New Delhi: The CBI has conducted a nationwide sweep at 72 locations in connection with two cases involving individuals who allegedly masqueraded as technical support representatives for tech giants Microsoft and Amazon to defraud foreign nationals, ThePrint has learnt.
Searches were also carried out in three other cases related to a “cryptocurrency fraud” involving companies having Chinese links, CBI sources said.
The searches were carried out in multiple states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh, as well as Delhi. They were part of the CBI’s “Operation Chakra 2”, aimed to “combat and dismantle organised cyber-enabled financial crimes,” an officer in the agency said.
The operation, the officer added, was conducted in collaboration with national and international agencies, including the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), alongside Microsoft and Amazon.
According to a CBI source, Microsoft conducted a year-long investigation in the initial two cases, which revealed nine India-based companies “impersonating the tech giant and deceiving foreign nationals from the UK and the US”.
Microsoft’s inquiry, it is learnt, uncovered that six of these companies were also fraudulently using Amazon’s identity. The two tech giants subsequently collaborated to gather relevant data and jointly filed a formal complaint with the CBI, instigating a comprehensive investigation.
“These nine companies or call centres were big establishments with big operations that were also paying income tax,” the source said.
“These were being operated from India and were identified. Following the information from the tech giants, the searches were conducted,” the source added.
These companies, the source said, have a very “well-oiled network” even in the UK and the US, from where they received the data of their potential targets.
“The companies based abroad provided data on foreign nationals to the companies in India and, from here, they carried out their operation,” the source added.
“They would call these nationals pretending to be from Amazon and Microsoft and provide tech support. Using malware, they would then corrupt their systems and take money to fix the bug. Many people were defrauded,” the source said.
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‘Cryptocurrency fraud’
In the other three cases related to the alleged cryptocurrency fraud, Indian nationals were defrauded of close to Rs 100 crore through a mobile application called ‘HPZ Tokens’.
According to CBI sources, HPZ Tokens enticed and cheated users by promising large gains against investment in mining machines for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
HPZ Tokens, the sources said, had on its website fraudulently used the image and name of Indian-American crypto-technologist and former Coinbase (cryptocurrency exchange) chief technology officer (CTO) Balaji Sriniviasan without his knowledge or consent, in order to gain the trust and confidence of prospective investors.
The people running the company falsely promised the investors that the money they invested would be used to buy mining machines for mining of cryptocurrencies, and that they would be receiving gains against the sale of such cryptocurrency, the sources said.
The money that was received was put in shell companies, whose directors were found to be based in China, the sources added.
“This audacious scheme, under the guise of a fake crypto-mining operation, targeted unsuspecting Indian citizens, resulting in a staggering loss of over Rs 100 crore to Indian victims,” a statement released by the CBI said.
“The CBI’s relentless pursuit of justice ensures that those responsible for this reprehensible act will face the full force of the law,” it added.
‘Mobiles seized, accounts frozen — international investigation’
The CBI operation lasted one week, and led to the seizure of 32 mobile phones, 48 laptops and hard disks, images of two servers, 33 SIM cards, and pen drives, the first CBI source quoted above said.
Numerous bank accounts were also frozen as part of the operation, the source added.
The CBI also seized a dump of 15 email accounts that “shed light on the intricate web of deceit spun by the accused”, the officer said.
According to the officer, based on evidence gathered during Operation Chakra 2, law-enforcement agencies internationally are being notified about the details of the victims identified.
Moreover, details of the shell companies used to route funds and the “proceeds of crime”, along with those of the co-accused individuals and companies based in the US and UK, have also been shared with the agencies concerned.
The officer said the CBI is working closely with its international counterparts, including the FBI, the Cybercrime Directorate and Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre of INTERPOL, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the Singapore Police Force, and the BKA (Federal Criminal Police Office) of Germany, to notify further leads.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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