Slashdot Mirror
How A Massive India Call Center Swindled 15,000 Americans (nytimes.com)
An FBI agent based in India says the country has now become a major hub for call-center fraud, blaming "a demographic bulge of computer-savvy, young, English-speaking job seekers; a vast call-center culture; super-efficient technology; and what can only be described as ingenuity." The Justice Depatment recently indicted one company for scamming "hundreds of millions of dollars" from over 15,000 victims, placing more than 1.8 million phone calls to Americans, and Slashdot reader retroworks brings an update:
The New York Times has an interesting blow-by-blow story on two India tech center employees who informed on their call center fraud operation, which targeted Americans (especially recent immigrants) with fraudulent IRS calls and other scams. [May be paywalled; free version here.] The building was surrounded by police, phone lines cut. Eventually 630 of the employees were released, and charges were brought against 70 managers and executives of the call center.
The operation filled a seven-story high-rise, and the Times reports that after the raid, "fraudulent IRS calls to Americans dropped 95% percent, according to the Better Business Bureau." But they add that one former employee believes the scams will continue. Within weeks of the raid, he'd been offered a nearly identical job: calling Americans and claiming that their computer was infected with a virus.
The operation filled a seven-story high-rise, and the Times reports that after the raid, "fraudulent IRS calls to Americans dropped 95% percent, according to the Better Business Bureau." But they add that one former employee believes the scams will continue. Within weeks of the raid, he'd been offered a nearly identical job: calling Americans and claiming that their computer was infected with a virus.
Sometimes the tables are turned. This is hilarious and sad. I can't decide how to feel about it, honestly.
I feel bad for people who fall for it, but the two times I was called for similar grifting, it was a hilarious fun conversation.
"Old man yells at systemd"
The insidious ones now popping up are really clever IVR calls with recorded voices of a perky white woman (sometimes man) with a generic accent. She giggles, pauses, apologizes for the delay claiming phone problems and then asks if I can hear her ok.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but isn't the FBI restricted to US jurisdiction? I grew up with the understanding that they were basically a domestic police force on the national level.
I'm assuming I am mistaken, please feel free to give me further understanding on how the FBI can be in India.
"charges were brought against 70 managers and executives of the call center. " How refreshing that the suits got charged. Maybe the FBI can learn how to do that in the US.
That may be very well, but they don't have any authority to operate outside the US in a foreign country as a law enforcement agency, unless that country ascribes them the authority - the FBI arresting someone in India would be simple kidnapping, and the agents involved would be committing a crime.
So its not debatable at all - the crime here (fraud) is still being committed in India, while simultaneously being committed in the US. That doesn't mean the FBI can fly to India and arrest someone - however, many police forces have attachments with foreign forces, embedding their own agents in other countries forces and legally gaining the same powers of the local police force.
Many of my clients are older people who simply wouldn't know tech savvy if you drowned them in it.
A while back, one of my clients' wives calls us and tells us he's on the phone with this tech support company in India and they're asking for several hundred dollars to remove a virus.
I told her to pull their cablemodem out of the wall and then hang up with the guy. Don't even discuss it with her husband (as it'd give the guy from "wherever" a chance to do something to the machine).
Once he was disconnected I had him hang up and explained the scam to him, while the call center guy tried calling back.
I then pointed out that he already had both Kaspersky Antivirus and Malwarebytes on there.
And on the off chance he was infected, I had him pull down a bootable rescue CD and scan that way.
Saved him several hundred bucks and possibly getting his machine infected.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
That may work for you. For me, though, unfortunately, both my manager and my star developer are Indian. I can't just hang up on an Indian accent. :) Then again, I can recognise their voices pretty easily by now, so any other Indian accent, sure. :)
My bank outsourced to an indian call center and the next time I called them for something I asked where I was calling. The guy evaded my questions so I dropped my account of 20+ years to a bank that uses local people. I have to wait a tiny bit longer for them to answer but they actually answer my questions. So long CIBC.
They'll clean your bank account for you absolutely free!
Just tell them that you'll 'revert back' to them. You can't go wrong
... for any bank with CC outside the US because I am afraid of identity theft.
That's not too bad a return rate for a scam.
Therefore the scamming will continue.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"