Cyber Crime
CBI Registers FIR Against Tech Support Fraud Call Centers Following Complaints from Amazon and Microsoft
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against 10 call centers following complaints from global e-commerce leader Amazon and IT giant Microsoft, accusing them of defrauding customers by offering fake technical support and enticing them with offers for plan upgrades, officials revealed on Saturday.
The CBI registered the FIR based on a complaint from Microsoft, with five of the call centers also being implicated in a separate case filed by Amazon, according to officials.
These two cases were initially registered on October 4 of the previous year but have only recently been made public by order of a special court.
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The call centers in question allegedly charged foreign customers by pretending to offer technical assistance when they attempted to activate devices like Amazon’s Fire Stick, the officials stated.
In Microsoft’s case, the perpetrators reportedly sent ‘pop-up’ messages to victims, urging them to call a number to address a supposed threat to their computers. Once the customers called, the call center operators allegedly defrauded them.
In Amazon’s case, the operators are accused of charging victims for phony technical support when they tried to activate devices such as the Fire Stick.