Cyber expert team pose as fake Microsoft representatives, 12 held!

A highly trained cyber technical expert Team in Gurugram used to offer fake technical support and were grabbed by police yesterday. They sent pop up messages with the name of a fake call center banner to hundreds of people abroad, and tempted them to belive that their systems had been infected by malware or virus, and then proposed as Microsoft Representatives to undergo service and thus charged money by offering technical support.

They have acquired a number of IP address, email ids and other details of people living in foreign contries, from the dark web (A mass collection of websites which are not visible on browser). They hacked into peoples' computers, laptops or any internet driven devices, and sent them pop-up messages covering the screen. The message showed Warning Message of infected malware which may lead to security risk, described as "If not repaired immediately, the system may be at risk or hacked which may in turn a loss of financial or personal data." Thus the pop-up message covers the full screen, locking the user’s system completely. And when the flapped user call the hotline number given on the pop up message, they fall into the trap. These calls are landed at these people of these fake call centers. Then they made them convinced and by committing for proper technical support, they charged money for the service. As per police report the exact amount of transaction of this scam is not confirmed, yet it is guessed that several crores of rupees from targets in US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia were duped.

The crackdown was launched based on a complaint filed at sector 18 police station by Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. Crime branch ACP Shamsher Singh said these fake call centers were in Udyog Vihar, Sushant Lok and sectors 10,18, 32, 44, and 49. "More raids and arrests are expected following interrogation of those arrested," he added.

The person behind the allegation made clear that these type of activities is happening by posing Microsoft Representatives in India and thus influencing customers with fake assurance of technical supports.

After the preliminary investigation, the police said that they targeted peoples' computers and laptops and other internet enabled devices, and transmitted viruses as well. Most of these 12 youths are arrested under section 415 (Cheating), 416 (Cheating by impersonation), 419 (Cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating and dishonesty including delivery and property) of IPC and other sections of Indian Act.