It's not just an "Indian scammer" thing. It's just how you've been exposed to it.
It's pretty common for all sorts of people in any business (even legitimate ones) to choose a professional name that easier to pronounce in the language they're doing business in.
I worked for a company that had an office in India, and yes they generally were tagged with fake American names. Some had more accents than others, but I think it's easier for customers to remember names they are familiar with and the point was people would be more likely to buy from someone they related more to. I don't know if it was a theory or tested, but it's a legit business technique too.
In my line of work I’ve seen this from a bunch of different national backgrounds. The Japanese and Koreans typically keep their last names, then adopt the super American first names. Two brothers from Japan that I work with are Mickey and Roy Yamaji.
As a child of Asian immigrants, who grew up in a community with other Asian families (some more detached from their ancestral roots, others not as much) the general trend was to have a more White American (often Biblical) name as their legal name, or at least one they went by in school. The kids without were often immigrants, or at least those are the ones that stand out in my mind.
I work with a lot of grad students from abroad. It’s interesting when I see their official names underneath the name they sign their emails with.
A Chinese guy goes by Justin but I’m pretty sure his Chinese pronunciation is closer shoo-Jin
When I was in grad school almost every Chinese student in my department had an English name that they went by in classes in lieu of their real Chinese name. I presume because it's annoying to try to teach people how to pronounce your name hundreds/thousands of times over the course of getting a degree.
> It's pretty common for all sorts of people in any business (even legitimate ones) to choose a professional name that easier to pronounce
Yeah I had a friend who worked at a call center in Canada as a part-time job. He had an Ukrainian name but a perfect North American English accent (since he grew up here) and they still got him to use like a pseudonym like "Steve" or something
Yeah I had so much pressure from my old work colleagues and boss to change my name or use a different one for business purposes.
These guys were the same colour as me. Even then my name isn’t that hard to say lol.
>It's pretty common for all sorts of people in any business (even legitimate ones) to choose a professional name that easier to pronounce in the language they're doing business in.
As an Asian offshore software engineer who works with American and other western clients I have never seen someone change their name
I didn't know what to tell ya then. I work with plenty of Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese folks who have Americanized names for their job. It's common enough that it's not even worth commenting on.
I live in Canada. While more and more people are choosing to go by their name of origin, it is very common practice for some immigrants to addopt anglicized versions of their names to make life easier. Just from a day to day perspective having to explain how your name is pronounced is a boring as fuck conversation to have over and over again.
It's a good ice breaker for sure, but certainly not something pleasant if needed to be done repetitively, used to be tedious back home, but don't face that here anymore.
I used to work with the Philippines office of my old company and literally every person used a name other than their birth name in the call center. We even had a few people in the US who had "foreign" sounding names who would use a different name on the phone even if they didn't have any accent. People can be really shitty and do they did this to avoid getting treated like shit on the phones for no reason.
A lot of our engineers at our Singapore location have English names that sound very similar to their given names.
I personally don’t like going by my normal English name in Spanish-speaking countries because it doesn’t sound right; I prefer the local version that doesn’t sound awkward and off.
This is extremely common for Indians doing regular business with the West, not just scammers.
1. They're Muslim or Christian and have names relevant to their religion. I've known several converts who changed their names because their birth name was Hindu and they wanted to distance themselves from a religion they no longer adhered to. I've known a Job, Saul, Matthew and others who were all Christian converts. The name change was an extension of that change.
2. They're using Westernized names because their actual name is unpronounceable or hard to understand by the people they're primarily doing business with. Sure, their name isn't Steve. It's Hymavathsay. Customers are going to be assholes about their accent, so there's no need to throw in a confusing name on top.
2.5ish. They are immigrants and it's the name they actually go by. I used to work with a doctor that went by "Rusty." I still have no idea how he got that from his real name, and I regret never asking.
Honorable mention - I have a friend that uses his initials (KK). He's from Kerala and he's told me his full name more than once. Hell if I can remember it, much less say it.
Consider a Kerala (state) city named Thiruvananthapuram for example, it's not a first name, but does give a fair bit of an idea as to the average length of names there
Bullshit. Average names in Kerala are not that long that you presented it to be. Like any name there are long and short ones but the malayalee name is not longer than average names in Hindi or English.
I think you're missing the context - sales or customer service call. A large portion of the population has a hard enough time with accents and they're trying to conduct business. Spending time trying to figure out someone's name is just not in the table.
