The FBI is particularly concerned about phishing gangs in India defrauding elderly US citizens of their life savings. The expected damages from romance-related frauds reported by victims on the FBI website are $1.2 billion in 2021 and $1.2 billion in the final 11 months of 2022. When combined with “tech support” crimes, the losses could reach $3 billion over the course of two years. Most of these fraud victims are older people over the age of 60, according to Suhel Daud, the legal attaché at the US embassy in India.
Although these scams have not yet been deemed a national security concern for either India or the US, they are still damaging the reputation of India as a major exporter of call center and internet scams. In the past two years, incidents involving “tech support” have increased by over 130% annually, costing Americans $347 million in 2021 and $781 million from January to November 2022. The number of “tech support” crimes, in which victims’ computers display pop-up messages claiming to offer technical support, has risen by 137% in 2021 and 128% in 2022.
