourced call centers, where HP sells their call center to India and the Indian company calls an American with the CLID of the 1-800 number for HP, so the call looks like it's coming from the US, and if called back, gets to the right queue. But those edge cases don't justify allowing free range for the scammers.
Learn to love Alaska
Those calls were fun. I used to respond by being so insulting, abusive, and profane that the last "IRS" call ended with the "agent" shouting, "I'm coming to your house to shoot you in your face."
only if HP pays the outsourcing tax
What useful message would EVER come from an Indian caller?
"Your Kashmir Indica block is ready for pickup"?
I object to your over-generalization. Here in the US, it's not uncommon to deal with first-generation immigrants both professionally and socially. In fact, I've been dealing with South-Asian-accented English speakers in the US my entire adult life (I am 60).
My personal experience relating to the above news item:
A couple of months ago I was called by someone speaking with a South Asian accent (I can't narrow it down more than that). He claimed to be calling from the FBI (not the IRS nor immigration as in the article) and he forcefully told me that I was in trouble with the law. His approach was unprofessional, which made me skeptical, so I asked to call him back. He told me to look up the number he was calling from, which did turn out to be the FBI office in Albany, NY. He even sounded _proud_ of this fact. Yes, the scammers may have proud of their ability to spoof my caller ID!
I persisted, so he referred me to his supervisor. The supervisor _also_ spoke with a South Asian accent and _also_ started bullying me about being in trouble with the law. At this point I knew it was a scam and hung up.
Had I been a good citizen I would have called the FBI myself to report this, but I was just glad to be done with it.
What do you mean? Big Indian or Little Indian?
In phone rooms the owners often tell the staff that it is a moral wrong to leave stupid people with a penny in their pocket. I really never agreed with that. But this IRS scam is so stupid and transparent that anyone who feel for it has to be so stupid that they really are a menace to society. Money gives the really stupid a certain amount of power. I almost agree with the phone room owners in this case. If anything prosecute these jerks for making annoying phone calls. Obviously phone room prosecutions are symbolic in nature and not intended to shut down a crooked industry. Most years the feds prosecute about 20 phone rooms. They go after the big dollar scams as a rule. For Lauderdale easily has over 1,000 phone rooms going on any given day. There are zero honest rooms. Some of the schemes are so complex that the staff doesn't even know they are involved in a criminal enterprise. Sometimes it is done by running one room that makes tiny sales and another room across town that uses the leads from the tiny sales to recall the buyer and sock it to them big time with a scam. The first room never knows that the second room exists. One clue that you are about to be taken is when you are asked to write a check with the company names initials. In other words the friendly salesman says make the check out to N.M.I. instead of National Mortgage incorporated. That check will then be cashed by National Marketing Inc.. So if the feds do come knocking national Mortgage claims no knowledge and they just happened to rent space to a marketing company that closed down and left town. These companies never sell in their own states. That way they only have to worry about the feds.
I've been getting the following for months.
I need you or your retained attorney of records to return the call. The issue at hand is extremely time sensitive. My phone number is 213-289-####.
Do not disregard this message and do return the call. Now if you don't return the call and I don't hear from your attorney either then the only thing I can do is wish you a good luck as the situation totally unfolds on you. Good bye.
I blocked part of the phone number just in case it belongs to some innocent person, but it probably doesn't and I was tempted to leave it. The phone number is also different every time they call anyway, but the message is the same.
Anyway, the message sounds so ominous but also so ridiculous. It doesn't give a hint at who is delivering this threat. Could it be the IRS? An old landlord? My ex-wife? It's the best, because by not saying it could apply to almost anyone.
I do have an unpaid parking ticket from about 25 years ago.
I guess "good luck" is on my side though because the situation has not totally unfolded on me.
In addition to those who perpetuated the scam, I feel that since the Thune, India police know the low-level employees who actually spoke from the scripts, I'd love to see the US indict those people, have them beg their families for Rupees to fight extradition in an Indian court, lose that fight, put them on a plane to the US, then let them beg their families again for $$$ for an expensive American lawyer, then rot in a Federal prison for the next 5+ years, then be banned from the USA for life over the felony conviction. With enough stories like that to go around, even destitute people will refuse to work for scammers--including those working for "Windows Company Support".
I have no sympathy for anyone at any level of this scam, including the low-level people following the scripts and making/answering the calls--those pretending to be IRS agents & scaring old ladies into giving up their life savings. These people know English and therefore know they are impersonating an agent of a foreign government (in this case, the big bad US Government, and its unlimited resources). It stands to reason that the foreign government in question might come after them one day. They probably also got a (teeny tiny) cut of each successful con, which makes this all the worse... Make an example out of them...
