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Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#111

Post by notahacker »

wetpaws wrote: post #32
zippergz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also caused me to completely miss an appliance delivery because the driver called me from his personal cell, I forgot I had "unknown callers" filtered, and he gave up when he couldn't reach me. Even though I get way more spam calls than legitimate calls, I realized that fully half of the legitimate calls I get are from numbers not in my contacts: delivery drivers, doctors offices, restaurants confirming reservations,…

There is a solution for this and it's called SMS

I'm not convinced the solution to the problem "I'm not able to deliver this item because you're not answering the door or phone" is to expect delivery drivers to use asynchronous communication methods and plan their day around making deliveries when people that can't or won't respond immediately get around to replying.

I receive more spam SMS than scam calls too. Some of them are even asking me to provide information for the benefit of fake deliveries...

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#112

Post by debarshri »

It is not just Americans who affected by these scams. It is also Indian elderly population too who are affected by these scams. I think Indian authorities are very slow to react to these issues because police dont really understand the impact these calls make. Also they are paid off and are often of part of the mafia that runs them. My parent's friends have also been scammed. The Netflix series "Jamtara" really shows how intertwined these scams are with political system. The intent of these mafia and political groups is purely money and there is anti American sentiment that drives them.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#113

Post by balls187 »

weakfortress wrote: post #61
balls187 wrote: post #13

To temper the potential for anti-indian rhetoric, US authorities work side by side with local Indian authorities to shut these down. Mark Rober has a few videos dedicated to going after several of these scam call centers, and most recently 3 major ones were shut down and their owners arrested.

"Anti-Indian rhetoric"? The scams literally originate in India, and are masterminded by Indians. Further, the police are often paid off and rarely do anything about it. When enough fuss is caused about one or two they stop them and then another two crop up somewhere else. If you study the history of organized crime, especially in America, this mirrors the Italian mob once they got control of the police. This is organ…

You missed my point.

These call centers are a problem.

One that requires cooperation between the US and India to resolve.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#114

Post by kepler1 »

balls187 wrote: post #13

To temper the potential for anti-indian rhetoric, US authorities work side by side with local Indian authorities to shut these down. Mark Rober has a few videos dedicated to going after several of these scam call centers, and most recently 3 major ones were shut down and their owners arrested.

I'm sorry but suggesting Mark Rober is helping to stop the scamming industry in India is like helping Ukraine by adding sprinkles to a cupcake at an elementary school bake sale.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#115

Post by e1g »

jacobmartin wrote: post #92
e1g wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone under 40, who have no kids, don’t run a business, have no presence in the community, and socialize only with people under 40.

I have two kids, am self-employed (tutoring) in my community, and have many friends and acquaintances are over 40 (from church, for instance). Sending unknown numbers to voicemail has been completely fine in every case. I've never missed an urgent call that I couldn't call right back after I read the voicemail transcription.

By contrast, in December, I had these time-sensitive calls from unknown numbers: airline lost luggage delivery, Amazon delivery who couldn't get in, my kids' doctors, my pharmacy, someone from my accountant's firm, a bank rep, and a few organizations returning my call. December was a typical month, if a bit slow.

In theory, I could get a voicemail and then follow-up, but that would result in significant time wasted for both sides (e.g., calling doctors again or setting up re-delivery), and the total time I spent on dealing with spam calls is ~1 minute (5-10 seconds x 5-10 occurrences).

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#116

Post by calimac »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #87
HamSession wrote: post #23

A lot is caused by the forwarding services that mask the numbers. Really each should be held liable for any damages.

I think for that to be meaningful, there would need to be some mechanism to prevent fly-by-night operations formed to isolate the liability. Maybe requiring them to post a large bond (proportional to the liability) and/or have insurance?

[dead]

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#117

Post by code_runner »

jacquesm wrote: post #105
cute_boi wrote: post #84

These days whenever I hear Indian voice, I just reject call. They way they target grandparents is surreal. One day they told my my friends parents that their children is in accident and they have to pay in gift cards. It is so distressing to elderly people. US must take strict actions and call out India publicly. Elderly people are weak, education isn't going to solve the scam problem. Scammers must be punished harsl…

Telco's could put a stop to this if they really wanted to. Start with disabling number spoofing for international calls, if the number presented isn't in the country of origin then reject the connection request. Another choke point is the gift card system.

Edit: I was thinking of a totally different gift card scam. Whoops

Gift cards should require some amount of destruction in order to get to the actual barcode… something to make tampering obvious.

The same way clothes have a little ink exploder the clerk removes… just a quick easy step that is destructive to the packaging… but still presentable when you give it to someone

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#119

Post by e_i_pi_2 »

ideavalodation wrote: post #102
weakfortress wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police in India are paid off to allow this. Indeed, the best solution would be economic sanctions on India until it is resolved.

I don't support any kinda scam to begin with but what should other countries do to USA for exporting MLMs, ponzi scheme, crypto scams and other trash

I was looking for the perfect analogy and this is it - would India and other countries be justified for sanctioning the US government for something private companies did? Sanctions are something governments do to each other and this is an issue between private citizens. It just gets messy because it's international, but AFAIK we can't do anything from the US aside from investigating to get suspects then requesting extradition.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#120

Post by TechBro8615 »

cute_boi wrote: post #84

These days whenever I hear Indian voice, I just reject call. They way they target grandparents is surreal. One day they told my my friends parents that their children is in accident and they have to pay in gift cards. It is so distressing to elderly people. US must take strict actions and call out India publicly. Elderly people are weak, education isn't going to solve the scam problem. Scammers must be punished harsl…

You're a lot more patient than me. I've stopped answering calls from unknown numbers. I get 3-4 calls per day, which luckily I can auto-ignore on iOS.
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