Illegal Call Centres, Phishing Gangs In India Cause $10 Billion Loss To Americans: Report

Illegal call centres, and phishing gangs, running romance-related fraud and fake 'tech support' pop-ups out of India have caused losses of up to $3 billion to gullible, senior citizens living in the US this year, according to data recently released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Overall, call centre and phishing-related fraud cases have resulted in losses amounting close to $10 billion in the past 11 months alone. This is an increase of 47 per cent when compared to data from 2021.

To counter such activities that defraud senior US citizens of their life savings, the FBI has appointed a permanent representative at the US Embassy in New Delhi. The representative will coordinate with the Interpol, Delhi Police and the CBI to bust the thriving online criminal gangs. They will also work towards freezing the money that has been through wire or cryptocurrencies to the digital criminals operating out of India.

Most of the victims in such cases are people over 60 years of age, the Times of India has quoted Suhel Daud, FBI's legal attache in India, as saying. Daud, who oversees FBI operations in India and other South Asian countries, also reportedly said, "It may not be a national security concern yet, but reputation (of a country) is involved, and we don’t want India to suffer on that count."

Daud added that the FBI’s website for reporting internet-related crimes has registered 7.8 lakh complaints in 2022 (until November) and that the losses related to these complaints amount to $10.2 billion. The top biggest causes are investment-related scams, fake business promises, personal data breach, romance-related fraud and fake tech-support.

Presently, India is gathering a growing disrepute of housing many fake tech-support activities and romance-related internet fraud.