Tucker Man Ran Call Center Scam That Stole $200K+ From Victims

ATLANTA – A Tucker man has been sentenced for his involvement in a transnational criminal organization that victimized over 340 people in the United States through a fraudulent India-based call-center scheme, resulting in over $200,000 in losses. Mehboob Mansurali Charania took part in a sophisticated scheme organized in India that included a network of call centers. Call center operators called U.S. residents over the telephone and misled the potential victims into sending money utilizing a number of different confidence scams.

“The phone scheme Charania was a part of used lies, intimidation, and fear to extort or outright steal from unsuspecting citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “Our law enforcement partners regularly uncover thieves who believe they found a new way to steal. As Charania learned in this case though, law enforcement was well aware of these schemes.”

The scams included impersonation scams where the callers pretended to be IRS employees demanding payment of taxes and fees. Other scams included grant scams where callers directed victims to pay upfront fees for fictitious grants, student loan scams where callers threatened victims if they did not pay fictitious taxes and fees associated with student loans, and hacking scams where callers would gain remote access to the victim’s computer, lock the victim out of the computer, and deny access to the computer until the victim provided payment.

If the victims agreed to pay, the call centers would have the victims send the funds to the attention of fictitious names used by Charania through wire transfers, including through MoneyGram and Western Union.

Charania, a citizen of India who moved to Tucker, Georgia, in 2014, has been sentenced to one year, four months in prison to be followed by three years supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment, and pay restitution of $203,958.02 to victims of the scheme.