Noureen Akhtar
India has been proudly trumpeting its success in the IT industry, especially its
dominance in call center businesses across the globe. This is generating a
whopping amount of $28 billion annually. The reality, however, is quite
different. Like many other statecrafts, the Indian IT boom is highly exaggerated
in the context of its contribution towards the expansion of IT knowledge and
serving humanity through IT services. India is yet to find solutions to many of
its social problems where IT can help, but for various reasons, this is not
happening.
In December 2022, Indian media exposed the extent of Indian-origin cybercrime
against international citizens, particularly elderly Americans. According to FBI
data, published by Times of India, $3bn were stolen from elderly Americans
during the last 2 years alone by romance-related frauds and ‘tech support’
pop-ups, originating largely from illegal call centres and phishing gangs in
India. FBI has also exposed the pace at which Indian-origin cybercrimes are
increasing. According to a Times of India report, FBI has also disclosed, “all
call center related frauds in the last 11 months having been estimated at
$10.2bn, an increase of 47% against last year’s $6.9bn".
Recently a fake call scam has been unearthed revealing shocking details
regarding Indian involvement in fake scamming of numerous customers including US
citizens across the globe. This is defrauding millions of dollars from them.
Mumbai police booked or arrested three suspects in relation to the case. Indian
cybercriminals have an extensive network that enables them to commit such crimes
with impunity at such an exponential magnitude every year. This was exposed when
US authorities indicted 6 India-based call centers and their directors for
allegedly forwarding scam calls to US citizens. The call centers and their
directors were charged with conspiring with the previously indicted Voice over
Internet Protocol provider e-Sampark and its director Gaurav Gupta, for
forwarding “tens of millions of scam calls to American customers”.
The modus operandi of a criminal trio that allegedly ran a call center, posed as
representatives of a reputed pharmaceutical company. They would call US citizens
via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and offer medicines. Those who would
fall prey would share their credit card details, make the payment and never
receive any medicines. Through this scam, the trio has cheated many US citizens.
They manipulate their targets into transferring money, either through threats or
false sales.
The crisis is so severe that FBI had to put a permanent representative at US
embassy in New Delhi to keep tabs on such activities originating from India.
This representative will work along with the teams of CBI, Interpol and Delhi
Police to hunt down phishing gangs. The teams will also be able to freeze money
transferred through wire and cryptocurrencies to these crime syndicates running
fake call centers from India. The US will be able to protect its citizens, but
what about the rest of the world? It's impossible to assume that these
cybercriminals are only targeting US citizens. The rest of the world is also a
target of these Indian-based cyber criminals.
This is not the first time India-based call centers have been rounded up for
scamming Americans. In 2020, Hitesh Hinglaj of Ahmedabad was sentenced on
charges of wire fraud conspiracy. The charges included general conspiracy to
commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering, and
impersonation of a federal officer or employee. He was sentenced to 20 years in
prison, followed by three years of supervised release in the southern district
of Texas. This was for his role in operating and funding India-based call
centers that defrauded US victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and
2016.
In 2016, the US justice department officials filed charges against 61 people and
gave India-based call centers as the scheme had defrauded at least 15000
American victims out of more than $250 million. All these cases of digital fraud
by Indian cybercriminals have put the fifth-largest economy at risk of being
branded as a net exporter of internet and call center related swindles.
This disturbing trend of fake call center businesses and cybercrime being
committed through them is not limited to financial fraud. These call centers
have also become propaganda tools for the RSS/BJP regime. RSS-BJP government has
made things increasingly difficult, as now hundreds of millions of Indians are
exposed to communal propaganda through the internet. So, instead of aiding
development, Indian IT cyberspace has become a harbinger of communal unrest &
violence against minorities.
This business of misuse of cyberspace is not limited to Indian internal
politics. It has external dynamics as well. The Indian state launched a
15-year-long anti-Pakistan campaign, with an integral part covering the setup of
hundreds of anti-Pakistan websites across the world. Indian cybercrimes must not
be ignored by the global community in the information age. Ideas can be
weaponized within a few minutes, triggering a broader humanitarian crisis in a
communally charged environment. No doubt, Indian cybercrime hubs (call centres)
are cancerous for the global economy but these other dimensions of Indian misuse
of cyberspace must not be ignored either.