Viral Virus Alert!

"The modus operandi was to send a pop-up on people's systems using a fake Microsoft logo."
Ajay Pal Sharma, senior police superintendent, Gautam Budh Nagar suburb, Delhi

"The success of the legitimate industry [call centers in India] has made it easier for the illegitimate industry [to operate and appear genuine]."
Courtney Gregoire, assistant general counsel, Microsoft digital crimes unit

Researchers at Stony Brook University in New York State published a study of tech-support scams last year, estimating in their summation that a 142-web-domain pop-up campaign succeeded in enriching its participants by ten million dollars in the space of two months of operation. It was, according to Najmeh Miramirkhani, the paper's lead author, a complex network of entities, some of whom made their own calls while others outsourced calls to India: "This is an organized crime."

A computer user clicks on the 'wrong' site and suddenly they face a frozen screen, sometimes appearing glaring red with an alarming message that Microsoft Windows has detected a nasty virus and is isolating it, waiting to hear from you. The message warns, do nothing other than call Microsoft directly at the telephone number that appears on the screen. Do.not.shut.off.your.computer, it also warns. You call that number and a sympathetic, professional at Microsoft confirms that your computer has been blocked.

However, the person you're speaking to explains that it can be unblocked, once again giving you access to all you hold dear and depend upon. All you have to do to get the gears going is provide them with the authorization to unblock your computer which can be done through purchase of services. It's up to you, dear computer-owner; want your computer back? ... Microsoft is offering a package of services; chose one of several, ranging in cost from $99 to $1,000 for the deluxe service and the problem is fixed.

If the suspicion crosses your mind that this doesn't sound like Microsoft, well you're right. It doesn't and it isn't, and you're being had. Shut down your computer, and it'll have to be an 'illegal' shut-down because remember, everything is frozen. Microsoft will indeed do the rest. The system will evaluate itself and automate Microsoft's protective services to eliminate the threat and restore your system. Panic gone. All's right with the world. You've done the right thing.

Many, however have not. The scam works among many who allow themselves to be completely fazed and discombobulated by this surprise; a wholly unexpected intrusion into the inner sanctum of their computer. The alert that appeared so genuine wasn't, but you have the 'proof' in your disabled computer and the panic-anxiety that leads you to agree to their terms that will restore it to you -- and you've been successfully victimized.

One in five recipients of that viral threat will fall victim to a fake tech-support center while six percent among them will end up paying the extortion to "fix" the problem that really doesn't exist, as far as a recent consumer survey undertaken by Microsoft attests. Microsoft receives about 11,000 complaints about the scams monthly. Its own Internet monitors spot some 150,000 pop-up ads for the services on a daily basis.

Working with Microsoft, law enforcement authorities traced many of these boiler room enterprises to New Delhi, the capital of India where last month police from two Delhi suburbs raided sixteen fake tech-support centers, arresting over 30 people. In similar raids on ten call centers, authorities arrested another 24 people back in October. Fifty police officers swooped down on eight centers on November 28 in one of those suburbs where scammers had extracted money from thousands, mostly Americans and Canadians.

Posing as a Microsoft employee, an operator responding to a victim's contacting the call center would inform the caller their system had been hacked or attacked by a virus, most unfortunately. That's when the package of services to solve the problem would be proffered. U.S. authorities have busted similar scams in the United States, but the majority of such illicit centers come out of India reflecting the country's experience in operating many of the world's call centers where about 1.2 million people are employed generating about $28-billion in annual revenues.