Fake Call Centres: ED Busts Tech Support Scam Duping US Nationals

On papers these call centres showed swanky offices who were providing tech support to top US based software companies.However, when Enforcement Directorate officials, Tuesday, carried out searches in NCR and Mumbai, they found dilapidated buildings and individuals working in cramped rooms running an organised racket of duping foreign nationals in garb of customer support.The probe agency conducted searches at 15 locations in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and Mumbai in a money laundering case revolving around "Tech Support Scam".ED case stems from multiple FIRs registered by the Delhi Police."Our probe showed an organised racket was running multiple illegal call centres in Rohini, Paschim Vihar, Rajouri Garden. They were targetting foreign nationals from USA

impersonating themselves as customer support of reputable companies like Charles Schwab Financial Services, Microsoft, Apple," said ED on Tuesday.

How The Scamsters Operated

The Accused used BSOD (Blue Screen of Death or commonly known as Blue Screen errors). BSOD are the fatal errors or system errors in the device of the customer.These fraudsters use deceptive pop-ups that look like a real Windows Blue Screen."The pop-up instructs the victim to call a phone number to "fix" the fake problem. The victim then falls into the trap of calling fake tech support and ends up in paying their hard earned money," said ED.

Money Laundering

Once the victim paid the money using illicit channels it was routed back to India. The monetary assets of the victims were converted into crypto currencies, gift cards, etc. which further transferred to the fraudsters in India and his accomplices through hawala channels.Investigation in the matter reveals that crypto wallets used by the fraudsters have transactions to the tune of millions of US dollars."During searches another illegal call centre in Delhi was found in garb of providing fake technical assistance foreign nationals were being duped," said ED.