A huge fraud that defrauded thousands of Americans and Canadians over the course of a decade under the guise of offering remote tech support was exposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the help of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Delhi Police.
In connection with a global technical assistance fraud that preyed on over 20,000 victims—many of them senior citizens—in the United States and Canada, five men were charged in an indictment. A woman, who was based in New Jersey, pleaded guilty too, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice. More than $10 million was made from the fraud network.
US Attorney Thanks Delhi Police & CBI
Vikash Gupta (33) of Faridabad, Haryana, Jayant Bhatia (33) of Ontario, Canada, and Gagan Lamba (41) of Delhi have all been charged with substantive breaches of wire fraud and computer fraud as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud in the indictment. Additionally charged with money laundering and related offenses are Gagan, Harshad, Jayant, and one Kulwinder Singh (age 34), all of New York.
On December 14, Harshad and Vikas were both taken into custody on suspicion of participating in the “tech support” operation. Kulwinder was detained in New York before being released on a $1 lakh unsecured bond. Meghna Kumar, the accused, has pleaded guilty, The Hindu reported. While the Canadian police detained Jayant at the request of their American counterparts, Gagan has not yet been detained.
US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger expressed his gratitude to the Delhi Police and CBI for helping them make the arrests.
How Was Tech Support Scam Operated?
The statement by the US Department of Justice said that the accused acquired access to victims’ personal computers. It continued, “They frequently prey upon senior citizens and scare them into paying for unnecessary and useless computer repair services.”
The main goal was to deceive the victims into thinking that their computers were infected with a virus or other malware so that they would then be persuaded to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for repair services.
Describing the gang’s modus operandi, the statement said that they made “fraudulent pop-up windows” appear on the victims’ personal computers. Sometimes, these pop-ups were intended to “lock” or freeze the victims’ computers, thus preventing them from utilizing or accessing their data. Additionally, the pop-ups deceptively stated that the victims’ PCs were compromised or infected with a virus and instructed them to call a phone number for technical support. The victims who contacted the numbers were linked to one or more of the gang’s affiliated call centers in India.
The gang members receiving the call would persuade the victims to grant them remote access to their computers. They would then download and use a free “adblocker” tool before claiming to have fixed the problem and billing the victims for large amounts.
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