WASHINGTON – United States (US) court has sentenced 21 Indian-origin peoplefor up to 20 years in prison for involvement in a multi-million dollarIndia-based call centre scam, NDTVlinkreported.

According to reports, the scandal defrauded thousands of US citizens ofhundreds of millions of dollars.

The US Justice Department said the defendants and their conspiratorsperpetrated a complex fraud and money laundering scheme in whichindividuals from call centres located in Ahmedabad impersonated officialsfrom the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or US Citizenship and ImmigrationServices in a ruse designed to fleece victims located throughout America.

Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, these callcenter operators targeted US citizens and threatened with arrest,imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay the alleged moneyowed to the government, the Justice Department added.

Victims who agreed to pay the scammers were instructed how to make apayment, including by purchasing stored value cards or wiring the money.

Once the payment was done, the call centres would connect to a network ofrunners based in the US to liquidate and launder the extorted funds asquickly as possible by purchasing reloadable cards or retrieving wiretransfers, the Justice Department said.

The indictment for the case also charged 32 India-based conspirators andfive India-based call centres with general conspiracy, wire fraudconspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.

Earlier, three other Indians were sentenced for their involvement in thesame fraud and money laundering scheme.

Several of the convicted will be deported to India after the completion oftheir sentence.