Today we are here to announce the first-ever multi-jurisdiction enforcement action targeting the India call center scam industry. More than 15,000 victims, including new immigrants to this country and the elderly, were targeted by a complex fraud scheme involving a network of call centers originating in India. This transnational criminal ring targeted victims in the United States, impersonating IRS, Immigration, police and other government officials, and demanded immediate payments to avoid deportation, arrest warrants or to cover allegedly unpaid income taxes. In the process, these criminals took in hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds. (...)
This morning, the Department of Justice; the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration; and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General took action to shut down this massive scheme. Federal and state law enforcement arrested 20 individuals and executed nine search warrants across eight states in a coordinated takedown.
The arrests today are based on an indictment brought in the Southern District of Texas that charges 61 entities and individuals, including five call center groups, located primarily in the United States and India, with an international fraud and money laundering conspiracy.
