First account: Indian call center scam targeting US victims

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call center scam
call center scam

Los angeles : Be it India or America, getting a call from scamsters and fraudsters is quite easy. They somehow get your details or involve you in tetchy calls seeking out personal facts.

Just 3 months after moving to California, one fine day I received a call from an officer from the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) who first politely then later threatened me to pay my due taxes to avoid arrest or legal proceedings.

The call was made twice; first I entertained later I rejected understanding there was something fishy in the way the callers were tackling the call.

First of all the caller had no US accent and even if he was an outsourced representative in India, the man had a real bad English accent and no grammar.

Once I rejected his call, he threatened me of serious consequences. Surprisingly the number was something like +13232077860 and there are many more in my blocked number list.

However, during the whole incident I was stupid enough to tell them my name and from then the calls took a different turn with same people talking all vulgar and obscene. For a moment I even thought of reporting the incident to police and changing my number but after a few days the calls stopped and the issue stopped crossing my mind.

But the torture I faced during those days was really painful. I was new to America, had no knowledge about the affairs handled and this came as a difficult situation in my life. 

Now knowing that the fraud was actually forced on many Americans, a flood of shame passes me in knowing the fact that it is likely the scam was operated from India (Ahmedabad).

As per US Justice Department 61 individuals, mostly Indians, including 32 based in India and 20 in the US following illegal activities.

The action was taken on charges of impersonation, fraud and money laundering in connection with an extraction scheme that scared Americans into paying nonexistent tax dues through threatening phone calls.

The scam, which had operated since 2013, targeted at least 15,000 people who lost more than $300m.

Read what the US Justice has to say: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/dozens-individuals-indicted-multimillion-dollar-indian-call-center-scam-targeting-us-victims