Regulators smash global phone tech support scam operation
Summary: The FTC announced a crackdown on a massive international computer tech support scam that allegedly swindled tens of thousands of consumers in six countries.
Regulators from five countries joined together in an operation to crack down on a series of companies orchestrating one of the most widespread Internet scams of the decade.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other international regulatory authorities today said they shut down a global criminal network that bilked tens of thousands of consumers by pretending to be tech support providers.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, speaking during a press conference with a Microsoft executive and regulators from Australia and Canada, said 14 companies and 17 individuals were targeted in the investigation. In the course of the crackdown, U.S. authorities already have frozen $188,000 in assets, but Leibowitz said that would increase over time thanks to international efforts.
Global phone support scam
Scammers would use remote desktop tools to access the victim's computer.
Read more: Phone scammers target PC users with phony virus reports
"These so-called tech support scams are the latest variation of scareware," Leibowitz said.
English-speaking consumers in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.K. were targeted in the global scam. Most of the scammers were based in India, but some also came from the U.S. and U.K.
The scam involved cold callers who claimed to work for major technology companies, such as Microsoft or Google, and who told consumers they had viruses on their PCs. The callers would attempt to dupe users into giving them remote access to their computers, locking the user out while attempting to "fix" the malware that the scammer claimed was on the machine.
In some cases, ads were placed on Google to lure in unwitting consumers when they searched for their PC's tech support phone number. And many of the people called were on do-not-call registries.
Windows PC users were targeted seemingly indiscriminately and charged between $49 to $450 to remove the non-existent malware that the supposed tech company representative claimed was on the PC.
Leibowitz said the frozen assets could be distributed to victims once they are identified, but he warned it's rare to "get 100 percent back in restitution." The FTC said that more importantly, it should be able to stop the scams going forward.
It is thought there could be upwards of tens of thousands of victims worldwide in total across six countries, and the FTC warned that the figure could be "significantly higher."
The scammers attempted to avoid detection by using virtual offices, including more than 80 different domain names and 130 different phone numbers. Officials said many of the scammers from India were using U.S. carriers, and the carriers agreed to block the numbers.
A U.S. District Court for judge, at the request of the FTC, ordered a stop to six alleged tech-support scams pending further hearings. A further 17 individual defendants were also targeted by the FTC in six legal filings with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The FTC charged the suspects with the Federal Trade Commission Act, which bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices, and were also charged with illegally calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry.
More than 10,000 complaints were drawn from Australian citizens to the country's regulator as early as 2009. Once the scam began to spread around the world, the Australia Communication and Media Authority contacted U.S. authorities with intelligence on the scammers, which had by then received 2,400 complaints. The FTC said "hundreds of thousands of U.S. consumers" could have been affected.
Canada had also received "thousands and thousands" of complaints, but Andrea Rosen, chief compliance and enforcement officer at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, said it was difficult to identify exactly how many. In Australia, it was estimated that the scammers made about $85 from each successful scam.
The FTC is working with the Indian authorities, but did not disclose confidential details due to the ongoing investigations.
Leibowitz thanked U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for their "invaluable assistance" to the FTC.
Canada's Rosen said "we make a difference by working together," highlighting how the agencies and regulators collaborated across borders to investigate the scams.
The FTC also acknowledged investigative assistance it received from Microsoft, as well as from other technology companies.
Frank Torres, Microsoft's director of consumer affairs and senior policy counsel, said at the press conference that Microsoft will continue to work with the agencies as other scams emerge. He noted that Microsoft will never cold call customers and ask for their credit cards to charge them for services they don't need.
"It's like playing a game of whack-a-mole, really, for cyber criminals to find ways to deceive people," Torres said.
This article, co-authored by Shara Tibken, was originally published on CNET.
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Talkback
This is GREAT!
This demonstrates two things: the biggest threat BY FAR is human/social engineering attacks and that educating your family WORKS!
Demonstrates *three* things
Indeed. And when my elderly parents received one of these calls...
Really?
Okay
How is that a monoculture?
Oh ... and one more thing ...
Congrats to all the parties involved in coordinating the response to these immoral fraudsters. Just goes to show that with patience and cooperation, online thugs can be found and dealt with.
Fantastic News !
I've been warning my clients about this scam for some considerable time and am aware of many cases where people have received these calls and where some have been caught out by them. I've even had them call me at home!
Here's one that caught some customers in my area
They're using cold-call techniques as well as ad placement from some disreputable ad companies to lure customers into installing TrustPort AV and then charging them $150/yr for "tech support".
Also, they have several spelling mistakes on their website, have numerous phone numbers (depending on which page you're on), never use TM symbols for companies, and also abbreviate Microsoft as "MS" or "M.S.". When you see signs like this, you can tell that it's not a reputable company.
Great Start!!
Another way to check to see if the company is reputable
I've *wanted* these guys to call!
Joey
gireat idea!!!
I love this!
no, you do not pay them
Those scammers from India
What you should have done....
Re: I've wanted them to call
But guess what???? A couple of days later, "hello this is Frank from tech. support and you have a virus or trojan on your computer". I didn't know Frank was a popular name in India!!
I too thought if I wasted their time that they would give up. NOPE!! Several days later they call YET again!
I was the person that posted a questioned on Lee Koo's CNET Forum page. See link:
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6132_102-563986/scam-alert-are-you-getting-phone-calls-by-people-claiming-to-be-tech-support/?messageId=5417725&tag=nl.rCOMBINED&s_cid=rCOMBINED#message5417725
I can't and won't take credit for getting all the different agencies involved but if you check out the link you will see I just wanted to forewarn people about this scam. It was quite widespread, even more wide spread then I could ever have imagined!!
So wasting their time is also a waste of your time and I can money back guarantee you that you will get another call!
Here's the Canadian report:
The CRTC charged these 2 companies:
Pecon Software Limited - $495,000
Avaneesh Software Private Limited - $12,000
The CRTC completely got this wrong though. They only filed this as unsolicited calls to phone numbers on the Do-Not-Call Registry. Why didn't they file this as a consumer protection scam and charge them with fraud??
This can be prevented
These legitimate sites are being used for illegal purposes, yet these sites do not appear to do much about it. Maybe they should be prosecuted for aiding these fraudsters and perhaps that would sharpen their perspective!
These guys called me a few weeks ago.