Delhi cops bust cheating racket targetting US, Canada citizens
New Delhi: Little did a doctor in the United States of America know that when she would be calling technical support to fix her computer, she would hear the Delhi Police on the end of the line. But this is exactly what happened when the Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police busted a racket of fraudsters posing as technical support staff from Microsoft, specifically targetting citizens in the US and Canada.
The Delhi Police on Friday said that they had busted the gang and arrested 17 people for running the fake call centre. Police here claimed they had cheated over 2,200 people of close to USD 1.1 million or more than Rs 8 crore.
Officials here said that the main accused, Sahil Dilavari, is a graduate and had been operating a fake call centre for the last three years. The accused sent pop-ups to the computers of unsuspecting people that their system had been compromised and they should call the given number for technical assistance from Microsoft.
"When the victim calls, the accused pretends to be from the Microsoft technical assistance team and asks them to hand over remote access of their computer to them," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (CyPAD) Anyesh Roy.
He added that after this, they told the victim that several malicious programs including malware, spyware had been found in their system when in reality, there is no such issue. "They further 'caution' the victim that their banking credentials might be compromised if immediate remedial steps are not taken. The victim, fearing for her/his financial security, agrees to pay the amount as asked for, by the accused," he said.
The payment is made into shell companies in the US and Canada from where it is wired to the accused's bank accounts in India. Upon receiving the payment, the accused pretends to clean up the malware, viruses from the victims' system and also makes them sign up for a subscription; sometimes for up to three years. All this while the victim is under the impression that they are getting legitimate technical support from Microsoft Inc.
The accused also put up ads on the internet asking people to call on their free numbers for support by HP Technical Team for printer installation. A total amount of USD 1,081,365 (more than Rs 8 Crore) has been created by the accused similarly from 2,268 victims based in the US and Canada. The team led by ACP (CyPAD) Aditya Gautam and Inspector Manoj Kumar busted the racket.
