(Image source from: DTNext.in)
The U.S. government on Friday sentenced up to 20 years of imprisonment to over 20 Indian-origin individuals for their participation in a multimillion-dollar India-based call center scam which victimized thousands of the U.S. nationals of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The imprisonment for the 21 people condemned this week ranges from 4 to 20 years.
"The stiff sentences imposed represent the culmination of the first-ever large-scale, multi-jurisdiction prosecution targeting the India call center scam industry," the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.
Various of the condemned will be deported to India after the completion of their sentence.
"This case represents one of the most significant victories to date in our continuing efforts to combat elder fraud and the victimization of the most vulnerable members of the U.S. public.
"The transnational criminal ring of fraudsters and money launderers who conspired to bilk older Americans, legal immigrants and many others out of their life savings through their lies, threats and financial schemes must recognize that all resources at the Department's disposal will be deployed to shut down these telefraud schemes, put those responsible in jail, and bring a measure of justice to the victims," Sessions said.
According to the U.S. officials, call center scam swindled thousands of U.S. Inhabitants of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Public prosecutors said the Indian call centers utilized assorted telephone fraud schemes to defraud chiefly vulnerable Americans, including the aged and legal immigrants.
Using info acquired from data brokers and other sources, call center operators targeted the U.S. victims who were threatened with apprehension, penalty, fines or exile if they did not pay the supposed money owed to the government.
Once the payment was done, The call centers turned to a network of runners based in the U.S., the call centers turned to a network of runners based in the U.S., to liquidate and make clean the extorted funds as rapidly as possible by buying reloadable cards or retrieving wire transfers, the Justice Department said.
The runners were oriented by call centers in order to acquire these stored value reloadable cards and then convey the specific card number to India-based co-conspirators who enrolled the cards using the embezzled personal identifying information of the U.S. citizens.
Subsequently, the India-based co-conspirators then loaded these cards with swindle funds acquired from the victims.
The stored value cards were used runners to purchase money orders that they deposited into the bank account of another person.
By Sowmya Sangam
