Noida Police bust international computer virus scam

Those arrested were mostly people in their 20s and early 30s who quit their jobs in call centres, Noida Police officer Ajay Pal Sharma said.

Policemen escort alleged fraudsters to be presented before media at a police station in Noida on November 29, 2018.

Noida Police have said that that they have arrested nearly two dozen people on suspicion of defrauding people around the world by sending fake pop-up messages warning them that their computers were infected with a virus and offering to rectify the problem at a price.

Noida Police officer Ajay Pal Sharma said those arrested on November 27 and November 28 posed as representatives of Microsoft and other companies and used their logos. The arrests were made after input from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, Mr. Sharma said. Microsoft was the complainant in the case.

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.

Policemen carry seized computer hardware and other items after a press conference at a police station in Noida on November 29, 2018.

 

Those arrested were mostly people in their 20s and early 30s who quit their jobs in call centres. Police recovered hard drives, servers, laptops, cellphones and computers from them, Mr. Sharma said.

Alleged fraudsters are presented before the media at a police station in Noida on November 29, 2018.

 

In 2016, 70 people were arrested in Mumbai 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.