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Authorities called it a large-scale international ring of “ruthless scammers” preying mostly on older Americans. Bad actors pretended to be from tech companies such as Microsoft. They warned consumers of security threats to their computer devices. To fix what were bogus problems, consumers coughed up hundreds of dollars — or thousands — for unneeded technical-support services.
The allegations arise in an anti-fraud case filed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) against a California man characterized as a key player in an international ring that includes call centers in India. At DOJ's request, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to forbid the man, Michael B. Cotter, 59, of Glendale, California, and the other defendants from committing wire fraud, impersonating tech companies and taking money for purported tech support.
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Indian authorities, meantime, took parallel actions against businesses and individuals suspected of being involved in the fraudulent activity, DOJ said.
'Hundreds of elderly and vulnerable victims'
The scheme “defrauded hundreds of elderly and vulnerable victims” across the U.S., according to DOJ officials, who said the case was brought to its attention by Microsoft, which “often is impersonated by those engaged in technical-support fraud schemes."
Attorneys at DOJ said in court filings that the defendants were to blame for a “fraud scheme that preys primarily on senior citizens of the United States."
Computer virus warnings, including this one, were sent by those accused in an international tech-support scam operation that targeted seniors in the U.S., the Justice Department says.
DOJ
According to the court documents, it worked like this: Pop-up messages falsely styled to appear from well-known tech companies, such as Microsoft or Apple, induced consumers to pay for unneeded tech support. Victims were given a toll-free phone number to reach a live agent so to remedy the bogus problem; that person would be in an Indian call center and ask for permission to access the computer device remotely to “diagnose” the purported issue.
