The following press release shows that the Indian justice system is working together with foreign authorities for stopping Tech Support Scammers. For call centers has it coming more difficult to run such sham campaigns. On the one site they are getting scammed by buying he calls and on the other site the prosecutors are taking action against them. The case shows that victims of such a scam get at least the satisfaction that the scammers are ending up together with their landlords in jail.
Press release of the Prosecutor Osnabrück/Germany from September 5, 2016:
The Osnabrück Prosecutor's Office and the state criminal police in Hannover determine for some time against a group of online fraudsters who apparently operate from India.
The perpetrators explain in English that the user's computer is infected with a virus, the license expired, or the computer other problems having, and they provide the repair of the computer, the renewal of the license or the purchase of a security program to. Certain data from the computer are received from the callers, so that the victim believes that his PC was infected tat neuter. The perpetrators cause then the called one to download a remote control program that allows access to the computer. After allegedly made repairs, the alleged renewal of the license or the alleged uploading of a security program, the offender require a relatively small amount of money via online bank transfer. Once the called one has entered its financial data in a mask, increase the perpetrators the amount of money unnoticed. Victims are asked to pay before the repair amounts between € 180 and 250 by specifying the credit card number or bank transfer via Western Union. In a number of cases it is to get such payments.
In fact, the computer was never infected and in no case the license has been expired.
Refused the called one to pay at all or so much money, the perpetrators delete numerous data on the computer. In some cases, the computer got locked with a password.
The group opering this scam, the so-called Microsoft Technical Support calls, is a global player. In Niedersachsen, Germany, previously could 779 victims got determined. In whole of Germany at least 7647 people got scammed. This is however only to the so-called bright-field. The real figures will be much higher.
Very fast it became clear that the perpetrators are operating from call centers in India. A international search order took place in May 2016 due to a search warrant of the District Court Osnabrück/Germany and Calcutta in India. At this search was attended by a prosecutor of the Prosecutor Osnabrück from the central office the fight against cybercrime three very experienced officers from the fields of investigation of the State Criminal Office Hannover, legal assistance and technology part. Cooperation with the police officers in India has been very successful. The Cybercrime special police in Calcutta and the Cybercrime nationality-violence in Calcutta supported the German colleagues intensively and competently through international legal assistance. In one of the searched during Operation Call Center 250 work places were found, from which the fraudulent calls got carried out.
According to the investigators fraudulent calls from all workplaces got carried out. The individual call centers were put out of service, all computers got seized. This had an impact on the number of noticeably cases: Immediately after the search, the criminal charges were very noticeably reduced and they have since not significantly risen since this time. According to the investigators, the call centers have been an important base of operations for the fraudulent calls.
7 accused are in India in prison. From these are 2 persons landlords of call centers and the other 5 are their operators. Prosecutors in Calcutta has opened a so-called mirror case and charged based on the information from the German authorities before an Indian court against the perpetrators.