Tech support scams are becoming increasingly common nowadays, in which people pose as official representatives from a company and in the process of apparently "fixing" an issue in your device or software, harm it. Just last month, over 3,000 tech support scams were spotted on Microsoft"s TechNet websites.
According to a new report, 24 people have been arrested in India for impersonating Microsoft support officials in fake call centers.
NDTV reports that a complaint against these dubious call centers in the Cyber Crime Cell was filed by Microsoft India representative Nripendra Kashyap. The executive claimed that multiple Delhi-based companies were falsely claiming to be Microsoft support branches, and were promoting false security issues, offering to "fix" them for any sum between $100 and $500.
According to the report, these call centers were still actively operating when the raid took place, and material seized included tech support training documents, fake checks in the name of Microsoft Tech support, call recordings and their transcripts, among other things.
Microsoft India claims that their customers, who called these call centers under the impression that they were contacting Microsoft, were directed to webpages where they would be bombarded by pop-up warnings that their computer was under threat from a virus. The tech support scammer would then request remote access to the machine to "fix" the problem, and would then enroll them in a costly subscription program so that this alleged virus wouldn"t bother them again.
The police further states that sometimes these scammers accessed the caller"s identity and financial information, and in extreme cases, also install malware on the computers that were remotely using. An active investigation is underway against these tech support scammers, with the 24 people still under arrest.
Source: NDTV