Experts go to India to stop ‘Microsof t’ scam

Irish office to play role in catching cyber-criminals

MICROSOFT investigators have flown from Dublin to India to meet police following the arrest of suspects who allegedly impersonated Microsoft employees as part of a ransomware scam.

Expert investigators from Ireland and Singapore gave a detailed PowerPoint presentation about the scam – which has plagued the tech company for years – at Gurugram police commissioner’s office

Also at the meeting were expert Indian cyber-crime officers from the police station involved in the investigation.

During the meeting, police were told that call centres in India were duping people from Ireland and 14 other Englishspeaking countries, while pretending to be from Microsoft.

Microsoft reported to Indian police that it had been receiving complaints from users across the globe that they were targeted by online frauds who first introduced a malware into their computer system and then offered assistance, claiming to be Microsoft employees.

They directed the users to contact call centres and then prompted them to up to €1,000 to have the supposed virus removed from their computer.

‘By getting remote access to victims’ computers, the accused stole data, identity and transmitted viruses to users’ systems,’ Microsoft said in its official complaint to Indian police, lodged in November 27.

The Microsoft complaint states that the gang purchased data of foreign citizens through online agents or from Delhibased vendors. The police are trying to identify these vendors.

‘The money extorted from users and customers gets transmitted through hawala and is used in other illegal activities around the world,’ the Microsoft complaint had alleged.

The hawala system leaves no electronic trace. A person in one city simply deposits money with a broker and the equivalent amount is picked up from a broker in another location.

The investigation also revealed that, in some cases, the fraudsters transferred money through gift vouchers and later converted it into dollars.

Assistant commissioner of police, Shamsher Singh, told the Hindustan Times: ‘We were already handling some cases in which call centre operators had duped citizens of different countries.

‘They were operating out of small rooms in different areas of the city. They used to hack the systems and send across a popup [notification], saying that their system was either infected with a virus or malware.

He said: ‘The notification contained a contact number and once the user got in touch with the accused, they would claim to be from the Microsoft technical support team and charge the customers for making their system virus free.’

Several international investigation agencies are now involved, including the FBI, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Interpol.

The police in Gurugram, which is on the outer edges of New Delhi, have since formed eight teams of police officials to investigate.

On November 27, raids were carried out in eight locations, , resulting in several arrests.

Investigations are under way to determine the identity of those behind the scam.

alison.oreilly@dailymail.ie

‘They operated out of small rooms’