Indian man convicted in call-center fraud case scamming Americans out of millions

An Indian national pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Texas Thursday for his role in operating an India-based call center that defrauded U.S. citizens out of millions.

Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 43, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering and impersonation of a federal officer, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

“Hitesh Patel played a prominent role in this massive, India-based fraud scheme that bilked vulnerable Americans out of millions of dollars,” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said.

Patel’s sentencing is scheduled for April 3. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conspiracy and five years for the general conspiracy, both of which carry also the possibility of a fine of up to $250,000.

Imagine this: During a major public health crisis, such as an outbreak – when doctors, administrators and health care field workers need to be in contact – a hospital’s phone system goes down, potentially putting lives at risk.

That’s a scenario that officials at Tufts Medical Center, located in Boston, as well as other health care facilities, are likely concerned about as they struggle with an inundation of robocalls.

The hospital, which is a center for biomedical research and the main teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine, received more than 4,500 robocalls in a two-hour period the morning of April 30, 2018, according to The Washington Post. The messages featured a voice speaking in Mandarin and threatened deportation if someone did not provide certain personal information…

An Indian man was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for extorting U.S. citizensout of millions of dollars during his time operating a fraudulent call center in India.

Sharvil Patel, 23, was given the sentence by a federal judge in Tampa and fined $80,000.

According to NDTV, Patel and his co-conspirators pretended to be tax officials from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where they claimed their victims owned taxes that hadn’t been paid.

To make the victims comply with their demands, court documents say they allegedly threatened U.S. residents with fraudulent arrest claims and when it came time to collect the money, they forced victims to buy prepaid cash cards, where they sent their own employees to collect. Members of the call center fraud then opened bank accounts where they deposed the payments and eventually turned the money over after deducting a portion for their commission…

Source:https://fxn.ws/2WOKo7P

October 12, 2018

If you think you’re fed up with getting robocalls, Apple is taking it to another level.

A new software patent from the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant could help kill robocalls and scams, letting users automatically recognize “a spoofing caller.”

The patent, filed in April 2017, was made public on Thursday and describes a system that would let the phone do checks on a call to see whether the call is legitimate or if it is from a “spoofed number”…