Officials with the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Homeland Security announced the arrests and charges of dozens of people and entities involved in a scheme using call centers in India to swindle Americans out of money.
Immigrands and elderly people were called and threatened with deportation or arrests unless they paid a certain amount of money, often in as little as 24 hours.
Federal officials say getting the money back is difficult.
In all 20 people were arrested and 32 individuals and five call centers in India have also been charged.
There are plans to extradite the people involved based in India.