Microsoft, Amazon, and worldwide legislation enforcement have come collectively to ship a powerful message to perpetrators of tech assist fraud: There will likely be penalties for his or her actions.
On Thursday, October 19, Central Bureau Investigation (CBI), the federal enforcement company in India, introduced it has carried out a number of prison raids in varied cities throughout India. This operation was supported by a joint referral made by Microsoft and Amazon. The joint referral enabled the alternate of actionable intelligence and insights with CBI and different worldwide legislation enforcement businesses to assist them take motion at scale.
Tech assist fraud is a expensive and industry-wide drawback. Criminals working unlawful name facilities prey on the weak and defraud 1000’s of victims every year. In response to the FBI, tech/buyer assist and authorities impersonation are answerable for over $1 billion in losses to victims. The unlawful name facilities raided by CBI had been set as much as impersonate Microsoft and Amazon buyer assist. They focused over 2,000 prospects throughout Amazon and Microsoft based within the U.S., but in addition in Canada, Germany, Australia, Spain, and the UK. We thank CBI for taking such swift motion.
We stay dedicated to working collectively to go after criminals
This collaboration marks the primary time Microsoft and Amazon have joined forces to fight tech assist fraud. We firmly consider that partnerships like these will not be solely essential however pivotal in making a safer on-line ecosystem and in extending our protecting attain to a bigger variety of people. Expertise-enabled fraud stays a persistent risk to each corporations as the identical cybercriminals and their infrastructure targets each our prospects. Becoming a member of forces helps us extra successfully shield people globally and stop criminals from impersonating the Microsoft and Amazon manufacturers to focus on harmless and unsuspecting victims.
We perceive, nevertheless, that criminals will try and rebuild their operations and set up new unlawful name facilities. That’s the reason we, in collaboration with the CBI, Amazon, and different worldwide legislation enforcement businesses, are devoted to sustaining our vigilance, sharing essential info and dealing intently with Indian legislation enforcement businesses and authorities from the sufferer international locations to assist their investigations.
As cybercriminals evolve their ways, Microsoft continues to evolve our methods to fight them. That features partnering with others within the tech sector to share info and sources. We’re pleased with our long-standing collaboration with legislation enforcement to fight Tech Assist Fraud, which has resulted in 30-plus name middle raids and 100-plus arrests thus far. We invite others throughout the {industry} to hitch us on this united entrance towards prison exercise.
Remaining vigilant to suspicious exercise on-line
Microsoft is dedicated to offering a protected digital expertise for each individual and group on the planet. Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) works to fight tech assist scams by investigating tech assist fraud networks and referring instances to legislation enforcement as applicable, strengthening our services to higher shield shoppers from varied fraudulent ways, and educating shoppers about one of these fraud by offering steering and sources on learn how to establish, keep away from, and report them.
Importantly, Microsoft won’t ever ship unsolicited electronic mail messages or make unsolicited cellphone calls to request private or monetary info, or to supply technical assist to repair your pc. Any communication with Microsoft should be initiated by you. All the time deal with all unsolicited messages with skepticism and don’t present any private info.
You probably have been contacted by somebody claiming to be from, or related to, Microsoft and consider it was a rip-off, report the incident through our on-line reporting device: microsoft.com/reportascam. Doing so assists us with our ongoing investigations with legislation enforcement as we take applicable motion towards these concentrating on our prospects. We additionally use these insights to strengthen our expertise to higher shield shoppers from fraudulent ways.
For extra info on how people can shield themselves, please go to: Defend your self from tech assist scams (microsoft.com).
For extra info on how Amazon helps shield shoppers from impersonation scams, please go to https://www.aboutamazon.com/information/policy-news-views/amazon-microsoft-protect-against-impersonation-scams
