Tech support fraud: Enforcement Directorate arrests man in Rs 134 crore scam targeting American citizens

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested one person in connection with a Rs 134 crore ($15 million) scam involving illegal call centres that duped US nationals, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

The call centres operated from the Delhi NCR region, and the accused - charged with money-laundering - has been identified as Chandra Prakash Gupta.

He was arrested on December 13, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said.

Gupta, a key accused in tech support frauds involving the impersonation of technical service providers, was absconding since July 2024 following CBI raids, leading to the issuance of a non-bailable warrant against him, the agency said.

The ED has identified assets worth over Rs 100 crore belonging to the alleged gang that operated these call centres, scamming American citizens under the guise of tech support.

The illegal call centres operated from Noida and Gurugram, where employees defrauded US nationals through deceptive pop-up alert messages that mimicked official Microsoft security notifications, an ED spokesperson said.

When victims called the phone numbers displayed on the messages, it connected them to the illegal call centres where the gang, impersonating as a tech support team of Microsoft, gained complete control of their computers through remote access software, the official said.

After gaining access to victims' devices, the gang extracted financial and personal information, including bank details, according to the spokesperson.

Preying on victims' fear and confusion, the accused induced them to wire money from their personal bank accounts to the accounts falsely described as being under the control of the Federal Reserve. The victims were told that this would safeguard the funds from "imminent hacking threats".

"The proceeds of crime were wire-transferred to bank accounts in Hong Kong, converted into cryptocurrencies, and later liquidated into fiat currency. These funds were subsequently layered back into the accounts of the accused and their companies through multiple shell entities with the assistance of various operators," the ED said.

The agency's probe shows that between November 2022 and April 2024, the accused persons cheated victims of approximately USD 15 million.

The Directorate had taken over the case based on a CBI FIR registered under the Indian Penal Code and IT Act, it said.

The ED had conducted searches at 10 locations across Delhi-NCR on December 19 and 20, linked to the masterminds and associates of the scam, resulting in the seizure of jewellery worth approximately Rs 1.75 crore, cash exceeding Rs 10 lakh, four high-end vehicles, eight luxury watches, digital devices and incriminating documents.

Other members of the gang -- identified as Arjun Gulati, Abhinav Kalra and Divyansh Goel -- are still absconding, the ED said.

"During the searches, over 220 bottles of expensive liquor, far exceeding the permissible residential limit, were also recovered from multiple premises. The matter was reported to the State Excise Department, and FIRs were registered as per the law. Further investigation in the case is ongoing," the agency spokesperson said.