If you think you know
how online scammers operate, think again. It's a murky world, with consultants who set up
sophisticated operations. And an international army of volunteers
determined to bring the industry down. Online scamming accounts for over 50%
of all financial cybercrime. It's a global industry that bleeds victims
of US$47 billion every year. The call centre-based
tech support scam affects three out of five
consumers globally. And 85% of those calls
originate in India. In the tech support scam, the friendly call centre staff
pretend to resolve a computer problem, or sort out an issue
with a customer's account at a major company. We've gained access to Leo, who's using a pseudonym. After seven years
in the scamming industry, he's gone one level up. Investors now pay him
to set up their scamming operations. "But it's stressful work," he says, so he's off to his weekend getaway
in the foothills of the Himalayas. Okay. Leo explains one version
of how a tech support scam is run. India has become a global leader in the international tech support
scamming industry, taking more than US$1 billion a year
from the United States alone. Gurugram, just outside Delhi, was once a hub for India's outsourced call centre boom. Commonly known as Gurgaon, it's now one of the country's
most prosperous cities and a leading IT and financial hub. But it's also a leader
in another growth industry - scam call centres. But those in the call centre industry realised that there was still a demand
for their services: helping people in developed countries
solve their IT problems, real or fake. Now, in areas like Gurgaon, it's impossible to tell
just how much of the business is real and how much of it
is a scam operation. Samarth Bansal is a computer programmer
and investigative journalist who's written extensively
on the scamming industry. Samarth and Snigdha
were part of a team that exposed
a huge international tech scam based in Gurgaon in 2017. They revealed that
a well-known Apple-authorised reseller was also running an industrial-scale
call centre scamming operation. Allegedly, making US$100,000 a day. Samarth expected the investigation
to have a huge impact and result in multiple arrests. Since then, the service as a scam industry
has gone from strength to strength, with international agencies
that monitor fraud reporting a quadrupling
of attempted scams. Sven belongs to the global community
of around 10,000 online vigilantes, otherwise known
as "the scambaiters", a mixture of computer hackers
and concerned citizens who have taken it upon themselves
to bring all kinds of scammers down. Most are from the countries
that get targeted. Sven is a little unusual. Hello? Scambaiters like Sven
frequent forums which share the details
of new scamming operations. Sven has found a company he thinks is running a version
of the tech support scam. He wants to investigate,
but needs access to their systems which can only happen if they establish
a remote connection to his computer. Like most scambaiters, Sven has created detailed characters
for his fake victims. It's a standard scammer procedure
to check a victim's browser history for valuable information
like bank details. The scammers have wised up
to the scambaiter's tactics. It will take many more attempts for Sven to gain access
to the company's systems. So, who are these people
working in scam call centres? The answer, ordinary people,
like Victoria. She now works
for a legitimate company in another of India's business,
tech and scamming hubs, known as Sector V. But her first job was tech support. She applied for the job,
thinking it was a legitimate call centre. The average wage
of a salaried worker in India is around 10,000 rupees
or US$130 a month. Victoria earned that
as a base salary and more, with huge performance incentives. But not everyone feels the same. Ray was a colleague of Victoria's. With work opportunities
hard to come by in recent years, especially with COVID-19, it's no wonder that
an increasing number of younger people have turned to scam call centres
for employment. But even those seeking legitimate work
are encountering scams in other forms. After Kritika transferred
16,000 rupees, or US$220, the scammer who posed
as an HR portal employee cut off all contact with her. She never got the job
nor her money back, so she took to YouTube
and used her channel to warn others. You do a job to get paid. Saturdays and Sundays off,
starting salary 25K to 30K. (Hindi) "This scam happened to me yesterday. Thank god I ran away
from that recruiting officer after they demanded for money. You're doing really great job." "I wish I had come across
your video before. I got scammed in the same manner
a few months back, and it's very disheartening." Scambaiter Sven
has started an investigation into a potential scam call centre. He's been calling them,
posing as a victim. And after many attempts,
he's gained full access to the call centre's computer systems
and CCTV cameras. Sven is taking a huge risk. Accessing a computer without permission
is a crime in India, punishable by up to three years in prison. But it's the only way
to target the scammers, and it allows him to listen in
when they're in action. Now that he's sure that
