Vigilante Hacks CCTV, Phone Calls to Expose Gurgaon Based Call Centre Scam

UponXan

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posted on 4 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Thousands of people fall victim to scams in the UK every year many of which are run from criminal call centers abroad, where teams of scammers are operating around the clock.

Cyber scams have become pretty common these days and recently a fraud call center based out of Gurgaon was exposed by a vigilante going by the name of ‘Jim Browning.’ According to reports, Browning managed to hack and gain access to the call center’s CCTV footage to expose the scammers who are seen targeting British citizens. Apart from video footage, he has also gone through over 70,000 phone calls.

A BBC report suggests that the UK receives 21,000,000 fraud calls every month where scammers pretend to be from banks, computer companies, retailers and even the government. Browning claims that he is fighting back by hacking into their systems, even though it is illegal. He has started to upload footage that he obtained from the call center on YouTube.

One of the videos obtained from the CCTV footage shows a British caller talking to one of the scammers who uses a fake name and claims that he is based in San Jose, California. The victim, who told the scammers he suffered from depression, said he felt 'sick' when he was asked to pay £1,295 (Rs 1,21,500 approx) to get his computer fixed'.

In another call, a British victim says that he has just £90 (Rs 8,400 approx) in his bank account after being told that it would cost £150 (Rs 14,000 approx) to get his computer repaired. “I was going to use the £150 to buy some shopping with today so that's buggered that and all sir," said the victim to the scammer. There is also footage shared by the hacker that shows the scammers sitting in the office laughing at their victims.

The mastermind behind the scam is Amit Chauhan and a video posted by the BBC suggests that he is raking in a lot of money. He is also seen laughing as and saying ‘we don't give a **** about the customers'. DailyMail suggests that the call center that has managed to earn around $400,000 a month.

How is the company scamming people? First, it sends fake pop-up warnings that would appear on the computer screens of their victims. They would also be told to call Microsoft with a phone number at the bottom. The number provided to the victims redirects them to the call center, where scammers would ask for a large sum of money to ‘fix’ their systems.