Debt collectors cheat Americans-India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

US law enforcement officials have confirmed that hundreds of thousands Americans have been left cash-strapped, after being targeted by abusive debt collectors, who are operating out of overseas call centres with suspected links to organized crime in India. The calls, which seem a part of a massive scam, appears to target struggling Americans, and especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. The threatening callers, armed with personal information from pilfered applications, and who claim to be debt collectors, poised to initiate legal action, have managed to siphon off loose millions of dollars from their victims, even when the victims never owed them money in the first place. "This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam. It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud," ABC News quoted Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, as saying. Working through call centers in India , the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than 5 million dollars. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC claimed to began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men. "I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz. Patel refused to comment on the issue.However, his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone; he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

'Phantom' Indian debt collectors extorting money from harassed indebted Americans