The woman began to get suspicious,being into the phone call nearly for an hour. The man on the line said that he had been calling from the Internal Revenue Service and she had owed a penalty for tax fraud. But he told her to drive to a nearby Food 4 Less grocery store in suburban San Diego and purchase an iTunes gift card to make the payment.

Again he said that she owed “1,000 rupees,” before correcting himself to say $1,000.

Even the name he gave was, Daniel Parker, which seemed odd. He spoke with a foreign accent and mangled basic phrases.

Then she asked, “Your name is Daniel Parker? Are you sure?” while the man replied, “Yeah, ma’am. I am sure.”

The National City, Calif., woman had already shared an iTunes card number worth $500 ,becoming one of tens of thousands of Americans drawn in by an extensive, years long scam in which callers from India posed as IRS agents to extort money.

Indian call centers have built a team for handling customer service and tech support inquiries for major U.S. companies. But in recent times, investigators in the United States, Canada, Britain and other countries have traced several  phone frauds, involving callers posing as computer technicians, debt collectors, immigration officials or tax agents to Indian call centers. In recent years, investigators in the Canada,  United States, Britain and other countries have traced several phone frauds that involved callers posing as computer technicians, debt collectors, immigration officials or tax agents, to Indian call centers.

By Prakriti Neogi