Around two dozen men have been arrested for allegedly defrauding people by sending fake messages warning that their computers were infected and offering to fix the problem at a price, the Noida police said on Thursday.
Gautam Buddh Nagar SSP Ajay Pal Sharma said the accused, who were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday, posed as representatives of Microsoft and other companies by using their logos. The accused, who are in their 20s and 30s, quit their jobs with call centres. The arrests were made after inputs from the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Interpol, Mr. Sharma said. Microsoft was the complainant in the case, he added.
Modus operandi
The pop-up messages prompted victims in the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries to call a phone number shown on their computer screens, he said. They would then be scammed out of money in exchange for supposedly fixing the problem. The police said they have recovered hard drives, servers, laptops, cellphones and computers from the accused.
In 2016, Mumbai police had arrested 70 people for allegedly cheating thousands of Americans. They would call their victims from call centres in Mumbai and tell them that they owed unpaid taxes and should buy prepaid cash cards to settle the debts or face jail.
