Like in last year’s Mira Road racket, accused would pose as American taxmen, call U.S. citizens about fake irregularities and con them into paying ‘fines’

The city police’s Crime Branch has busted a racket in Malad, in which perpetrators called U.S. citizens posing as agents of the Internal Revenue Service, the country’s federal tax agency, and conned them into paying ‘fines’ for ‘tax irregularities’. The scam is similar to the one busted in Mira Road last October, in which 700 people were operating seven call centre to American citizens in a similar manner.

The accused allegedly told the police during interrogation that the racket was on for nearly four months. Investigating officers said after the Thane racket was busted in Mira Road last year, some similar rackets were shut down. The accused in the Malad case, they said, were part of one such racket. When their employer decided to quit while he was ahead, they decided to use the knowledge to start a racket of their own.

The accused have been booked for cheating and impersonation under the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. They were produced in court on Friday, which remanded them in police custody till November 9.

Police sources said the racket was exposed after the Crime Branch’s Unit III received a tip-off that two call centres were operating in Malad. A Crime Branch officer said, “We conducted simultaneous raids on Wednesday night in Kachpada and Chincholi Bandar, and picked up 12 accused, seven from one call centre and five from the other. Their interrogation led us to a 13th accused, who played a crucial role in the racket.” The accused were taken to the Unit III office for questioning and placed under arrest early on Thursday.

‘Consequences’ threat

A Unit III officer said, “The accused would send voice messages to American citizens, claiming to be IRS officers and saying tax irregularities had been observed and they were liable for penal action. Each accused would send out over 100 voice messages every night, asking their targets to call them on numbers specified in the messages. These were Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) numbers. Of 100, at least 40 to 50 would be taken in, and call the accused.”

The ‘IRS officers’ would scare the targets with a wide range of consequences, including a stained legal record, heavy fines and prison time. Gullible targets would start pleading for a “way out”, and the subject of ‘settling the matter’ would be broached. The officer said, “The accused would tell targets that the IRS has tie-ups with companies selling gift cards, and would ask them to buy gift cards for 20% to 25% of the ‘fine amount’. Once the cards had been bought, the accused would ask targets to share the 16-digit code on the cards that allows their value to be encashed. They would transfer the money to their accounts with the help of agents in the US and India. The 13th accused arrested was one such agent.”

Another officer said, “It is important to bear in mind that these transaction would be in US dollars. Even if each of the 12 accused making the calls managed to get $1,000 to $2,000 from each target every day, their daily turnover would have been in lakhs.”