At least six individuals in Illinois are among nearly 60 people indicted in a call-center scam in which individuals posing as agents of the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies extorted a total of $300 million from 15,000 victims across the country, the federal government said Thursday.
The indictment, unsealed Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department, lists three defendants in Willowbrook, and one each from Midlothian, Schiller Park and Glendale Heights.
The call-center operators allegedly threatened potential victims with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if victims didn’t pay purported taxes or penalties to the government.
Some victims also were local.
According to the 81-page indictment, one Niles victim lost $3,683 in 2013 to someone posing as an IRS employee, demanding payment for alleged fines and fees for alleged tax violations and threatening the victim with arrest and deportation.
The victim allegedly was ordered to buy eight prepaid MoneyPak cards loaded with $3,683 and to transmit the cards’ PINs to the callers.
One Chicago resident lost $5,070 in 2013 after callers posed as immigration officials and members of the Illinois State Police, threatening arrest and deportation if MoneyPak cards weren’t purchased and PINs transmitted, the indictment says.
Law enforcement involved in the case included police in Hoffman Estates and Naperville, and the U.S. attorney’s office for northern Illinois.
Charges in the case include wire fraud and money laundering.
The indictment alleges that the defendants were involved in a scheme organized in India, including a network of call centers in India. Using information from data brokers and others, call-center operators allegedly called potential victims while impersonating government officials, the indictment says. If the victims agreed to pay, the call centers would then immediately turn to a network of U.S.-based co-conspirators to launder the extorted funds as quickly as possible, according to the indictment.
The Willowbrook defendants were listed as Miteshkumar Patel, Rajubhai Patel and Asmitaben Patel. Also named as defendants were Bharatkumar Patel in Midlothian, Vijaykumar Patel in Schiller Park and Montu Barot in Glendale Heights.
They couldn’t be reached for comment.
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