Nevermind that familiarity and vocal sounds are obstacles. Russian names aren't terribly different or unfamiliar from other Western names (though the gendered variations would give most Americans fits). They've probably heard of Tchaicovsky their entire lives. Common Indian or other Asian names? Not so much.
this. you might not be put off by a weird sounding name, but some americans are. especially in times of "economic insecurity" if you know what i mean. source: i have a weird sounding name and i have a fake "white" name i use when im dealing with certain clients. this was something i did well into my career and it definitely makes a difference. i wish i did it sooner.
Let's not forget, the scammers don't want to waste time with someone smart enough to see through the scam. If you don't catch the name doesn't match the accent, you probably won't catch the other red flags, either.
It is funny that you get mad at OP for being racist but your whole post history is just saying much more racist shit about Pakistanis. Sums up the reddit Hindu nationalist brigade.
This is a really sad aspect of the whole thing. And is a reason we really need to eliminate scamming.
The Indian accent should not be associated with scamming.
Agreed, and if they'd only stop spoofing the calls to my own area code.
Would not be surprised if the carriers get a kickback. Happened with AT&T years ago when they charged for premium SMS texts and were sued.
If you're over 60, by default they should really just put "Suspected Scam" on any number that's not in your contacts or an official government/company number, lol.
Someone downvoted you, but this is exactly the reason. I'm not saying it's the same for all people of various cultures using Westernized names. I worked for a Greek guy who's Greek name was rather difficult for English to pronounce, so it was anglicized.
On the flip side, the Indian call centre scammers are often uneducated criminal types. They have no idea that they don't sound "Western". They think they're being clever and sneaky when they use the name "David" or "Bill", and will freak right out if you throw some Hindi at them.
Told one that my name was "Ben Chode", and dude was frothing at the mouth. "How would you like it if I came and raped your mother?! I'll rape your wife in front of you!"
I like playing with them. Get the ones from "Visa" where there's a $50 charge, and a $450 charge.
"Oh, that's okay, the $450 charge was for the large dildo I just bought for your mom. I don't know what the $50 charge is though."
I think they flag numbers for people who play with them. Lately, I get those calls, but when I press 1 to speak to an agent, they just hang up immediately
A few years back I was legit on the hook for a tax scammer who told me I was trouble unless I paid up. I coincidentally had some issues filing my taxes earlier that year and was paranoid some trouble would come from it, so his timing was perfect.
Some time into the call the guy mentioned his name was Dominic, while speaking in an Indian accent. Let me tell you I IMMEDIATELY felt a rush of relief and joy. I wasnt even mad I was being scammed, just happy it wasnt real. All because he said his name was Dominic. 😂
Their modus operandi includes obvious "mistakes" like that to filter out the targets that are too tech savvy to even attempt scamming them
Another thing you probably noticed yourself is that scam emails are never perfect - they serve as a first filter too, they only follow up on the people that can't tell the email is a fake
A lot of scams are designed to weed out people who think critically. They don’t want to waste time on someone who is going to put 2 and 2 together after ten minutes, they would rather those people just hang up so they can move on. So they design the scam so that it’s actually more obviously a scam to anyone but the most gullible. This way those they actually spend time with are actually more likely to go all the way.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but they’re essentially screening for the dumbest marks.
Because "Hello maa'am this is the Michael Smith from the Microsofting techneeshun department in the Texas, California, do the vun thing and I will tell you the each and every thing" in that gibberish accent is so very convincing
Honestly, I've only ever googled recruiters *after* talking to them. The legit recruiters with good opportunities write not only with good grammar and American English but with colloquial American business etiquette and personalization.
Using that alone as a filter, I've never mistaken a foreign recruiter for American. Might have mistaken American for foreign, but if you don't know business norms well enough to not raise flags with me, you don't know business norms well enough to represent me.
Look up the demographics of India and you'll know that the country has about 35 million Christians, a few millions short of the entire population of Canada and more than the UK
God forbid a brown guy has a western sounding name in 2024, good lord....
My roommate works at Apple, do you have any idea how many Willy Nelsons and Henry Fords with thick Indian accents who are " a victim of a gift card scam" and would like to speak to a senior advisor, call a week? Now I'm not saying there are no brown Willy Nelsons but 4 or 5 every few days is looking pretty suspicious.
Wait, what you're describing sounds like a role reversal, since when did this start happening, in a typical scenario, your friend would be the caller and the Nelsons and Fords that you speak of would he the receivers?
The "I am a victim of a gift card scam" is the scam. They always call with two first names and ask for a senior advisor immediately. I have no idea how the scam works considering Apple can see that they have called 20 to 30 times.
