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After Microsoft Complaints, Indian Police Arrest Tech Support Scammers At 26 Call Centers (zdnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: New Delhi police have arrested 63 suspects in the last two months working and operating 26 call centers that were engaging in tech support scams, posing as tech support staff at Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other major tech companies. The raids on Delhi-based call centers have taken place over the last two months, Microsoft said. Police first raided 10 call centers and arrested 24 people in October, and then raided 16 other call centers and made 39 more arrests this week.

Microsoft said its staff received over 7,000 victim reports associated with the 16 call centers raided this week, from over 15 countries. Users reported paying between $100 and $500 for unnecessary tech support services and products. The raids resulted in the seizure of substantial evidence including call scripts, live chats, voice call recordings and customer records from tech support fraud operations, Microsoft said. The Delhi police's crackdown on tech support call centers came after Microsoft filed legal complaints earlier this year. Microsoft has been collecting customer complaints about tech support scams since 2014, via its "Report a technical support scam" portal.

14 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Fuck these assholes by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Preying on old people. They should all die in a fire.

    1. Re:Fuck these assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's harsh. One day you are going to be old too.

    2. Re:Fuck these assholes by froggyjojodaddy · · Score: 2

      That's a bit harsh. Old people DO have morals.

  2. I send them to Lenny by mindbender.ca · · Score: 4, Informative

    Like this one time time

  3. Re: Won't make a dent ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Caller ID is the shitty service. Demand they provide ANI or Billing number. Then you will know the real number.

    Of course, this service is only available with expensive leased lines right now, but if enough customers bitch, things can change.

  4. Re: Publicly execute them all slowly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you not the country that prides itself of not wanting a large government intervening in citizens affairs, and who prefers everything to be done by private companies?

  5. My Lenny bot will miss them by sedman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Having setup the Lenny bot on my phone switch for a way to deal with these guys, looks like it will be a while before I get to hear Lenny drive them to despair again. The last recording I got it sounded like the scammer was about to cry "Please sir, just turn on your computer...".

  6. Re:Great candidates for info warfare by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    Both of our governments could hit the potential labor pool pretty hard by having the Indian government extradite the offenders and then issue proclamations across their media that amount to a worst possible scenario under federal law.

    So, you're proposing the opposite of the "wall" idea to keep foreign immigrants out because they might be criminals: you're suggesting finding foreign criminals and importing them in.

    Punish them in our prisons and then send them back.

    A little reverse outsourcing there ;)

  7. Given the numbers by Crashmarik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can expect that to be good for a week or two, before they are replaced.

  8. Oh, that's why.... by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 2

    I didn't get my weekly 'This is Windows calling' phone call.

    --
    Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    1. Re:Oh, that's why.... by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      You'll zero my bank account? Really? For free? Oh boy, thank you! Could you also call the collection agency and tell them to stop sending those nasty letters, that would be swell.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Re:Not in India by LostOne · · Score: 4, Informative

    That turns out not to be true. Numerous scams have been traced to Indian sources. CBC Marketplace actually traced one group of scammers right to the actual physical call centre address. The relevant Indian police politely told them to piss off even though they had actual evidence.

    I suspect the actual reason action happened in this case is that Microsoft provided sufficient "consideration" which exceeded similar "consideration" from the scammers.

    --

    If it works in theory, try something else in practice.
  10. Re:Sure took them long enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How long have these scams being going on? Ten years?

    This will just be whack-a-mole, someone will undoubtedly resume this quite soon.

    Given that the same data centres in India are used for the scams as the 'legitimate' shit, there's just no way this is going to stop these kinds of scams.

    If they make money, they'll be back.

  11. Re: Won't make a dent ... by Big+Boss · · Score: 2

    Then require the US telcos to block all calls from international sources that do not enforce it on their end. They will get their shit in order real fast then. They can do it now, but they profit from not doing it. So turn it around on them. One fail and you're blocked for an hour. 4 for a day.

    While they are at it, tell Google to quit being dickbags and implement contact list whitelisting. Not in my contacts, direct to voicemail or dropped entirely at the user's discretion. Apple already does it, which tells me a fair bit about Google. I know we like to hate on Apple around here, with some good reasons, but Google is getting to be far worse.