From Model Minority to Scammers and Cheats!
I just read a very troubling Reuters story about how - in one generation - some Indians in the U.S. have gone from “model” minority to scammers and cheats!
There are nearly three million people of Indian origin in the U.S., according to the 2010 Census. They’re everything from doctors, academics, software engineers, computer programmers, scientific researchers, government workers, taxi drivers, 7-11 shopkeepers, motel owners, and - more lately - legislators and Hollywood stars!
Nevertheless, a number of Indians - albeit a very small number - are busy calling you multiple times a day with threats of immediate arrest if you don’t urgently cough up a huge sum of money that you allegedly owe for not paying your IT bills or your taxes, or what have you!
Shame on Us!
These scammers prey on the elderly and immigrants and have defrauded them of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. When questioned at Congressional hearings recently, Attorney General William Barr said that, although these criminals come from many countries (including Nigeria, Jamaica, and Costa Rica), the most numerous and expert are from India! Shame on us, indeed! Barr said they had “Cosa Nostra” level expertise! (If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it means the Mafia crime syndicate originating in Sicily, Italy).
I know this from experience!
I get dozens of these calls every week! I never answer my landline unless it’s a phone number I’m familiar with. I had saved many of these “fraudster” voicemails asking me to (1) pay for IT services as my computer was on the blink (I don’t even own a PC!); (2) pay the IRS to avoid deportation (two quite separate government departments!); (3) that the police were on their way to get me; and more of the same.
The most common calls are from those impersonating federal income tax officials. I’ve also had calls from people claiming I have a virus on my computer and need to ring a number and pay for the problem to be fixed; otherwise my data would be compromised! That’s known as “phone tech support fraud!” (See examples in photos below).
Voicemail Cons
I used to keep those voicemails (marked by strong, somewhat unrefined North Indian accents), thinking I ought to turn them over to the authorities who could perhaps find the scammers with their phone numbers; but, apparently, those numbers are themselves bogus! We are told that many of these perpetrators work out of call centers in India and are both men and women. I have also gotten calls from numbers that are located Stateside: Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
Sadly, many seniors (especially immigrants, but also mainstream Americans) have fallen for these scams and have ended up paying large sums of money they can ill afford out of their already meager retirement savings and pensions.
Indians are also Targets!
Many Indians have themselves been victimized by these criminals. Even if their status is completely legal, immigrants (especially if their language skills are poor and they’re not well educated), are often regarded as easy prey. Even if they’ve done nothing wrong, they’re afraid when threatened with police or immigration officials or the IRS. The latter - the mighty Internal Revenue Service - has become somewhat of a bogeyman. I don’t know a soul, regular taxpayer or not, who wouldn’t blink if suddenly confronted by the thought of an IRS audit!
FTC/IRS
I first became aware of this problem about six or seven years ago when many Indians I knew (including those at work) were being inundated with such calls. A very few had even paid up out of fear! I recall an announcement from the Federal Trade Commission and police authorities at the time that the IRS would never ring you if there was a problem; they would write! We were told to report all consumer fraud to the FTC. Despite the warnings, vulnerable people who could least afford it, still got defrauded!
An Uber driver (a middle aged white woman) told me last month that her elderly mother who has dementia, was scared out of her wits by such callers and almost gave out her Social Security number and other vital info!
Law Enforcement
The FBI and police have now got these criminals firmly in their sights and a nationwide takedown was carried out by multiple law enforcement agencies, according to the Department of Justice. It was reported earlier that, in July 2018, 24 men and women (of Indian origin) were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail; after completing their jail sentences, the U.S. citizens among them would be stripped off their citizenship and sent back to India!
Visa Fraud
According to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), a few Indian Americans have also been involved in H1B Visa and “marriage fraud.” The latter term means that Americans were recruited to wed Indians who’d overstayed tourist or student visas or whose status was otherwise dubious!