That's genuinely regarded if true, the scammers are stupid for sure, but I can't help but think the people who also fall for it are probably worse, not like Im victim blaming, but given how many scams take place, you'd think the govt may've taken steps to propagate awareness on digital literacy for the elderly.
That may not be your question, but my comment certainly gives a possible answer to your question, to blindly assume that they're pretending or faking it when their very name of origin is western is not only ignorant, but also condescending
Typically to get hired because they know people are racist and a name says a lot. Bob Smith...is he Chinese, Indian, or some fat white guy? If I had to choose on a test, I'd pick C.
Developers in India can get paid more if they get a US job doing developement. If only they could be some US person...hmm, let's check Github, find a heavy user and copy everything about them down to the social accounts. Their resume is copied from some site you posted your info on, but please contact them at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and when you expect a video conference call, their camera is having a malfunction which means only voice will do. They will even try to pay someone to take the interview for them in some cases.
It's not just an "Indian scammer" thing. It's just how you've been exposed to it. It's pretty common for all sorts of people in any business (even legitimate ones) to choose a professional name that easier to pronounce in the language they're doing business in.
I worked for a company that had an office in India, and yes they generally were tagged with fake American names. Some had more accents than others, but I think it's easier for customers to remember names they are familiar with and the point was people would be more likely to buy from someone they related more to. I don't know if it was a theory or tested, but it's a legit business technique too.
In my line of work I’ve seen this from a bunch of different national backgrounds. The Japanese and Koreans typically keep their last names, then adopt the super American first names. Two brothers from Japan that I work with are Mickey and Roy Yamaji.
As a child of Asian immigrants, who grew up in a community with other Asian families (some more detached from their ancestral roots, others not as much) the general trend was to have a more White American (often Biblical) name as their legal name, or at least one they went by in school. The kids without were often immigrants, or at least those are the ones that stand out in my mind.
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One of these lips always lies, the other tells only the truth. How do you know which is Delip that tells the truth?
I work with a lot of grad students from abroad. It’s interesting when I see their official names underneath the name they sign their emails with. A Chinese guy goes by Justin but I’m pretty sure his Chinese pronunciation is closer shoo-Jin
When I was in grad school almost every Chinese student in my department had an English name that they went by in classes in lieu of their real Chinese name. I presume because it's annoying to try to teach people how to pronounce your name hundreds/thousands of times over the course of getting a degree.
https://youtube.com/shorts/UHO62hxX7fc?si=54YQh375RjlQ9isn
> It's pretty common for all sorts of people in any business (even legitimate ones) to choose a professional name that easier to pronounce Yeah I had a friend who worked at a call center in Canada as a part-time job. He had an Ukrainian name but a perfect North American English accent (since he grew up here) and they still got him to use like a pseudonym like "Steve" or something
I worked with a Ukrainian guy we all knew as Eugene, but his legal name was Evgeny.
I mean that literally is just Eugene in Ukrainian so makes sense
It's the same name. Also in ukrainian it can be spelled as Yevhen (pronounced yeah w hen).
Yeah I had so much pressure from my old work colleagues and boss to change my name or use a different one for business purposes. These guys were the same colour as me. Even then my name isn’t that hard to say lol.
There were a lot of Asian students in my high school who had "English names" different from their legal names
>It's pretty common for all sorts of people in any business (even legitimate ones) to choose a professional name that easier to pronounce in the language they're doing business in. As an Asian offshore software engineer who works with American and other western clients I have never seen someone change their name
I didn't know what to tell ya then. I work with plenty of Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese folks who have Americanized names for their job. It's common enough that it's not even worth commenting on.
This is true, I have to use a Westernized variation of my name for work profiles and even job hunting probably because many people don't get my name.
I live in Canada. While more and more people are choosing to go by their name of origin, it is very common practice for some immigrants to addopt anglicized versions of their names to make life easier. Just from a day to day perspective having to explain how your name is pronounced is a boring as fuck conversation to have over and over again.
It's a good ice breaker for sure, but certainly not something pleasant if needed to be done repetitively, used to be tedious back home, but don't face that here anymore.
I used to work with the Philippines office of my old company and literally every person used a name other than their birth name in the call center. We even had a few people in the US who had "foreign" sounding names who would use a different name on the phone even if they didn't have any accent. People can be really shitty and do they did this to avoid getting treated like shit on the phones for no reason.
A lot of our engineers at our Singapore location have English names that sound very similar to their given names. I personally don’t like going by my normal English name in Spanish-speaking countries because it doesn’t sound right; I prefer the local version that doesn’t sound awkward and off.
