MS sues Indian firm for technical support scam

Some international fraudsters are exploiting the tech-savvy reputation of Indians to trick computer users into giving them access to their machines by pretending to be from Microsoft.

Now the technology giant is fighting back suing several companies, including an Indian one, alleging they falsely claimed to be Microsoft-affiliated technical support.

“In its first big strike against technical support scamming companies, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in the central district of California against Omnitech Support and related entities for unfair and deceptive business practices and trademark infringement,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

One of the companies named in the case filed recently is C-Cubed Solutions Private Limited, which the court papers said is “a private business company formed under the laws of India” that operates the mail server through which “fraudulent technical support businesses communicate with customers”.

Microsoft’s suit said that 3.3 million Americans fall victim to technical support scams every year and lose $1.5 billion.

Microsoft has received over 65,000 complaints about such scams since May.