A DeKalb County man has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for his role in a transnational call center scheme that netted more than $200,000.
Mehboob Mansurali Charania of Tucker took part in a “sophisticated scheme” based in India, where call center operators called U.S. residents and scammed hundreds of victims into wiring money overseas, the Department of Justice said Tuesday in a news release.
Callers posed as IRS employees, demanding that unsuspecting victims pay thousands in taxes and fees. Other schemes included scams in which callers instructed the victims to pay upfront fees for fictitious grants; student loan scams in which callers threatened victims if they didn’t pay fictitious taxes and fees associated with their student loans; and hacking scams in which callers would gain remote access to a victim’s computer and lock them out of their devices until they paid.
Those who agreed to pay were instructed to send the funds to accounts opened with fictitious names used by Charania through wire transfer services, including MoneyGram and Western Union, the DOJ said.
“The phone scheme Charania was a part of used lies, intimidation and fear to extort or outright steal from unsuspecting citizens,” U.S. Attorney BJay Pak said. “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.”
Charania, an Indian citizen who moved to DeKalb in 2014, pleaded guilty in January to engaging in an unlicensed money transfer business. He was sentenced to one year, four months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay nearly $204,000 in restitution to his victims.
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