the company is a scamming operation, he needs to find out
who owns and runs it. Having hacked into the system,
he also has access to the company files. The next step is to find out more
about how the company is structured. He reaches out to Samarth,
whose reporting he's been following. The company's website lists its official address
as being in the United States. Most scam operations have shell companies and bank accounts
in the target countries to gain the trust of victims. But they then need
to get the money back to India, which is where someone like Leo comes in. Leo has many ways
to move the money back. Sometimes, it's cryptocurrency. Other times, it's through
their diasporic networks. And once in a while,
it's a shoebox sent via courier. With the tech support
scam industry booming, scammers like Leo have risen
above the call centre. He's now somewhat of an entrepreneur. Sven is investigating
a tech support call centre scam. To gather evidence
of their illegal activities, he's turning to the international
scambaiting community for help. He's speaking
to his long-time collaborator in the United States, CJ. Sven suspects that
most of the scam victims in this case are from the United States. So, he's asked CJ to put in a request
for information on the scamming outfit with the official consumer
protection body, the Federal Trade Commission. The scams Sven is investigating target wealthy foreigners abroad, but technological advances in India
have opened up a new market for domestic fraud. Mangal is here
because he lost 25,000 rupees, or US$330, this morning. He runs a small upholstery business, and fell prey
to an increasingly common scam that targets the users
of mobile payment apps. The app isn't the scam. The scam is the seemingly real
customer care hotline that appears at the top
of an online search. Thinking it was real,
Mangal called it. The victims of this scam are sent a link,
which, when clicked on, allows the scammers access
to the payment app. To demonstrate how audacious
the scammer is, Mangal calls him back. -(Hindi)
-Hello? -Hello?
-(Hindi) Hello? (Hindi) (Hindi) The lucrative market has led
to a cottage industry of Indians scamming other Indians, in overwhelmingly rural regions
like Mewat, just outside Gurgaon. This is one of the poorest
districts in India, where people struggle to access
basic needs like clean drinking water, and the literacy rate is around 50%. As domestic scams do not require
a knowledge of English or an expensive call centre set-up, they can be carried out from anywhere. Scams in India rose by 86% in 2020, to over 120 million cases. We made contact with the villagers
who run the scams here, but while they boasted of their success,
they were not keen to appear on camera. Except for this local, who is willing to show us around
if we hide his identity and our camera. Since the only technology needed
is a mobile phone, domestic scammers like these
are working from home, and even the fields. Where international scams often take from two hundred
to tens of thousands of US dollars, the domestic scam
can be for as little as 5,000 rupees, or around US$60. To see how they operate, our guide takes us
to the home of a village scammer. Hello? He's running what's known
as the "army scam", which takes advantage of the locals'
high level of trust in soldiers. The ad is a fake. The caller will never get the car. But it might help
the scammer get one, eventually. In regions like this, whole villages specialise
in a specific scam, which has replaced
more violent crimes. And as the new industry flourishes, there are signs
of development everywhere. Having gained access to the scamming company's
computer systems, scambaiter Sven has been
gathering evidence in his investigation. He's come from his home town to Gurgaon,
where the scamming company is based, not far from the cybercrime
police station. Sven has heard from CJ,
his collaborator in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission
has registered 93 complaints against the scamming company, including five
from Microsoft's cybercrime unit. Like all other scambaiters, Sven's goal is to get the police
to raid the company and shut their operations down. The problem is that
there is no law or treaty in India that directly criminalises fraud when the actual financial transaction
happens abroad. To start a prosecution, complaints must be lodged
directly with Indian police. That's hard to achieve
with international victims, even when the police contact them. Even with an official complaint, the courts require
physical, forensic examination of all the tech devices
used in the scam. But most victims' computers
and the scammers' servers are located abroad. This scamming operation
in a five-star hotel was raided in 2020. The company booked 35 rooms and was alleged to have scammed
at least 30,000 individuals in the United Kingdom
and United States, but they only came under scrutiny because they had flouted
COVID-19 protocol. Even a big raid like this
rarely leads to justice. As with many raids,
the operations were shut down briefly, and some of the call centre workers
lost their jobs. But within weeks, the owners
started afresh somewhere else. Captions: CaptionCube
