NEW DELHI (AP) – Indian police have arrested 70 people and are questioning hundreds more after uncovering a massive scam to cheat thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars by posing as U.S. tax authorities and demanding unpaid taxes, a police officer said Thursday.

According to police in Mumbai, the yearlong scam involved running fake call centers which sent voice mail messages telling U.S. nationals to call back because they owed back taxes.

Those who called back and believed the threats would fork out thousands of dollars to “settle” their case, Mumbai police officer Parag Marere said Thursday.

The scam brought in more than $150,000 a day, Marere said without giving a total sum. If the scam netted that amount daily, it would have made almost $55 million in one year.

Some victims were also told to buy gift vouchers from various companies, and hand over the voucher ID numbers which the impostors then used to make purchases, Marere said.

Police said they are likely to file charges against many of the 600 or more people still being questioned on suspicion of running the fake call centers, housed on several stories of a Mumbai office building.

Those arrested so far include several of the alleged ringleaders, as well as people accused of providing equipment and setting up the fake call centers. The criminal charges filed against the suspects include extortion, impersonation and violations of India’s information technology laws.

“We are questioning those who were involved in the fraud, including those posing as tax investigators,” Marere said.

Police raided the offices this week and seized hundreds of hard disks, hard disks, high-end servers and other electronic equipment.

Indian media reports said 70 percent of the scam’s proceeds were retained by the suspects in India, while the rest was paid to collaborators in the U.S.

Indian news broadcaster NDTV reported that one U.S.-based company allegedly collected the victims’ personal information and passed it to the fake call centers.

The IRS reports receiving more than 900,000 complaints about similar scam calls since October 2013. More than 5,000 people have fallen for the scam, paying out more than $26 million collectively as a result of scams.

The IRS has yet to comment on this recent arrest in India.

The IRS warns it will never call and demand immediate payment. It will never require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, like a gift card or prepaid debit card. The agency will never ask for credit card numbers over the phone.

If you receive a call form someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, you should never give out personal information. Report the call to the IRS using their “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting” web page. You can also call 800-366-4484.

http://abc27.com/2016/10/06/dozens-arrested-at-india-call-center-linked-to-irs-scam-calls/

The sad part is that anyone would believe that the IRS would call and demand money over the phone..

And that the ones that was caught that was making the calls, was lucky to get a few hundred a month for making those calls to feed their family's...Not saying they were in the right to take the job if they knew for sure what they were doing was illegal.. Just saying at times we would stoop to what we have to in order to feed our family's.

Hope they catch the main ones behind it all..

It is sad how many out there that are only out to scam others...

not sure why anyone would wanna "call back" to a foreigner saying they owed the government money...

the rest of the word looks at us as stupid..and for the most part they seem to

be right..look who we elected as prez and it looks like they are going to elect

another commie liberal.......

Good I am happy with that
Yes I hope they get the top dudes

So the took the money out of my bank....
Hope they are still going to fix my PC

They were calling Canadians also.
I must have had a dozen calls .
One guy called himself "officer Dave".

I like to keep them on the line as long as possible and play along.

This is why I have forsworn directly answering my phone at all, if I don't immediately recognize who's calling.

Since Congress has now gutted the "do not call" list with so many exceptions, we're almost back to the days when computers first allowed the greedy swine of the world to harass us night and day.

i blame obama...