New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday raided multiple locations linked to an international call-centre fraud that allegedly robbed US citizens of over $20 million via spam calls from India.
According to CBI sources, raids were made on associates of a key accused, Sushil Sachdeva, who was also indicted by the US in February last year.
At the centre of the case is the Gujarat-based company E Sampark, which along with other entities, ran call centres and allegedly defrauded foreigners, including Americans. Sachdeva was associated with one such company called Fintalk Global.
CBI sources said the alleged fraud involved callers posing as the US government’s revenue or immigrations officers, or identifying themselves as banking and financial officers, to coerce victims to pay up fees, fines or taxes through various means.
According to a statement released in February by the US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, multiple Indian-based call centres and their directors conspired to forward tens of millions of scam calls to American consumers to dupe them.
According to the statement, “The call centers and their directors place the initial scam calls, and the VoIP provider forwards those calls into this country, whereupon the call centers speak to — and attempt to defraud — the American-based victims.” Many of the victims were in Georgia.
The Georgia attorney’s office is part of the Department of Justice Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force. The force focuses on investigating and prosecuting defendants associated with foreign-based fraud schemes that “disproportionately affect American seniors”. These include romance scams, phone scams, mass-mailing fraud schemes, and tech-support fraud schemes.
In light of these ongoing investigations, it’s crucial to understand the broader context of financial fraud that has been affecting many individuals, particularly in relation to how personal data is managed and shared.
The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is also investigating the case.
The CBI had registered a case last year against another key accused, Sanket Modi, his company SM Technomine, and others accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy, impersonation, extortion, cheating and criminal intimidation. Modi was also booked under several provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
An agency source said this was a big racket involving millions of dollars. “The company E Sampark, along with its directors, forwarded millions of scam calls from fraud call centres in India to the United States, both directly and through VoIP providers to USA-based victims by spoofing contact numbers of US law enforcement agencies. They have targeted thousands of people and they have been doing it since 2015,” they said.
“Our investigation in the case is on and we are conducting raids in this regard. We are cooperating with US investigation agencies to arrest the culprits,” the CBI source said.
In January this year, a Delhi Court granted Sanket Modi interim protection from arrest. On 25 August, however, Special Judge Ashwani Kumar Sarpal denied him relief, noting that he did not appear before investigators on three occasions and once made an excuse.
‘Defrauded the elderly’
According to the US statement, India-based callers posed as federal agents in order to mislead victims into believing that their social security numbers were involved in some financial offence such as pending taxes etc. The caller then threatened to arrest the victim if they did not send money.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: ‘Petty vendetta tactics’ amid polls: Congress on ED action against National Herald