A number of call centers operated by one of the deadliest gangs in Mexico prey on Americans, defrauding them of millions of dollars. The fraud serves as a warning about the ongoing diversification of criminal groups, which have been experimenting with more conventional techniques like fraud and racketeering. This hoax is associated with the death of an Arizona-born citizen of the United States in at least one instance.
American officials estimate that fraudsters may have defrauded Americans of up to $300 million over a five-year period. The fraud involves contact centers that the Mexican Cartel Jalisco New Generation established. Its operatives phone timeshare owners and make false offers to buy them out, tricking the victims into paying endless fees.
According to FBI statistics cited in a New York Times investigation, victims in the United States have wired up to $288 million to cartel fraudsters in only five years. However, because the FBI depends on Mexican authorities to pursue fraudsters in Mexico, this kind of crime typically goes unpunished.
CJNG gunmen abducted Carlos David Valladolid Hernandez in June 2023 and murdered him along with a number of other victims. Valladolid, a naturalized American citizen who was born in Arizona, relocated to Jalisco, according to Breitbart Texas. Valladolid and the other victims started working at a CJNG-run time-share contact center before the murder. Unknown assailants abducted a number of their workers, severed their bodies, and then disposed of their remains in various locations in Zapopan and Guadalajara. The majority of the murders committed by CJNG in Jalisco are still unsolved.
Since authorities in Mexico seldom look into or prosecute phone scams, they are widespread. These scams employ a variety of techniques, but their main objective is to get their victims to wire or deposit money.
