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Synopsis: There
have always been tricksters and fraudulent people who took advantage of the
gullible and greedy people but now they have become more sophisticated because
they now use computers in call centers to scam people around the world. It has
become a multibillion dollar industry that shows no sign of abating. The blog
looks at their modus operandi and warns you to stay away from them.
As we see the development of the computer technology that has made it easy for anyone to send e mail messages, photos and videos or talk for free on Skype or Zoom to anyone anywhere anytime , we also notice a phenomenal rise in Cyber crime . It affects the older generation more than anyone else because they tend to be less computer savvy and have no idea how the computer works and how some bad people get hold of them and cajole them to reveal their credit card numbers or other sensitive bank data. They are called the cyber criminals who are mostly young meaning less than 30 years of age and who speak English fluently although with an accent.
It works like this. Just suppose you are an old woman in
California and you have a glitch with your computer so you click on a link for
the technical service of the manufacturer of your hardware and ask for their
help in resolving your problems. What you do not know is that clicking the link
will bring you to a website the cyber criminals operate somewhere in the world
and promise to solve your technical issues.
They will talk to you in a soothing and smart voice and
assure you that your problems will be solved if you answer a few questions and
provide some information about your credit card number or bank account number.
These criminals can see your screen and what you are typing so nothing is
hidden from them. They will also say that the service to solve your particular
problem will cost you 350 dollars or some such figure and ask if you are
willing to proceed. If you agree then they will deduct this amount from your
account within seconds.
If you have doubts about them because of their Un-American
accent and ask them who they are and from where they are calling, they will
tell you that they are located somewhere in California and they represent the
company that sold you the hardware.
What they will never tell you is that they are calling you
from a call center in India or the Philippines or some other location and they
are scammers who will empty your account as soon as you call them for their
service and they will vanish leaving no trace like a phantom. They are very
computer savvy people who know how to bait an old person who does not
understand how the Internet works and how they can see your screen, what you
are typing and what you look like. They do not represent any company that sold
you your computer but are experts in guiding you to their trap and gently
cajole you to reveal your sensitive information.
This type of cybercrime is committed daily to victimize
millions of people all over the world and has become a multibillion dollar
industry that keeps on growing but the authorities have a very difficult time
to catch them, arrest them and prosecute them because the policemen are not
well educated to understand the complexity of the technology so these fake call
centers are sprouting like mushrooms in big cities of India and the
Philippines.
They often say that the crime was committed in another
country so it is outside their jurisdiction or some such lame excuse. Believe
it or not, most people still do not understand how the Internet works and how
it connects to computers in other countries with blazing speed so these
criminals take advantage of the technology ignorance of their victims and
openly brag that the police will never catch them and prosecute them.
This crime is so lucrative for them that they say that just
in 24 hours they can earn enough money to last a month so now you can
understand why young people of both sexes are attracted to work in these
spurious call centers where they can make so much money just by making some
calls.
Many cyber criminals start out as legitimate technical
experts working for some big companies where they learn all the intricacies of
how various programs work and later open up their own illegal call centers to
work fulltime because they know that they cannot be caught easily or sent to
jail. With the money earned they move into posh residences, buy fancy cars and
other things but their greed for more money is insatiable.
There is a modern multistory glass and steel building in
the posh business district of Gurugram that is just near Delhi where the ground
and a few floors are occupied by the big technology companies who operate their
legitimate business but all the rest of the floors are filled with these fake
call centers reaping millions of dollars from their illegal activities. Such
call centers have sprouted in most of the big cities like Bengaluru, Kolkata,
Hyderabad and Mumbai just to name a few. They are very busy making calls in the
middle of the night when it is the daytime somewhere else in the world and use
late model computers and peripherals like cameras, high speed computers ,
modems and super sensitive microphones etc.
These call centers have also become vice centers where
young men and women come in close contact with each other day after day so the
biology starts to kick in when they are alone during the night. You can imagine
the rest. It is inevitable that at some point drugs and alcohol start flowing
as well.
Here is a video that explains it all in vivid details :
https://youtu.be/7CZReZ24-to
Source : U Tube video
Now the smart phones serve the same purpose as a personal
computer so you can use your phone to connect to the Internet, call someone on
skype or send e mails, photos and videos to anyone anytime. The smart phones
come with high definition camera that can take still or video photos even in
dim light.
These smart phones have become so popular that the scammers
in rural areas use them to lure in their victims and promise them the delivery
of a new car to their doors if they simply pay the reservation fee of few
thousand Rupees. Once they receive the money in their account, they vanish
while the victim waits for his car that never arrives. When they see the police
vans are approaching their village, they scatter like birds. They even fill the
dirt roads with water so that the police vehicles bog down in the mud while the
criminals escape.
They say that they are retired army men because people
trust Army people more than others. These scams are mostly local so the
scammers need only know fluent Hindi. They destroy their SIM cards every three
days so that their phones cannot be traced by the police.
Now the Indian government is hiring young people who are
experts in IT (Information technology ) and have rich experience to fight Cybercrimes
. They infiltrate the call centers by posing as their customers and can
remotely see their computer screen to see what they are typing to expose them.
The data thus obtained are then used by the police to shut them down but they
sprout up somewhere else within days. Rarely these types of criminals are
prosecuted so they carry on just like before. They are also very good in hiding
their identity because they know how.
It is like the FBI in the United States that often hires
ex-cons and ex cyber criminals who have served their time and now teach the FBI
how to catch the scammers. There was a movie made on the subject but I have
forgotten the title.
So if you are over 50, living alone and have technical
glitches with your PC, please do not click on these toll free numbers. Turn off
your PC immediately before the scammers download your data. You should see a
red flag as soon as the scammer in a foreign accent asks for your credit card
number or your bank account number. A reputed company that sells the hardware
will never ask you for these data so the safest way is to go to a reliable
store where a trained technician will easily solve your problem for a small
fee. These technicians are trained by the big companies in problem solving so
you should ask the companies where their legitimate service centers are.
Unfortunately our world is full of con people who pose as
door to door salesmen or insurance sellers, property sellers etc. They are
found in every country who take advantage of old and vulnerable people.
Once I started receiving e mails that said that I had won a
huge amount in a lottery that I had never participated in and asked for a big
amount as a service fee before they will send me the money. I knew it was a scam
so I answered in big red letters … You have been
notified to the Interpol that will soon arrest you no matter where you live. It was a bluff but the scammer did not know
that. The emails stopped coming because it put fear in them.
Then I started receiving e mails from a Nigerian scammer
who claimed that she is the daughter of a general who is in prison somewhere
but she had access to his loot. Now she needs me to give her my bank account
number so that she can transfer this loot to my account for a 10 percent fee
that she will pay me. Again I warned this con person that he or she will be
prosecuted soon because I have alerted the authorities and have given them his
e mail address. The e mails stopped. I do not know why there are so many
scammers in Nigeria in particular.
I know a city in India called Jalandhar in Punjab state
that is well known for all sorts of scammers. They are so bold that they
advertise their racket in Newspapers and find some suckers who are greedy so
easily fall into their trap. We all know about the pyramid scammers so beware.
There was one pyramid scammer in the United States who was called Madoff who is
now serving time for all the money he stole.
If his name alone did not raise a red flag then you need some
serious counseling my friend. If something is too good to be true then you can be
sure that it is not.
Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.
La biografía de anil en español.
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