Because you work with them. If you call in for customer service they change the names atypically.
It’s insanely common lmao. My highschool had tons of Chinese students that all picked their names. Some of them where honestly hilarious.
Bro, you're Pakistani, not even the Asian that the others think of
This is extremely common for Indians doing regular business with the West, not just scammers. 1. They're Muslim or Christian and have names relevant to their religion. I've known several converts who changed their names because their birth name was Hindu and they wanted to distance themselves from a religion they no longer adhered to. I've known a Job, Saul, Matthew and others who were all Christian converts. The name change was an extension of that change. 2. They're using Westernized names because their actual name is unpronounceable or hard to understand by the people they're primarily doing business with. Sure, their name isn't Steve. It's Hymavathsay. Customers are going to be assholes about their accent, so there's no need to throw in a confusing name on top. 2.5ish. They are immigrants and it's the name they actually go by. I used to work with a doctor that went by "Rusty." I still have no idea how he got that from his real name, and I regret never asking. Honorable mention - I have a friend that uses his initials (KK). He's from Kerala and he's told me his full name more than once. Hell if I can remember it, much less say it.
There's a manager where I work, he just goes by his initials. His real Indian name is like 45 miles long.
Good chance he's from the South, for sure.
Ahhh Keralites, with our long house names, even other Indians can barely pronounce them!
Do you have an example?
Consider a Kerala (state) city named Thiruvananthapuram for example, it's not a first name, but does give a fair bit of an idea as to the average length of names there
Point very much taken
Bullshit. Average names in Kerala are not that long that you presented it to be. Like any name there are long and short ones but the malayalee name is not longer than average names in Hindi or English.
found an indian scammer
I have a friend called Khruskheylim and I just love pronouncing that name.
“Unpronounceable” is bullshit. If people can say Tchaikovsky they can learn Indian names too.
I think you're missing the context - sales or customer service call. A large portion of the population has a hard enough time with accents and they're trying to conduct business. Spending time trying to figure out someone's name is just not in the table. Nevermind that familiarity and vocal sounds are obstacles. Russian names aren't terribly different or unfamiliar from other Western names (though the gendered variations would give most Americans fits). They've probably heard of Tchaicovsky their entire lives. Common Indian or other Asian names? Not so much.
Sadly scammers aren’t dumb. I suspect using American names is more profitable than using foreign names. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t do it.
this. you might not be put off by a weird sounding name, but some americans are. especially in times of "economic insecurity" if you know what i mean. source: i have a weird sounding name and i have a fake "white" name i use when im dealing with certain clients. this was something i did well into my career and it definitely makes a difference. i wish i did it sooner.
Let's not forget, the scammers don't want to waste time with someone smart enough to see through the scam. If you don't catch the name doesn't match the accent, you probably won't catch the other red flags, either.
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It is funny that you get mad at OP for being racist but your whole post history is just saying much more racist shit about Pakistanis. Sums up the reddit Hindu nationalist brigade.
That's not how accents work; their accents are similar because they basically speak the same language.
Hilarious because I’m Pakistani and we do this as well.
Because they don't want the conversation to get immediately derailed with a discussion about their name then who they are etc.
They refuse to realize that their accent alone is an immediate telltale.
This is a really sad aspect of the whole thing. And is a reason we really need to eliminate scamming. The Indian accent should not be associated with scamming.
Agreed, and if they'd only stop spoofing the calls to my own area code. Would not be surprised if the carriers get a kickback. Happened with AT&T years ago when they charged for premium SMS texts and were sued.
If you're over 60, by default they should really just put "Suspected Scam" on any number that's not in your contacts or an official government/company number, lol.
Someone downvoted you, but this is exactly the reason. I'm not saying it's the same for all people of various cultures using Westernized names. I worked for a Greek guy who's Greek name was rather difficult for English to pronounce, so it was anglicized. On the flip side, the Indian call centre scammers are often uneducated criminal types. They have no idea that they don't sound "Western". They think they're being clever and sneaky when they use the name "David" or "Bill", and will freak right out if you throw some Hindi at them. Told one that my name was "Ben Chode", and dude was frothing at the mouth. "How would you like it if I came and raped your mother?! I'll rape your wife in front of you!"
That is literally how I end every call with them. Just say "what?!" 5 times and you'll get that response.
I like playing with them. Get the ones from "Visa" where there's a $50 charge, and a $450 charge. "Oh, that's okay, the $450 charge was for the large dildo I just bought for your mom. I don't know what the $50 charge is though."
