Microsoft, Amazon, and worldwide regulation enforcement have come collectively to ship a powerful message to perpetrators of tech assist fraud: There will probably be penalties for his or her actions.
On Thursday, October 19, Central Bureau Investigation (CBI), the federal enforcement company in India, announced it has performed 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 regulation enforcement businesses to assist them take motion at scale.
Tech assist fraud is a pricey and industry-wide drawback. Criminals working unlawful name facilities prey on the susceptible and defraud hundreds of victims annually. According 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 CBIÂ have been set as much as impersonate Microsoft and Amazon buyer assist. They focused over 2,000 clients throughout Amazon and Microsoft based totally 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 imagine that partnerships like these aren’t solely mandatory however pivotal in making a safer on-line ecosystem and in extending our protecting attain to a bigger variety of people. Technology-enabled fraud stays a persistent menace to each corporations as the identical cybercriminals and their infrastructure targets each our clients. Joining forces helps us extra successfully defend people globally and forestall criminals from impersonating the Microsoft and Amazon manufacturers to focus on harmless and unsuspecting victims.
We perceive, nonetheless, that criminals will try and rebuild their operations and set up new unlawful name facilities. That is why we, in collaboration with the CBI, Amazon, and different worldwide regulation enforcement businesses, are devoted to sustaining our vigilance, sharing crucial info and dealing intently with Indian regulation enforcement businesses and authorities from the sufferer nations to assist their investigations.
As cybercriminals evolve their ways, Microsoft continues to evolve our methods to fight them. That consists of partnering with others within the tech sector to share info and assets. We are pleased with our long-standing collaboration with regulation enforcement to fight Tech Support 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 circumstances to regulation enforcement as applicable, strengthening our services and products to higher defend shoppers from varied fraudulent ways, and educating shoppers about the sort of fraud by offering steerage and assets on methods to determine, keep away from, and report them.
Importantly, Microsoft won’t ever ship unsolicited e mail messages or make unsolicited telephone calls to request private or monetary info, or to offer technical assist to repair your laptop. Any communication with Microsoft should be initiated by you. Always deal with all unsolicited messages with skepticism and don’t present any private info.
If you will have been contacted by somebody claiming to be from, or related to, Microsoft and imagine it was a rip-off, report the incident through our on-line reporting software: microsoft.com/reportascam. Doing so assists us with our ongoing investigations with regulation enforcement as we take applicable motion towards these focusing on our clients. We additionally use these insights to strengthen our expertise to higher defend shoppers from fraudulent ways.
For extra info on how people can defend themselves, please go to: Protect your self from tech assist scams (microsoft.com).
For extra info on how Amazon helps defend shoppers from impersonation scams, please go to https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-microsoft-protect-against-impersonation-scams
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