FBI busts India-based call centre in multi-million-dollar fraud case
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The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Wednesday announced that it has shut down a call centre operating in India, which allegedly defrauded hundreds of elderly victims in the United States of “millions of dollars” through tech-support scam operations.
The agency also confirmed that two senior executives — 42-year-old Adam Young from Miami, Florida, and 33-year-old Harrison Gevirtz from Las Vegas, Nevada — have admitted to “turning a blind eye” to the alleged criminal activity facilitated through their telecommunications business.
According to the FBI, the pair operated a company that provided services such as telephone numbers, call routing, call tracking, and call forwarding to clients they knew were engaged in tech-support fraud schemes. These schemes targeted victims in the United States and abroad.
Young and Gevirtz have pleaded guilty to operating the business while knowingly enabling fraudulent activity. They are scheduled to be sentenced on June 16.
The investigation, which began in 2020, also led to the conviction of five India-based telemarketing fraudsters and a former employee of the call-routing company, the FBI said.
The convicted Indian nationals include Sahil Narang, Chirag Sachdeva, Abrar Anjum, and Manish Kumar, who were found guilty of charges linked to telemarketing fraud operations based in India that targeted Americans, particularly elderly individuals vulnerable due to age or infirmity. The FBI did not detail the role of the fifth convicted person, Jagmeet Singh Virk.
Investigators found that India-based call centres used Young and Gevirtz’s business infrastructure to route “tech fraud” calls. In some cases, the executives also allegedly advised on methods to reduce consumer complaints and avoid account shutdowns.
The scams typically involved “deceptive pop-up messages” warning users that their computers were infected with viruses or malware. Victims were instructed to call a number displayed on the alert, which connected them to call centres where they were persuaded to pay hundreds of dollars for unnecessary or entirely fake technical-support services.
In some instances, call centre operators were able to remotely access victims’ computers and obtain sensitive personal and financial information.
The FBI stated that Young and Gevirtz failed to report the fraudulent activity to law enforcement authorities, despite becoming aware of the schemes between 2017 and April 2022.
Ted E Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, described their actions as “downright despicable”, stating that they “willfully profited from telemarketing and tech-support scammers, here and abroad, who preyed on the elderly, exploited the vulnerable, and drained victims of their life savings and peace of mind.”
The FBI further noted that tech-support scams caused losses of around $2.1 billion to Americans last year alone.