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
Not hard to notice 500 voices in the background too
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
I just hang up even if it's not an Indian. If it's not a voice I recognize, then I'm going make you jump through hoops to talk to me.
If it's actually important, they'll call back. Calls from a call center never seem to be important.
That said, I did once hang up on a cop. ...and whaddayaknow, he called back.
Kindly to be not making me your bitch, sir. I am working for Microsoft.
These pricks called me once and I told them right where to go! Glad that they are finally caught!
I often do this. I also hang up while I'm speaking so there's a plausible "we got cut off" excuse if it's someone I really do want/need to talk to.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
I used to toy with these idiots and waste massive amounts of their time. They'd get so upset that they'd be screaming at me before they hung up (I counted that as a "win" for me).
There's no letdown like thinking you got a live one on the line, wasting 30 minutes reeling him in, only to have him start asking "What does it feel like to bang a goat?" or "Have I wasted enough of your time or should we keep going?"
I loved asking them if they had "updog", and when they'd ask "What is updog?" I'd yell "NOT MUCH MOTHERFUCKER!!"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I used to get a ton of these offering to sell me a high price car warranty. My car is still under warranty, so at first I dismissed it outright...but after 6 or 7 of these calls a week, I started to hassle the guys back. My favorite is when a guy tried to sell me a warranty, and I told him that I no longer had the car, but he could get me a quote for my new car if he wanted. I told him it was a Bugatti Veyron SuperSport (http://www.bugatti.com/veyron/veyron-164-super-sport/). He was like "hmm....I don't see that in my system. Is that Italian?". He was less than amused when I told him to Google it and the starting price was $1.8 million.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
I'd rather have them rot in an Indian jail, thank you very much. As a taxpayer, I'd be paying to have them rot in an American jail. Let outsourcing save me some money for a change.
John
Throw them in jail and make India pay for it.
hmmm, sounds familiar.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
There is a legit reason to spoof. People in hiding from abusive spouses, basic PBX, anonymous tips, reporters --- anyone who either wants to hide their identity or assume another one. For instance - when I call from my office I want the caller ID to be that of the main front desk so that a customer can have the call answered when they call back (if I'm busy or maybe somebody else can help them). This requires spoofing - even when I'm using my virtual phone.
How to lock it down? It is the Text that is spoofed sometimes - not the number. "IRS" is the text, but the number is 314-1592.
We used to have an after hours call center - they handled calls for several businesses. If they called a customer back for us - they spoofed our caller id. If I called from my home afterhours - I spoofed my company caller ID rather than my home, again with virtual PBX software. Okay - may be can be encrypted somehow to make sure that only "I" spoof my company. But for people in hiding, or a true anonymous tip, it is a one-off thing that doesn't have an easy answer.
I've heard this is a hard problem to solve. Interviews with experts all paint the complex picture.
The run up to this had twice daily calls coming to my house. Then nothing since.
I found it interesting that a few months ago I'd get a few calls per month. But they must known the police were coming and trying to build up cash quickly before disappearing and leaving others holding the bag. In the final weeks the call rate intensified and changed nature - I now had Live people calling (had been strictly "This is automated message from IRS -please call us back you are being sued"). No time to wait - get the live ones and convert them to cash.
I save a couple of the asshole's numbers, then when I get another call I click "Add Call" and forward them to another telemarketer / scammer. Then I just listen while the Viagra guy pitches the alarm system guy and vice versa.
In addition to those who perpetuated the scam, I feel that since the Thune, India police know the low-level employees who actually spoke from the scripts, I'd love to see the US indict those people, have them beg their families for Rupees to fight extradition in an Indian court, lose that fight,
Sounds like you're not familiar with India. They will have to pay a very small amount of Rupees not to be found by police whilst the US will have to pay a very large amount of Rupees for the police not to find them.
Secondly, there's a billion Indians, the US will run out of money three times over before they run out of volunteers.
Thirdly, the scammers will just move to another country where the US has no clout and the process will start all over again.
This is not fight you can win through legal battles, its a fight against stupidity in the US, not against poor people in India. The only way you can fight it is to educate people.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The whole scam seems to rely on the ability of the Hawalas to ship Money across national borders. But I find it hard to believe that they would use 100s of these people, presumably this boils down to a handful of bent Hawala agents that can be tracked, or has bitcoin rendered that unfeasible ?
Nullius in verba
I now want to answer the phone "CIA Special Activities Division, drone strike department" and then let them know a reaper strike has been ordered for their location.
Time to offend someone