25 chargesheeted in tech support scam busted last year

The Delhi Police special cell has filed a charge sheet against 25 people and a company accused of duping people by infecting their computers with virus and malware and then extorting money from them in return for help by impersonating as tech support providers from Microsoft Corporation.

The software giant had complained to the police that it has received over 14,000 reports from its customers that they were duped by frauds who claimed they represented the US-based company. Microsoft also told the police that it had received 3 lakh such complaints since 2015. Based on the complaint, the special cell registered a case on September 19,2018.

During investigation the police found that the accused used to call the people deceiving them into believing that their personal computers or devices are infected with dangerous viruses, according to police’s submission. These accused then gained access of the victim’s computer/ devices by use of remote desktop assistants and then, these fake technicians loaded viruses onto their systems, stealing personal information and files.

The police conducted raids at nine locations in Delhi and arrested 24 people on October 4, 2018. All of them were released on bail on October 15. One more accused, Satvik Arya, was arrested on April 17 this year. He is currently in judicial custody. The police recovered computers displaying keys for remotely installing Microsoft Windows 7 and 10, software codes to crash caller’s computer and screenshots of data showing payment gateways.

According to the charge sheet, Arya ran a call centre and used to send pop ups to people’s computers and forced them to call up a toll free number. The calls were received by Arya’s staff who impersonated as Microsoft representatives. They used to take remote control of the caller’s computer and uploaded viruses and malware. They would demand money to rectify the system or stole personal data, the charge sheet said.

The police also found that some of the frauds first infected computers and then transferred calls to unscrupulous call centres where a different set of gangs duped people in the name of providing tech support. According to the charge sheet, such calls were sold for Rs800-Rs1500 per call.

The accused also deployed other campaigns known as Black Hat SEO campaign. This involves manipulation of the search engine for pushing a particular website, mostly a fake call centre, on top of the results when users search for keywords such as ‘Microsoft customer care’ or ‘Microsoft helpline’.

Police said Arya was also allegedly involved in money laundering. They said that Satvik had “created a huge menace in United States of America as their residents are targeted because of higher value of US Dollar”.