I have to admit, almost all of my true crime stories posted in this blog are about some of the grisliest cases the humanity has ever seen. Some are real tearjerkers; others make the readers go seething mad. But what makes those stories common are it focuses on particular individuals doing what the others describe as the most depraved behavior a human being can commit. And in this one, for the first time ever, I am not focusing on a certain case or an individual, but a country and a series of organized criminal activity that is so common it became an industry in and on itself.
First of all, what are the first thing that come across your mind when I mention the country of India? For movie maniacs, Bollywood sprung up to mind, as this industry is basically India's pride and joy. Many actors, actresses, and celebrities we all came to know, and love came from this Indian equivalent of Hollywood, California. Some might say their cuisine, which is perhaps the most rich and vibrant cuisine in the world. I can't resist a good plate of curry when I see one. In fact, I recently came across an Indian restaurant here in Jakarta, and they serve the best butter chicken in town.
Unfortunately, those two are not what this piece is about. This one is about an underground industry, probably the biggest one in India, which specialize themselves as online call center scams. Yes. For the first time ever, I'm writing a true crime story about a fraud case of some sort. This one is about taking advantage of others posing as a tech support officer for major companies. But why online scams are heavily connected to India? Other countries could be on the same shady industry as this one, right? The reality is most of these scams involving someone with an Indian accent, and thanks to India's outsourcing boom during the early 2000s, most of us associate Indian workforce, or at least most of them, as those who are typically employed at some call centers for major companies, mostly for tech support. When the outsourcing market began to shift outside India, some who still in the business began setting up several call centers, real or fake as the means of extension for their companies. And this is where the online scam industry began to prosper in places such as Gurgaon, Calcutta, Bangalore, or even the country's capital of New Delhi.
These call center scammers have their own modus of operandi, but they basically have the same premises, by posing as tech support officers in order to scam as many people as they can. And their victimology (sorry for the Criminal Minds reference there) is what makes my blood boil. They typically target overseas victims, mostly in either United States, Great Britain, or Australia, and predominately targets either senior citizen (age 65 and up. Sometimes, the scammer would hit a jackpot if the victim in question is suffering from a debilitating condition like dementia) or those who are technologically gullible. The way the scam is run is by posting fake ads, fake notifications or send bogus emails to the target, posing it as an official email from either Microsoft, Amazon, Norton, or other similar companies. The victim is required to call a tech support contact number inside those emails (which turns out to be the scammers'), and once connected, they are required by the scammers to install a remote sharing software (like AnyDesk or TeamViewer). This is one way for the scammers to gain access to their victim's computer and all the data stored inside it.
And from here, the story varies depending on the scammer's mode. It can be for a refund request, subscription cancellation, tech support, or purchases. Many of which involves the scammers promising refunds to the victims and gaining their trust, only for the victims to give all of their sensitive information, like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or even their bank access. From here, the scammers would guide their victims for their "refund" only to discover that the victim had put the wrong amount (in fact, it was the scammers who did this by taking control of their computers in the first place) and had to transfer the excess back to the scammers. The truth is, there is no such thing as excess refund, and the victims are tricked to believe it. And for the magnum opus, the victims are offered to pay the scammers using three ways: Ask them (read: force them) to withdraw cash from the nearest ATM and send the money to a specific address, wire online transfer or gift cards. For cash deliveries, those address the scammer claimed as the "support offices" is actually an address to a money mule planted somewhere around the country, be it US or UK. When the money mule receives the money, they took 20% off the scam money and ship the rest back to India.
It is estimated that this industry averages around US$ 1.000.000 to a whopping 18.000.000 a year. And all of this is achieved by draining unsuspecting victims' bank account, sometimes in the long run. The data extracted from the victims can be used by scammers to illegally purchase things that would benefit themselves and costing the victims more as it goes on. And by the time the victims realized that they are being scammed, it was all a second too late. And believe it or not, there are hierarchies to this business too. For starters, inside a call center scams, the call is received by an initiator, who by themselves alone, could make as big as US$ 7.000 a day. Once trust had been established, then the call is transferred to the "closer" who will "guide" the victims through the process of actually draining their savings without them noticing one bit. If the money is being transferred via a money mule, the mule would take 20% off the money that they fraudulently acquired and send the rest to their boss in India.
Despite the efforts to shut down these illegal activities, scam call centers continue to prosper due to corruption and the subsequent neglect by the Indian authorities, which is why, there is a phenomenon on the Internet, about some people who dedicated themselves to stop scammers with the art of scambaiting. As the name suggests, these people posed themselves as a potential victim, and proceed to wreak havoc on the scammers themselves. A lot of these scam baiters uses softwares like spoof bank accounts, virtual computers, voice changers, as well as the scammers' own techniques to deceive the scammers. Often times, making them susceptible to embarrassing information. Other scam baiters used their connection to the scammers to hack into the system and proceeded to expose them online by streaming their activities. This is typically accompanied with the deletion of the scammer's files, and in some extreme cases, planted the scammer's computer, and sometimes the entire server system with computer viruses or malwares, practically destroyed their system. If the scammer in question has a money mule, they would go and intercept the packages with the help of the freight couriers and law enforcements and confront the money mule face to face.
But this is not the limitations when it comes to scam baiters roaming around online. By tapping into the scammer's database, as shown on several YouTube channels like Scammer Payback or Trilogy Media, the baiters are able to intercept the calls from the victims to the scammers and redirected them to the baiters instead. Once the connection is established, the baiters then explain the situation to the victim and warn them for the potential scam should they go ahead with the scammer. Others, like a Northern Irishman who goes by the name of "Jim Browning" went as far as hacking into some scam call centers' security systems and spying on them, while doing what he does best, exposing and shutting down scam calls after scam calls. One of such instances, while collaborating with fellow YouTube personality, India-based Kiwi Karl Rock, with the aid of BBC's documentary program Panorama, resulted in a police raid and multiple arrests of one of the call centers Browning was spying on. Their channels, aside from providing us with quality content, could also serve as an education on online safety and how to recognize a potential online fraud.
In the end, no one wished that they would get scammed. I don't want to wish it to my worst enemies either. But what these people have done is robbing the victims of their savings, and consequently, their will to live. These scam baiters are doing everything they can to put a stop to this fraud, although temporarily. But as time goes on, the scammers might shut down for good. And for that reason and that reason only, scambaiting is the online vigilantism that I endorse wholeheartedly.
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