From CNET: In India, a hub for tech support centers, a rise in scams forced Microsoft and the police to take action.
Scammers based in the suburbs of New Delhi set up fake centers, from which they sent out alerts and called people to say their computers had been infected with a nonexistent virus, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Most people ignored the efforts to contact them, but those who didn't were offered services costing between $100 and $1,000 to fix the purported problem. Most of the victims were American or Canadian, the Times noted.
Microsoft and cops in the city traced the fake support centers' locations, resulting in 16 raids and around 36 arrests on Tuesday and Wednesday. In October, 10 similar raids brought about 24 arrests.
The company earlier this year acknowledged that such scams are a growing problem, saying its customer support services received 153,000 scam reports from customers around the world in 2017.
The scams are helped in part by India's vibrant outsourcing industry, which has brought in call centers from countries around the world. The legit side rakes in about $28 billion in annual revenue and employs about 1.2 million people, the Times noted, but equips some with the experience needed to set up fake centers.
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