- Wednesday, March 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a shocking revelation, it has been learnt that several American citizens, most of whom are elderly, have lost more than $10 billion (£8.29 billion) to phishing gangs and fraudsters from India in 2022.
According to the Times of India, a majority of the victims were duped of over $3 billion (£2.48 billion) in the last couple of years, data from the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) showed.
The report added that the fraudsters, who are operating illegal call centres in India, have been targeting US-based people, especially the elderly, pretending to help them with technical and other assistance.
In the last 11 months, Americans have become poorer by $10.2 billion (£8.45 billion) by falling victim to internet and call-centre-related fraud.
The data this year showed a jump of 47 per cent as compared to 2021, when $6.9 billion (£5.72 billion) were lost, the Indian newspaper report added.
Earlier in December, officers of Delhi Police said that they had arrested three men who were allegedly running illegal call centres in the capital and cheating US senior citizens by promising them technical support for the “malfunctioning” of their systems.
While the three were caught in the capital following overnight raids, one of their accomplices was held by the Canadian Law Enforcement Agency in Toronto and another from New Jersey, US, by the FBI.
Sources in the police said that as per the information shared by the US, more than 20,000 people fell prey to such scams causing a revenue loss of $10 million (£8.29 million) to the North American nation between 2012 and 2020.
The FBI has also deputed a permanent representative at the US Embassy in New Delhi with the growing frauds originating from India. The agency, through this, looks to curb crimes by working with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, Delhi Police and the Interpol, the Times of India report added.
