Fake IRS job lands 'scam center' workers in jail

[nitpicker]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fake-irs-job-lands-scam-center-workers-in-jail-2016-10-07?mod=MW_story_latest_news

Fake IRS job lands 'scam center' workers in jail

Published: Oct 7, 2016 3:10 a.m. ET

By Gabriele Parussini

THANE, India-- Minaz Husain Ladaf couldn't believe his luck this summer when he was offered a 40% bump in salary and other perks to work for what he thought was the U.S. government. But when he went to his new workplace to pick up his paycheck this week, he was picked up by the police instead.

Mr. Ladaf and dozens of fellow call-center workers have been locked in dusty jail cells in this booming Mumbai suburb since Wednesday. Police say they managed a telephone "scam center" where close to 700 workers called targeted Americans, pretending to be from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and raking in an estimated $150,000 a day.

They would follow a precise script, police said, trying to trick people into believing they owed thousands of dollars in taxes and were facing all kinds of ruinous penalties or even jail, in the latest example of what U.S. authorities say is a recent wave of tax-related swindles.
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The Inspector General for Tax Administration in the U.S. says it has fielded more than 1.7 million complaints from victims who have lost a total of more than $47 million to such scams in the last three years.

Police arrested Nasreen Bano Iqbal Bale Sahib and her two sons, Nadeem Iqbal Balasaheb and Shain Iqbal Balasaheb, who were listed as owners of the company, MAC Outsourcing Services Private Limited, that managed the floor in the 7-story building that hosted the call center.

Of the 772 people in the building at the time of Tuesday's raid, deputy police commissioner Parag Manere said 70 so far were being charged with "cheating by impersonation" and forgery. Another 72 were questioned and released and the rest were asked to come to the police station to be questioned starting Friday.
(snip)

[mdbl]

1. I wonder if they are in the same building

as the scammers calling claiming to be Microsoft warning us about our computer viruses?