The US justice department charged 61 people and entities on Thursday with taking part in a scam involving India-based call centers where agents impersonated Internal Revenue Service, immigration and other federal officials and demanded payments for non-existent debts. The scam, which had operated since 2013, targeted at least 15,000 people who lost more than $300 million, the department said in a statement.
The defendants, who were indicted by a grand jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas on October 19, included 32 people and five call centers in India and 24 people in nine US states, the statement said. The indictment said the operators of the call centers “threatened potential victims with arrest.