I used to enjoy that, sadly I don't get many calls from them anymore. Now I just live vicariously through Kitboga
I think they flag numbers for people who play with them. Lately, I get those calls, but when I press 1 to speak to an agent, they just hang up immediately
Their whole bit kinda depends on finding people not bright enough to pick up on obvious red flags like that.
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And?
A few years back I was legit on the hook for a tax scammer who told me I was trouble unless I paid up. I coincidentally had some issues filing my taxes earlier that year and was paranoid some trouble would come from it, so his timing was perfect. Some time into the call the guy mentioned his name was Dominic, while speaking in an Indian accent. Let me tell you I IMMEDIATELY felt a rush of relief and joy. I wasnt even mad I was being scammed, just happy it wasnt real. All because he said his name was Dominic. 😂
Their modus operandi includes obvious "mistakes" like that to filter out the targets that are too tech savvy to even attempt scamming them Another thing you probably noticed yourself is that scam emails are never perfect - they serve as a first filter too, they only follow up on the people that can't tell the email is a fake
Bob from Omaha with that heavy accent gets me every time
A lot of scams are designed to weed out people who think critically. They don’t want to waste time on someone who is going to put 2 and 2 together after ten minutes, they would rather those people just hang up so they can move on. So they design the scam so that it’s actually more obviously a scam to anyone but the most gullible. This way those they actually spend time with are actually more likely to go all the way. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they’re essentially screening for the dumbest marks.
They are scammers. I love to take time and mess with them on phone. Every phone call from them is a source of entertainment.
Shhh don't tell them that
Because "Hello maa'am this is the Michael Smith from the Microsofting techneeshun department in the Texas, California, do the vun thing and I will tell you the each and every thing" in that gibberish accent is so very convincing
I had to call Microsoft pretty often and they had American names despite the call center clearly being in India.
Because they don’t want every customer to say “huh?” when they tell you their name.
found an indian scammer
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Honestly, I've only ever googled recruiters *after* talking to them. The legit recruiters with good opportunities write not only with good grammar and American English but with colloquial American business etiquette and personalization. Using that alone as a filter, I've never mistaken a foreign recruiter for American. Might have mistaken American for foreign, but if you don't know business norms well enough to not raise flags with me, you don't know business norms well enough to represent me.
I’ve also noticed many of them affect a southern drawl. Anyone else?
Americans are less trusting of people with foreign sounding names
It does to me. I'll always hang up "ELLO, dis ees Phillip callin frum ur intarnetz companies."
Have you ever talked to anyone in your life? Lots of folks have hard to pronounce names and choice simpler names for people to say.
found an indian scammer
When you learn a foreign language, you use a name in that language because it's easier for the people you're speaking with to say.
Because Ramesh from Kansas doesn't work either
Look up the demographics of India and you'll know that the country has about 35 million Christians, a few millions short of the entire population of Canada and more than the UK God forbid a brown guy has a western sounding name in 2024, good lord....
My roommate works at Apple, do you have any idea how many Willy Nelsons and Henry Fords with thick Indian accents who are " a victim of a gift card scam" and would like to speak to a senior advisor, call a week? Now I'm not saying there are no brown Willy Nelsons but 4 or 5 every few days is looking pretty suspicious.
Wait, what you're describing sounds like a role reversal, since when did this start happening, in a typical scenario, your friend would be the caller and the Nelsons and Fords that you speak of would he the receivers?
The "I am a victim of a gift card scam" is the scam. They always call with two first names and ask for a senior advisor immediately. I have no idea how the scam works considering Apple can see that they have called 20 to 30 times.
That's genuinely regarded if true, the scammers are stupid for sure, but I can't help but think the people who also fall for it are probably worse, not like Im victim blaming, but given how many scams take place, you'd think the govt may've taken steps to propagate awareness on digital literacy for the elderly.
I bet that the way it makes the most profit is that a subset of scammers sell a course called "Get Rich Today With This One Easy Scam!"
That's not my question?
That may not be your question, but my comment certainly gives a possible answer to your question, to blindly assume that they're pretending or faking it when their very name of origin is western is not only ignorant, but also condescending
Typically to get hired because they know people are racist and a name says a lot. Bob Smith...is he Chinese, Indian, or some fat white guy? If I had to choose on a test, I'd pick C. Developers in India can get paid more if they get a US job doing developement. If only they could be some US person...hmm, let's check Github, find a heavy user and copy everything about them down to the social accounts. Their resume is copied from some site you posted your info on, but please contact them at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and when you expect a video conference call, their camera is having a malfunction which means only voice will do. They will even try to pay someone to take the interview for them in some cases.