Tech support scam: CBI busts illegal call centres cheating Japanese citizens; arrests 6

New Delhi, May 29 (PTI) The CBI has arrested six individuals and dismantled two illicit call centres for allegedly defrauding Japanese nationals through sophisticated technical support scams, officials said on Thursday.

The scammers defrauded victims of over Japanese Yen 2.03 crore, posing as Microsoft and Apple representatives.

Under Operation 'Chakra V' -- part of an ongoing nationwide crackdown on cybercrime -- the CBI collaborated closely with Japan's National Police Agency and Microsoft to trace and identify the perpetrators and their locations.

"This collaborative international engagement proved critical in identifying the perpetrators and tracing the operational structure of the syndicates, ultimately leading to the successful crackdown in India," the CBI said in a statement.

Upon identifying the syndicate’s operational bases, the CBI teams carried out coordinated raids at 19 sites across Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. These raids resulted in the arrest of six suspects and the neutralisation of two call centres masquerading as legitimate customer support hubs. The arrested were identified as Ashu Singh from Delhi, Kapil Ghakhar from Panipat, Rohit Maurya from Ayodhya, and Shubham Jaiswal, Vivek Raj, and Adarsh Kumar from Varanasi.

"The syndicate operated call centres designed to appear as legitimate customer service centres, through which victims were deceived into believing that their electronic devices were compromised,” a CBI spokesperson said, adding that victims were coerced under this pretext into transferring funds into mule accounts. The CBI received information about four specific incidents, between April and July 2024, in which Japanese citizens were targeted using a common modus operandi.

A pop-up alert would flash on their computers, falsely claiming a virus and instructing them to contact a provided phone number. In a state of panic, victims dialled the number, only to be connected to scammers based in India posing as Microsoft or Apple representatives.

The con artists employed various deceptive techniques to cheat victims, including gaining remote access to their computers and bank accounts and pushing fake gift cards to siphon funds. In one case, the gang cheated a resident of Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo Prefecture, of over JPY 2 crore, by accessing his computer and obtaining his banking passwords to siphon off money. It was then converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to multiple wallets. Three other incidents were reported about Japanese victims being deceived using fraudulent pop-ups, leading to the purchase of fake gift cards worth Japanese Yen 330,000.

The proceeds were illicitly funnelled to the syndicate. The CBI was also informed that the Japanese spoken by the scammers was markedly "unnatural and non-fluent," with audible background chatter in Hindi and calls traced to Indian phone codes.

"Source based on analysis of malicious URLs used in fraudulent pop-ups, and the IP addresses used to subscribe to hosting platforms, informed that they trace to India," the CBI FIR said. The analysis pointed to two individuals from Delhi -- Manmeet Singh Basra of Sector 5, RK Puram, and Jiten Harchand of UGF Chhatarpur Enclave -- as key orchestrators of the scam.

They allegedly managed target lead generation and facilitated payment routing, while providing technological infrastructure for the scam operators. Harchand was also allegedly responsible for channelling the funds and was associated with multiple Skype IDs used in the fraud. Between July and December 2024, 94 malicious URLs were discovered to be operated via a single device associated with Indian IP addresses. These URLs generated pop-up messages in Japanese to ensnare unsuspecting victims. Three Microsoft accounts tied to this device were traced to Rohit Maurya of Alawalpur, Faizabad—arrested in Ayodhya—who was allegedly aided by accomplice Adarsh Pandey (alias Saurabh Pandey) of Katra Goshaiganj, Ayodhya. Both allegedly used these accounts to exploit victims, the FIR added. During the operation, the CBI also arrested another suspect, Shubham Jaiswal, from Varanasi. A resident of Prayagraj, Jaiswal's phone number was linked to a Skype ID, which in turn was found to be linked to phone numbers displayed on the fraudulent pop-ups. "Metadata of his Microsoft Account, including multi-factor authentication, account recovery information, common IP addresses etc., indicate that he is part of a larger group involved in perpetrating frauds with Japanese nationals under the guise of technical assistance. Shubham Jaiswal maintains numerous Microsoft accounts that serve as digital infrastructure for fraudulent operations," the FIR stated. Sources claim Jaiswal is operating a call centre in an organised manner, to target and dupe the Japanese victims, it added. The searches resulted in the seizure of a trove of digital evidence, devices and documents "indicative of the large-scale operations of the syndicate. Preliminary analysis confirms that the scam leveraged advanced social engineering techniques and technical subterfuge to manipulate victims and extract money under false pretences. PTI ABS ABS MPL MPL MPL