You must have seen a report which claimed that in 2022, US citizens lost more than $10 billion due to phishing gangs and fraudsters operating from India. In the past also many such international call centers have been busted and hundreds of people have been arrested. Now in a related development, an Indian national has been convicted and sentenced to 29 months imprisonment for his involvement in a call center scam.
Moin Idrisbhai Pinjara pleaded guilty on 30 November and is expected to face eviction proceedings after his imprisonment. According to PTI reports, US District Judge Andrew Hannon ordered him to pay USD 6,35,103 as compensation to the victims of the conspiracy.
US Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said that between December 2019 and July 2020, Pinjara was a ‘runner’ in an Indian call center scam. Callers in India would contact potential victims in the United States to extort money from them. Pinjara would then use aliases and fake identification documents to pick up parcels containing cash that the victims had mailed.
He said a common script used in the schemes involved coercing victims into believing that federal agents were investigating them.
The ‘agent’ on the phone would explain to the victim that the only way to have his name removed from the investigation was to send cash in a parcel package sent via FedEx that they provided.
Federal prosecutors said runners like Pinzara would then pick up the parcels in the United States.
During the course of the investigation, law enforcement identified hundreds of victims of the scheme, whose total losses exceeded millions of dollars.
A media release states that the Social Security Administration (SSA) continually warns people about similar scams and encourages citizens to protect themselves.