Indian national in US gets 5 years jail for call centre fraud
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Nov, 2022 12:12 PM
New York, Nov 9 (IANS) Waseem Maknojiya, a 38 year-old Indian national, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a Texas court for committing mail fraud and duping customers via Indian call centres.
Maknojiya, who was illegally residing in Houston, had pleaded guilty on September 13, 2021, a press statement by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas said.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered Maknojiya to serve 60 months in federal prison.
Not an American citizen, he is expected to face removal proceedings following his imprisonment.
Between April and October 2019, Maknojiya was involved in a telemarketing scheme via Indian call centres to extort money from victims in the US.
He acted as a runner in these schemes, using aliases and fake identification documents to pick up more than 70 parcels containing cash the scheme's victims had mailed, the press release stated.
One common script used in the scheme involved coercing victims into believing federal agents were investigating them.
The "agent" on the phone would convince the victim the only way to clear his or her name from investigation was to send cash in a parcel shipped through FedEx to a name and address they provided.
Runners in the US like Maknojiya would then pick up the parcels.
At the time of his plea, he agreed to pay restitution to the scheme's identified victims.
He will remain in custody pending transfer to a US Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
Twitter users on Friday reacted with concern and a sense of urgency after a tweet that hundreds of agitated Muslim residents of Nankana Sahib had allegedly pelted Gurdwara Nankana Sahib with stones.
The Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan's Punjab province connects Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab in India.
US aviation regulator FAA on Thursday warned America’s airlines and their pilots that there is risk involved in operating flights in Pakistan airspace due to “extremist or militant activity”, according to an official document.
An old video of Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi boasting about smashing a TV on seeing his daughter perform the "aarti" has gone viral on social media. Netizens called out the cricketer for being disrespectful.
