An Indian national who took part in a call centre scam was sentenced to a 29-month prison term. Following his detention, Moin Idrishbhai Pinjara is anticipated to face removal proceedings after filing a guilty plea on November 30.
He was mandated to pay USD 6,35,103 in reparations to the conspiracy’s victims by US District Judge Andrew Hanen. According to US Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani, Pinjara participated in an Indian call centre scam as a “runner” between December 2019 and July 2020. Potential victims were contacted by callers from India in order to demand money from them.
Pinjara would then pick up packages containing cash that the victims had mailed using aliases and fraudulent identification documents. According to him, one typical plan entailed tricking victims into thinking that federal authorities were looking into them.
The victim would be persuaded by the caller posing as an “agent” that the only way to halt the investigation was to transfer money in a FedEx parcel package to a given name and address.
The packages would subsequently be picked up by runners like Pinjara in the US, according to federal prosecutors. Law enforcement discovered hundreds of victims of this scam during the course of the investigation, with losses totalling millions of dollars.
According to a press statement, the Social Security Administration (SSA) often alerts individuals to such fraud and implores citizens to take precautions.
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