Noida Police on Thursday arrested 23 people for allegedly duping customers of Microsoft and Apple around the world by impersonating as the companies’ tech support experts. A police team raided the call centres in Eco-tech, Sector-20 and Sector-58 of Noida after a tip-off.
Police said the accused were targeting users of Microsoft Windows and Apple by fraudulently popping up a message on their screen stating that their systems have been hit by malware and offered solution services and charged victims $100-500.
Explaining their modus operandi, Senior Superintendent of Police Ajaypal Sharma said they used to persuade the customer to allow them remote access to their computers to diagnose the problems.
23 held in Noida for running fake Apple, Microsoft centres
These centres trick the consumer into believing the computer has serious malware infections,” said the SSP.
“Stressing the risks to the consumer’s financial security as a result of the infections, the centres then sells a service, often a costly long-term subscription agreement, to fix the non-existent problem. Though these fake call centres primarily aim to sell a bogus service to fix a non-existent problem, they sometimes also remotely access financial and identity data from the consumer’s computer while “fixing” the problem and even install malware into the consumer’s computer,” said the SSP.
