$10 billion was lost by Americans to illegal Indian call centers

According to FBI data, older US residents who fell for romance-related scams and “tech support” pop-ups lost more than $3 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) in the past two years alone. These scams are mostly the result of illicit call centres and phishing gangs in India. The trend is continuing, with estimates of the total amount of money lost by Americans in online and call center-related frauds in the last 11 months coming in at $10.2 billion, up 47% over last year’s $6.9 billion.

In total, fraud charges involving call centres and phishing have cost businesses close to $10 billion in the last 11 months alone. Comparing this to information from 2021, there has been an increase of 47%.

The FBI has designated a permanent representative at the US Embassy in New Delhi to combat such activities that defraud older US people of their life savings. For the purpose of taking down thriving internet criminal gangs, the representative will work in tandem with Interpol, Delhi Police, and the CBI. Additionally, they will work to freeze any cryptocurrency or wire transfers made to cybercriminals operating out of India.