Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

Indian police detained 70 people and were investigating hundreds more after it emerged that a group allegedly posing as call center workers in a Mumbai suburb may have been part of a tax scam that cheated Americans out of more than $47 million, reports said.

Police raided buildings on the outskirts of the densely populated city on India's west coast on Tuesday evening.

They said they found employees on the phone masquerading as Internal Revenue Service officials to try cheat Americans into handing over money by saying they owed back taxes.

"You can call it a scam center," Parag Manere, a deputy commissioner of police in Thane, just east of Mumbai, told The Wall Street Journal. "We are questioning those who were involved in the fraud, including those posing as tax investigators."

The newspaper reported that it was not clear if the people arrested had lawyers. The IRS has not commented on the case.