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Phone Scammer Pretending to be IRS Sentenced To 20 Years in Prison

Phone Scammer Pretending to be IRS Sentenced To 20 Years in Prison

Think of how many times the phone has rung and you’ve answered it, only to find a pre-recorded message or apparent scammer on the line. An entire industry has popped up for the sole purpose of stopping receipt of these types of calls, and at the same time federal, state and local agencies have worked to educate the public so that they can protect themselves from falling prey to criminals.

Unfortunately, their best efforts to get the word out to everybody have failed in some cases, and millions of dollars have ended up being transferred into the bank accounts of thieves. The law recently caught up with one of these scammers: Hitesh Madhubhai Patel (a/k/a Hitesh Hinglaj) of Ahmedabad, India was one of the most successful fraudsters in recent memory. He spent the past several years operating Indian call centers that defrauded Americans of millions of dollars, but now he has been sentenced to 20 years in an American prison.

Patel was brought to justice after a collaborative effort on the part of American law enforcement agencies. A provisional arrest warrant was issued in the United States in 2018, prompting the Indian national to fly to Singapore. Authorities there apprehended and extradited him in 2019.

Patel’s scheme operated from 2013 to 2016 out of a network of call centers in large Indian cities including Ahmedabad, the country’s sixth largest. From these centers, his agents used Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to make calls to unwitting American citizens who were targeted based upon information available through social media and other resources. The callers would make it appear that the calls were coming from government agencies such as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or the IRS through a process known as “spoofing” that made falsified caller I.D.s appear on the victims’ phones. They would pretend to be official personnel and demand payment for nonexistent tax debts. Victims were threatened with legal action, arrest, and even deportation.

According to authorities, Patel’s fake IRS scam was remarkably successful. It topped the 2017 Dirty Dozen list published by the IRS, and the Better Business Bureau said that it represented 25% of the phone scams perpetrated in the United States in 2016. As far back as 2014 it was called "the largest scam of its kind that we have ever seen" by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). 

The elaborate scheme was made possible with the help of runners based in the United States who would liquidate the debit or gift cards that victims were instructed to purchase for payment in exchange for a fee or percentage of the money taken in. Some funds were wired into bank accounts for laundering and liquidation. Twenty-four of those who assisted from within the United States have already been convicted and sentenced in the Southern District of Texas, District of Arizona, and Northern District of Georgia. Some were deported based on their immigration status, while all were required to pay back millions in money judgements and seized assets.

As for Patel, he admitted to having caused between $25 million and $65 million in losses and to having been “the top person in India and the boss for whom most of the other defendants worked.” He pled guilty to having owned, operated and funded the call centers where the schemes originated, providing details about the call center locations and the process and technologies used to perpetrate the scheme. He gave specifics regarding WhatsApp messaging, email and telephone scripts and instructions to the call center personnel.

Commenting on bringing the case to closure, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas said, “The long arm of federal law enforcement was key to bringing this con artist to justice. Transnational call center scams are complex cases to investigate and prosecute but our agencies are up to the task. Many of these fraudsters prey on the most vulnerable from the perceived safety of foreign lands so there is no sorry in seeing him head to prison. His access to a phone is now greatly diminished. Across the globe, U.S. law enforcement is chasing and dismantling these schemes.”

And echoing his words, J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said, “Since 2013, American taxpayers have been subjected to unprecedented attempts to fraudulently obtain money by individuals utilizing Indian call centers to impersonate IRS employees and scam American taxpayers. We appreciate the support of our law enforcement partners.”

Those who would like more information about the case are encouraged to visit the informational page that has been set up on the Department of Justice website . Those who believe that they have been victimized by this particular fraud or any other tele-fraud are encouraged to visit the FTC’s dedicated fraud report website here.

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Gordon W. McNamee

Gordon W. McNamee

Gordon W. McNamee is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) based in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Gordon W. McNamee can assist you with your tax return preparation, payroll, accounting and tax planning needs. <br /> <br /> 2021 is Gordon W. McNamee, CPAs 38th year in the profession. As as a former IRS agent (1984 through 1987), Gordon has been in public accounting since 1987. Gordon specializes in individual, corporate, HOA, trust, estate and payroll taxes. He also prepares financial statements and provides accounting & bookkeeping services. He enjoys making his clients feel at ease while providing a personalized professional service.

GORDON W. MCNAMEE, CPA
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