According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Indian scammers have fleeced gullible Americans of a whopping $10 billion in 2022. Think Netflix series Jamtara but featuring American victims. (View Highlight)
Well, in the late 90s and the early 2000s India became a preferred outsourcing destination for Western companies. We had low wages, a massive English-speaking population and a burgeoning group of young people with sound technical knowledge. The economy was also opening up at the time and global companies jumped at the opportunity. They set up back office call centres here. All for customer and tech support roles. But over time, we lost our edge a bit. Places like the Philippines turned out cheaper and companies migrated their operations to Manila. It led to a decline in the Indian call centre business. (View Highlight)
But the stage had been set. People in smaller towns and villages knew that ‘Spoken English’ could make them rich. The allure of the call centre job didn’t quite disappear. And unscrupulous individuals stepped in to fill the void. All they needed was a few laptops, a steady internet connection, and a database of American citizens sourced from data thieves. A scam call centre was ready. (View Highlight)
You see, India apparently does not have a law that criminalises this type of fraud. The financial transaction happens outside the country. And cops first need a complaint that accuses the centre of cheating. They can’t march into a centre and pre-emptively raid it . (View Highlight)
New highlights added January 9, 2023 at 11:13 PM
For instance, take the case of Hitesh Patel aka Hitesh Hinglaj who was sent to jail in November 2020. He operated a scam call centre from Ahmedabad and defrauded Americans of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2016. When he realized that the authorities were on to him, he fled to Singapore. But the US was smart. In 2019, they simply requested Singapore to arrest Patel on their behalf. And then extradite him so that he could be prosecuted in an American court. (View Highlight)
Now, even India’s CBI is getting in on the act. They launched Operation Chakra and joined hands with international law enforcement. The sole goal is to target the international scammers sitting in India. With 85% of scam calls originating in India, it’s high time we go all guns blazing and take them down. (View Highlight)
