More than 120 people arrested as India busts fake call centre duping Americans
- The bogus centre outside Delhi makes up to US$50,000 daily through its scams
Indian police on Friday arrested 126 people working for a allegedly fake call centre making up to US$50,000 a day by duping Americans, officials said.
India became the global call centre capital in the early 2000s as foreign firms, drawn by an educated and cheaper English-speaking workforce, farmed out jobs answering customer phone enquiries.
The suspects arrested in Noida outside Delhi would tell Americans there was a problem with their Social Security numbers and solicit money to fix it, police said.
Another scam was telling people they had committed tax offences and that they had to pay to settle, said Noida police officer Ajay Pal Sharma.
Many responded to the call and fell for their trap
“Your warrant is on my desk and if this issue is not resolved we will have to freeze your account and put you behind the bars,” one caller is heard to say in a recording.
In Indian-accented English, he says that the man can either fight the United States’ Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in court and face a US$75,000 fine as a “tax defrauder” or pay immediately an “out-of-court settlement”.