Community Chat

[NickNack]

I get an e-mail every day from The Skimm.  It's an abbreviated newsletter about the news.  I thought this was interesting from today's e-mail.  We've talked about this scam many times on this Board.

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Earlier this week, police in India arrested 70 people for allegedly posing as IRS agents. The posers have been operating a network of call centers for about a year. This is how it worked: people would get a text or voicemail that said they needed to call the IRS, ASAP. If they decided to call back, someone at the call center would apparently introduce themselves (in an American accent) as Christopher or Daniel. Because it doesn’t get more American than that. The scammers would then demand that money be sent to them or else the person on the phone would be arrested. Tax scams have been a major problem in the US in recent years. Apparently a lot of Americans think ‘gullible’ is written on the ceiling, because the call centers that were raided this week have been making as much as $150,000 a day. Indian police said an additional 600 people are under investigation. 

[Tricolor]

Thank goodness they were caught! I have received numerous calls. Never would I fall for this nonsense but there were many unsuspecting individuals who have fallen prey. It is a shame that this people cannot put their talents to good use. A few months ago I received a call from a person speaking with an accent other than English claiming to be from Microsoft. I let him talk a little then I told him to stop and listen to me. I asked him if he lived in the US. He said he did. I told him how dare he try to scam me while living in this wonderful country. I also told him he contacted the home of a state police officer and could have him arrested. He hung up.

[Mary Bailey]

that is awsome! 

Just last friday I had 3 vm on my cell phone that the IRS wanted to put me in jail.  Two of those calls got through after I blocked the number.

[hoosieroriginal]

That's great, but unfortunately there are a million other scammers out there preying on the elderly and have scammed them out of millions of dollars.

[cotton4me]

So glad to hear this.  When the scammers are in other countries it seems like they're out of reach of law enforcement but this shows otherwise.  Hopefully law enforcement will continue to catch these people wherever they are. 

[2blonde]

Makes me think of the old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

[LTT1]

@Tricolor

I love what you did! 

[Moonchilde]

It's interesting news in that apparently some law enforcement in India cares about such things, but this scam has been going on for years. Shutting down this office isn't going to mean this entire scam is "gone" now.

As for the callers having American accents - bwahahaha! Noooo, they do not. They can call themselves Barbie, Bootsie, Ken and Biff til the cows come home, but sound like anything other than being from the Indian subcontinent? Noooo.......

[dex]

I can't understand why people still fall prey to these calls.This stuff has been going on for so long that you would think everyone would be aware.This stuff is deplorable!Glad to hear that at least one operation has been shut down for now.I hope all involved enjoy their time off in prison and are forced to make some kind of restitution.

[chickenbutt]

Yay!  This is great.  They need to continue to go after all these scammers so that this doesn't continue to be so lucrative.

Same for credit card scammers.  Since the banks won't go after it, somebody needs to!