Do you remember the 90s comedy film “Green Card,” starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell about an American woman who enters into a sham marriage with a Frenchman so he can obtain a green card? Immigration officials discovered the fraud and deported poor Gérard back to France, just as the two fell in love! Even in those more innocent days, “marriage fraud” was a serious crime - who knew? But I digress!
It is Embarrassing!
I am embarrassed by - and for - those who call me and leave rude and nasty threats! I wonder how any moderately intelligent person could fall for such crude threats, but they do, even those working for international institutions and should know better! I’ve heard of WB staffers (mostly foreigners) sending hundreds of dollars before they realized their mistake!
Twenty years ago, it was scammer emails from African (mostly Nigerian) “Princes” promising you millions of dollars, if only you transferred this small amount to them! That went on every day for years each time you logged into your PC at work! Yes, sounds idiotic, but many Americans fell for that scam too! People are naive and trusting and easily fooled out of their savings, which is what these scammers are counting on! Don’t be a victim!
Ludi Joseph
Washington, DC
April 14, 2019
Examples of tech support scams:
I just read a very troubling Reuters story about how - in one generation - some Indians in the U.S. have gone from “model” minority to scammers and cheats!
There are nearly three million people of Indian origin in the U.S., according to the 2010 Census. They’re everything from doctors, academics, software engineers, computer programmers, scientific researchers, government workers, taxi drivers, 7-11 shopkeepers, motel owners, and - more lately - legislators and Hollywood stars!
Nevertheless, a number of Indians - albeit a very small number - are busy calling you multiple times a day with threats of immediate arrest if you don’t urgently cough up a huge sum of money that you allegedly owe for not paying your IT bills or your taxes, or what have you!
Shame on Us!
These scammers prey on the elderly and immigrants and have defrauded them of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. When questioned at Congressional hearings recently, Attorney General William Barr said that, although these criminals come from many countries (including Nigeria, Jamaica, and Costa Rica), the most numerous and expert are from India! Shame on us, indeed! Barr said they had “Cosa Nostra” level expertise! (If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it means the Mafia crime syndicate originating in Sicily, Italy).
I know this from experience!
I get dozens of these calls every week! I never answer my landline unless it’s a phone number I’m familiar with. I had saved many of these “fraudster” voicemails asking me to (1) pay for IT services as my computer was on the blink (I don’t even own a PC!); (2) pay the IRS to avoid deportation (two quite separate government departments!); (3) that the police were on their way to get me; and more of the same.
The most common calls are from those impersonating federal income tax officials. I’ve also had calls from people claiming I have a virus on my computer and need to ring a number and pay for the problem to be fixed; otherwise my data would be compromised! That’s known as “phone tech support fraud!” (See examples in photos below).
Voicemail Cons
I used to keep those voicemails (marked by strong, somewhat unrefined North Indian accents), thinking I ought to turn them over to the authorities who could perhaps find the scammers with their phone numbers; but, apparently, those numbers are themselves bogus! We are told that many of these perpetrators work out of call centers in India and are both men and women. I have also gotten calls from numbers that are located Stateside: Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
Sadly, many seniors (especially immigrants, but also mainstream Americans) have fallen for these scams and have ended up paying large sums of money they can ill afford out of their already meager retirement savings and pensions.
Indians are also Targets!
Many Indians have themselves been victimized by these criminals. Even if their status is completely legal, immigrants (especially if their language skills are poor and they’re not well educated), are often regarded as easy prey. Even if they’ve done nothing wrong, they’re afraid when threatened with police or immigration officials or the IRS. The latter - the mighty Internal Revenue Service - has become somewhat of a bogeyman. I don’t know a soul, regular taxpayer or not, who wouldn’t blink if suddenly confronted by the thought of an IRS audit!
FTC/IRS
I first became aware of this problem about six or seven years ago when many Indians I knew (including those at work) were being inundated with such calls. A very few had even paid up out of fear! I recall an announcement from the Federal Trade Commission and police authorities at the time that the IRS would never ring you if there was a problem; they would write! We were told to report all consumer fraud to the FTC. Despite the warnings, vulnerable people who could least afford it, still got defrauded!
