Awareness on cyber crime
BENGALURU
Investigations into the transnational cybercrime syndicate involving technical staff from Bengaluru duping American citizens revealed that the accused targeted at least 150 victims and robbed them of $10,000 each (Rs 13.5 crore) on average since this August. The police last month raided Musk Communications in Whitefield and arrested 21 suspects. The fraudsters impersonated Microsoft technical support staff and cited fake ‘Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’ violations to extort money. Additionally, the police arrested an individual identified as Ravi Chouhan from Ahmedabad, who recruited around 85 staffers in the city. A senior IPS officer said the accused made the victims deposit money in bitcoins by depositing them in Bitcoin ATMs, which are kiosks that connect to the Bitcoin network, allowing transactions with crypto currencies.
We are in the process of extracting the bank details of the victim customers, and as of now, we have found that at least 150 victims from the US and UK were made to deposit around $10,000 into various Bitcoin ATMs, he said. Meanwhile, police arrested a youth from Ahmedabad, identified as Ravi Chauhan, for recruiting the staffers at Musk Communication.
With Chowhan landing in police custody, the number of arrested persons rises to 22. Three kingpins are yet to be found. They have been targeting the victims in the UK and USA since 2022, an investigating officer said.
Acting on a credible tip-off, teams from Cyber Command’s special cell and sleuths of the cybercrime police station, Whitefield division, raided the office of Musk Communications on the 6th floor of the Delta building in Sigma Soft Tech Park, Whitefield Main Road, on November 14 and 15. The two-day operation, with a search warrant, resulted in the seizure of computers, laptops, hard disks, mobile phones, and other devices. All 21 staffers present in the office were arrested and produced before a local court, which remanded them in police custody. Investigations revealed that Musk Communications rented a sprawling 4,500 sqft office space in August this year for a monthly rent of Rs 5 lakhs. The gang allegedly deployed malicious Facebook advertisements targeted specifically at US users. These ads contained embedded code masquerading as legitimate security alerts or service links. Once a user clicked on the ad, the code froze the computer and triggered a pop-up claiming to be from Microsoft global technical support, displaying a fake helpline number, police explained.
