Illinois pair charged in ‘IRS scam’ calls
Prosecutors say they collected $220K in a month
To understand just how persistent and effective IRS and related phone scams remain, consider this:
Federal prosecutors say that in the span of just a month earlier this year, two men used fake IDs to collect nearly $220,000 in cash victims had mailed to addresses in southeast Wisconsin after being targeted by the scams.
Mahmadyasin Shekh, 31, and Hardik Patel, 21, of Illinois, were charged in a federal indictment this week with six counts each of mail fraud.
Authorities describe the pair as runners for a larger enterprise, likely based in India, that calls people around the U.S. and claims to be agents with the IRS, FBI or Social Security Administration and convinces them they face imminent arrest if they don’t send cash to cover taxes or other government obligations.
The indictment and a prior criminal complaint indicate the scheme’s orchestrators in India would call or text Shekh and Patel with specifics about where to pick up packages of cash, either at vacant addresses or Walgreens shipping centers.
The case began with an April tip to law enforcement that Shekh was involved in money laundering. On April 15, he admitted to agents he was in the United States illegally and was arrested.
Shekh confessed, according to court records, that he and Patel used a variety of false IDs to pick up the packages,
which they knew contained illegal ly obtained money. They also took videos of themselves opening and counting the cash, which they would send to the handlers before being authorized to keep a percentage of the money.
Someone in Brooklyn, New York, mailed two packages containing a total of $34,500 to Milwaukee on April 5. On April 9 and 10, an Oregon woman sent a total of $53,000 in two mailings to Milwaukee and Pleasant Prairie.
A victim in East Northport, New York, sent $13,000 to Pleasant Prairie on April 12 and someone in Las Vegas mailed $35,000 to Kenosha on April 15.
Shekh is being held without bond. Patel is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Christopher Miller, a spokesman for the IRS in Milwaukee, said he couldn’t comment on the case specifically. But he said scams such as this one occur year-round, not just in the weeks before the deadline for filing income tax returns.
“People should recognize the warning signs. The IRS does not call out of the blue demanding people pay immediately by using a certain method, like cash, gift cards, prepaid debit cards or wire transfers,” he said.
Nor does it threaten to involve law enforcement, Miller said. Rather, if you legitimately owe taxes, you would generally get a bill in the mail, and you would never have to pay without a chance to question or appeal the amount.
“If you get a call from IRS and you don’t owe taxes or have any reason to think you do, hang up immediately. It’s a scam,” he said.