If you’ve stopped answering the phone at home due to pesky sales calls, you just might applaud this story.
A call center scammer, one of those people who robocalls thousands of people at a time, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for bilking Americans out of millions of dollars, reports Fox News.
Prosecutors say Sharvil Patel, 23, operated a fraudulent call center out of India. He, along with those who worked with him, pretended to be from the IRS and demanded back payment of taxes under the threat of arrest.
They then forced people to pay with pre-paid cash cards. Since 2013, authorities estimate the so called IRS scam has cheated 15,000 people out of $75 million dollars.
Patel’s arrest is part of a large crackdown on the scheme. In April, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported Nishitkumar Patel, 31, was sentenced to eight years in prison for the same scam. At least three others have been arrested as well.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff or submitting a story
