The CBI has registered a case against six private companies based at New Delhi, Jaipur (Rajasthan), Noida (UP) and Gurugram (Haryana) and other unknown persons on a complaint alleging that these companies have transmitted pop ups to the victims’ personal computers with warnings/bogus messages about serious technical problems including malware infection in their Microsoft Windows Systems.

The agency on Thursday conducted searches at 10 locations including Jaipur, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad and Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) at the premises of the accused companies and the residential premises of other related persons.

“The employees of these companies allegedly advised the victims to install certain anti-malwares or anti-virus, which are essentially PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs). The victims were allegedly given the option to activate PUPs by paying the fee online or by calling a support number advertised in the interface of the program. The victims are fraudulently influenced in this manner and allegedly fall in their trap to maintain their systems properly,” the CBI said in a statement.

It was also alleged that the victims were made to pay online by clicking the link on the interface for resolving the non-existent problem or when they ask the call centres to seek resolution of the fake problems, it further said.

The accused firms are Softwill Infotech Private Limited, New Delhi, Innovana Thinklabs Limited, Jaipur, Benovellient Technologies Private Limited, Noida, Systweak Software Private Limited, Jaipur, Saburi TLC Worldwide Services Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi and Saburi Global Services Pvt Ltd, Gurugram. Some other unknown persons have also been mentioned as accused in the FIR.