On March 21, 2025, police in Gurugram, India raided an illegal call center operating out of a rented house in Sushant Lok Phase 3 for facilitating a Microsoft technical support scam against Canadian nationals, where
- The scammers would generate fake virus popups, urging the victims to call their designated toll-free number and speak with a bhenchod who posed as a Microsoft representative, or “customer care.”
- The agent will falsely claim their victims’ network was hacked and that their banking information was leaked before gaining remote access to their computers.
- In order to “secure” their bank accounts, the victims will be asked to purchase $300-500 in gift cards, which are redeemed by a partner outside of the call center.
13 individuals, who are paid nearly $349/month, were arrested under Sections 318 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 319 (cheating by personation) of the BNS and relevant sections of the IT act:
- Suraj, who led the group on the instructions of another partner.
- Vishal Dubey
- Subham Dubey
- Harshit Mishra
- Ravi Kaushik
- Saurabh Tanwar
- Akshat Kundu
- Ankit Chauhan
- Akshay
- Prince
- Devansh
- Nishi Shukla
- Diti Shukla
Police have also seized 12 laptops and 3 mobile phones during the raid.