Con call centres thrive in shadow of BPO boom

India’s booming business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is synonymous with the country’s economic surge and employs more than a million but is potentially being hollowed out by scams and fraud businesses thriving in the absence of strong regulation and oversight.

Many such outfits operate a stone’s throw from major companies in places such as Gurgaon, Pune and Bengaluru but are difficult to pin down because the victims are foreigners who can’t file police complaints in India, and the firms are often run out of flats or nondescript locations by a handful of people.

HT investigated one such Gurgaon-based call centre running a lucrative fraud in so-called tech support, one of the many forms of cyber scams that threaten to undermine India’s credibility as the world’s back office and make it a notorious centre of fraud.

Past and present employees of Saburi TLC say their brief was to cheat customers into believing their computers were at a virus or hacking risk until they bought security solutions that cost hundreds of dollars. “We know there are no viruses. User ko to nahi pata (the user has no idea),” said Anshul (name changed), an employee. Testimonies of victims float on the internet, in tech blogs, chat rooms and even with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the United States’ consumer protection agency that investigated several Indian BPOs for fraud.

Saburi TLC’s chief Anuj Jain denies all allegations. “Some of our ex-employees impersonate us, which is why you see the complaints,” Jain tells HT. But an HT investigation and interviews with former and present employees reveal a darker side of the 550employee company.

Experts say the charges against Saburi TLC are the tip of an iceberg of rot in India’s showcase industry.

THE EMPLOYEES’ SOLE BRIEF WAS TO CHEAT PEOPLE INTO BELIEVING THEIR SYSTEMS WERE AT RISK UNTIL THEY BOUGHT SOLUTIONS

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