Indian citizen sentenced to 29 months of imprisonment in US over call centre scam

Washington, Jan 5: An Indian citizen has been sentenced to 29-month of imprisonment for being involved in a call centre scam. Moin Idrishbhai Pinjara had pleaded guilty November 30 and is expected to face removal proceedings following his imprisonment.

US District Judge Andrew Hanen ordered him to pay USD 6,35,103 in restitution to the victims of the conspiracy. US Attorney Alamdar S Hamdani said between December 2019 and July 2020, Pinjara was a "runner" in an Indian-based call centre scam. Callers in India would contact potential victims in the United States to extort money from them. Pinjara would then use aliases and fake identification documents to pick up parcels containing cash which the victims had mailed.

One common script used in the schemes involved coercing victims into believing federal agents were investigating them, he said. The "agent" on the phone would convince the victim the only way to clear his or her name from investigation was to send cash in a parcel package shipped through FedEx to a name and address they provided. Runners like Pinjara in the United States would then pick up the parcels, federal prosecutors said.

Throughout the course of the investigation, law enforcement identified hundreds of victims of this scheme, with total losses exceeding millions of dollars. The Social Security Administration (SSA) consistently warns people of similar scams and encourages citizens to protect themselves, a media release said.