SCARS™ Insight: Inside India’s Scam Call Centers

Indian Based Scammers are beginning to be the world’s greatest danger in online fraud.

The Indians – who in many cases were trained by ex-patriot Nigerians have organized to an extraordinary extent, and are converting legitimate call centers through India into Scamming Center.

These organized crime businesses are going so far as to align themselves with local police, contributing to civic activities, and on the outside appear to be legitimate outsourcing centers. Some even maintain a “front office” staff doing honest outsourcing work while the “boiler room” in the back does the scamming.

The following is an excellent article from our archives that fully explores what is going on in India even today:

Source: Reuters.com – Authors: Rajendra Jadhav, Euan Rocha, Rahul Bhatia

MUMBAI INDIA – In late September (2016), a woman in National City, California, received a voice message on her phone saying she was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over “tax evasion or tax fraud”.

Panicking, she rang the number and told a man who said he was from the IRS: “I can pay $500,” half the sum demanded. “I could do a payment plan. I just can’t pay all of it at once.”

“Ma’am, you can pay $500 today itself. You can do that?” the man asked, adding that lawyers would look at her accounts and work out a monthly payment plan, but she had to pay half now.

In transcripts of the conversation that investigators shared with Reuters, the man told her to keep the phone line open and drive to a nearby grocery store, where she bought $500 worth of iTunes gift cards and gave the ‘agent’ the redemption codes.

She had just been scammed – one of at least 15,000 people the U.S. Justice Department says lost more than $300 million in an “enormous and complex fraud” running since 2013. The department last month brought grand jury charges against 56 people in India and the United States for “telefraud” scams run from fake call centers in India.

[SCARS NOTE: these are based upon reported scams, not real levels]

Investigators have arrested 20 people in the United States, and Indian authorities have made 75 arrests following October raids (2017) on three premises in the Thane suburb of Mumbai. Charges include conspiracy to commit identity theft, impersonation of an officer of the United States, wire fraud and money laundering.

Indian police say they are looking for Sagar Thakkar, a man in his early 30s also known as Shaggy, who they believe masterminded the scam. Thakkar was also among those named by the U.S. Department of Justice. Reuters was unable to contact Thakkar for comment; he is not known to have a lawyer, and police believe he fled to Dubai last month.

“We are trying to complete the procedure to issue a red corner notice for Thakkar,” Parag Manere, a deputy commissioner at Thane police, told Reuters, referring to an Interpol arrest warrant.

Police said Thakkar led a lavish lifestyle, frequenting 5-star hotels and driving expensive cars with proceeds from the scam. He gave one, a 25 million rupee ($365,000) Audi R8, to his girlfriend. “We have seized an Audi car, and are trying to find other assets of Thakkar,” Manere said.

The FBI, which [was] involved in the investigations, declined to comment. The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment for this article. At a news conference last month (2016), Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said the U.S. would seek the extradition of suspects in India, and warned others engaged in similar schemes they could face jail terms.

In interviews before the U.S. charges were filed, police, suspects, and call center workers in India told Reuters how the scam was run.

Training materials and taped conversations, which investigators believe were made by call center instructors for training purposes, shed some light on an operation aimed to exploit the aged and gullible.

“TAUGHT TO BE TOUGH”

“The revenue was unpredictable. Some days were good, some were bad,” Haider Ali Ayub Mansuri, who said he managed operations at one fake call center, told Reuters as he was returned to jail in India last month (2016) after a court extended his custody. He is among the 75 arrested by Indian police.

“On a good day, we extracted as much as $20,000 from a single U.S. citizen,” he said.

In India, the sheer scale of the operation surprised many.

For months, hundreds of young men and women worked nights at several call centers in Thane. Callers posed as IRS officers and threatened their victims, often newly-arrived immigrants and the elderly, into paying fictitious tax penalties electronically – sometimes by buying gift cards and turning over the redemption codes, Indian investigators said.

“They used to blast out pre-recorded messages to thousands of citizens who were asked to call back. When they called back, there was a center just like this,” said Manere at Thane police.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided premises in early October (2016) as call center workers settled in for their shift. The buildings housed seven call centers, and over a few days more than 700 people were detained. Most have since been released, but told not to leave the city.

Callers bullied their victims with the threat of arrest, jail, seized homes and confiscated passports.

“There was one instance where an old lady was crying,” because she didn’t have the money to pay, said a former call center worker who spoke only on condition of anonymity. “But we kept insisting on the money. We were taught to be tough,” he told Reuters.

On a follow-up raid in Ahmedabad, 500 kms (310 miles) north of Mumbai, police uncovered what they believe was “a nerve center for these centers,” said Manere. “A lot of money has been transacted. It’s been going on for a few years.”

The police raids found little in the way of documentation, beyond some training materials. Another former worker said this was likely because call center managers stopped employees from bringing pens and phones to work.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accounts provided by call center workers.

WEEKLY INCENTIVES

Another former worker, an economics graduate, told Reuters she took a job without knowing what the center did. The 12,000 rupee ($180) monthly salary was well below the going rate for a graduate, she said, but it was a job, and “people aren’t hiring.”

She said several of her colleagues looked as though they had just left high school.

Her first week was spent in training with floor managers. While callers spoke to their victims, she said dozens of trainees squeezed in around the room, and had to memorize pages of dialogue for use on calls.

Another former employee said his instructors told him his work was illegal, but there was “nothing to worry about.”

Callers made “fast money,” another former caller told Reuters. In comments confirmed by investigating officer Mukund Hatote, the worker said: “For every dollar you brought in, you were given two rupees (around three U.S. cents).”

People wanted to leave rather than be involved in something they suspected was illegal, he said, but carried on because managers offered weekly incentives, such as cash or gadgets, for meeting their targets.

For Every One Shut Down

For every Indian Scam Center shut down, there are at least 400 more operating.

The Indian police or poorly equiped to deal with the simple sophistication of these operators. With the rise of the Pandemic, these senters have moved back into their known business models – we are seeing a vast increase in IRS, Police Warrant, and Social Security scams originating from India.

You can never be too careful, but the easiest rull to follow is that if you get a call about these issues, it is always going to be a scam. PERIOD!

More Information

• Key Aide Of Thane Call Centre Scam Mastermind Sagar Thakkar Arrested In Delhi
• Third Indian Man Pleads Guilty In Multi-Million Dollar Call Centre Scam In US
• Fake Call Centre In Noida Made $50,000 A Day Duping US Citizens
• Thane Man Who Gifted 2.5 Crore Audi To Girlfriend Arrested In $300 Million Scam
• Thane Call Centre Scam: 2 Detained From Ahmedabad

TAGS: SCARS, Important Article, Information About Scams, Anti-Scam, Scams, Scammers, Fraudsters, Cybercrime, Crybercriminals, Romance Scams, Scam Victims, IRS scams, Indian Scammers, Indian Scam Call Centers, Outsourcing Scams, iTunes gift cards, Thane Call Center, Ahmedabad, Sagar Thakkar, telefraud

SCARS™ Team
Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
A Worldwide Crime Victims Assistance Nonprofit Organization
Visit: www.AgainstScams.org
Contact Us: Contact@AgainstScams.org

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