An Uber driver (a middle aged white woman) told me last month that her elderly mother who has dementia, was scared out of her wits by such callers and almost gave out her Social Security number and other vital info!
Law Enforcement
The FBI and police have now got these criminals firmly in their sights and a nationwide takedown was carried out by multiple law enforcement agencies, according to the Department of Justice. It was reported earlier that, in July 2018, 24 men and women (of Indian origin) were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail; after completing their jail sentences, the U.S. citizens among them would be stripped off their citizenship and sent back to India!
Visa Fraud
According to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), a few Indian Americans have also been involved in H1B Visa and “marriage fraud.” The latter term means that Americans were recruited to wed Indians who’d overstayed tourist or student visas or whose status was otherwise dubious!
Do you remember the 90s comedy film “Green Card,” starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell about an American woman who enters into a sham marriage with a Frenchman so he can obtain a green card? Immigration officials discovered the fraud and deported poor Gérard back to France, just as the two fell in love! Even in those more innocent days, “marriage fraud” was a serious crime - who knew? But I digress!
It is Embarrassing!
I am embarrassed by - and for - those who call me and leave rude and nasty threats! I wonder how any moderately intelligent person could fall for such crude threats, but they do, even those working for international institutions and should know better! I’ve heard of WB staffers (mostly foreigners) sending hundreds of dollars before they realized their mistake!
Twenty years ago, it was scammer emails from African (mostly Nigerian) “Princes” promising you millions of dollars, if only you transferred this small amount to them! That went on every day for years each time you logged into your PC at work! Yes, sounds idiotic, but many Americans fell for that scam too! People are naive and trusting and easily fooled out of their savings, which is what these scammers are counting on! Don’t be a victim!
Ludi Joseph
Washington, DC
April 14, 2019
Examples of tech support scams:
From Susan Baumel:
ReplyDeleteLudi - Thank you for this excellent article jam-packed with interesting facts. My mother received one of these calls about her computer. Lo and behold, it was a guy with an Indian accent! He could not answer our questions so we “deep fixed” him, but he had us wondering - and was almost believed! I have also received the IRS call, including a threat! For someone who doesn't understand that government agencies don't work like that, it could be terrifying. Worse yet, the current Administration has talked about getting private debt collectors; will that remove the constants and open up the variables to these sort of thieves? I had no idea that Nigerian conmen had been eclipsed by Indians! Who’s next?
Thanks Susan for your very thoughtful comments. According to my source at DoJ, this has now become a global issue and awareness is slowly building up!
ReplyDeleteFrom Girish Ahuja, New Delhi:
ReplyDeleteVery true Ludi. These scammers are multiplying! We recently had a call saying a bank instalment was overdue and, unless paid immediately, we would lose our initial deposit. When I questioned the guy, he hung up; but, sadly, many people have paid out of their lifetime savings, as you rightly say.
Thanks Girish. I appreciate the comment! My advice: just hang up on phone scammers! Help others remain safe! Talk about it and share what you know!
ReplyDeleteFrom Chris Talbot, London:
ReplyDeleteLudi - I’ve heard of this. Can you explain to me how the con works?
Chris - Callers usually tell victims that they have “defaulted on tax payments.” They get people to reveal their bank information and then withdraw funds out of those accounts! Shockingly easy, I know!
DeleteTwo years ago, a single call center in Mumbai was raking in more than $150,000 a day! Indian police finally raided this center and jailed the cons!
From Suresh Sapra, New Delhi:
ReplyDeleteThanks Ludi! Well brought out! Glad to read the same as it’s so informative and will forward to my contacts to spread the word. Sad to note that some Indians are also a part of these rackets! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Suresh! Yes, we need to spread the word and help vulnerable people!
Delete