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"The world's scam king of kings, can you guess which country it is? You probably can't imagine it, right? This country isn't just the world's scam king of kings; they specifically target Americans. Every year, millions of Americans fall victim to their schemes, resulting in losses of billions of dollars. That country is India. The New York Times once reported that India's scam industry made a whopping $28 billion in profits in 2020, with $20 billion of that coming from the United States. So, how do the people in India set up these scams for their ""beautiful country""? Grab a seat; class is in session.
India's scam underworld mainly consists of two groups. The most common is the English-speaking acting group with a hint of curry flavor. They often pose as telephone customer service representatives. Why do they do this? Well, in the 1980s, labor costs in the US were soaring, and many big companies and government departments were looking to save money, especially in the field of customer service. So, who benefited from this? Indians stepped up, offering a vast and affordable workforce. English is still one of the official languages in India, albeit with a distinctive accent. Many Americans noticed that the average wages in India were less than one-tenth of what they paid in the US, and they thought, ""You're hired!"" However, capitalism is driven by profit, and over the decades, Americans squeezed Indian wages to the bone and introduced probationary periods. When these periods were about to end, they would lay off workers, only to replace them with new hires. They had a surplus of cheap labor in India. Over time, more and more Americans began to complain about having to deal with customer service representatives in India due to their heavy accents.
In recent years, Americans gradually reduced the percentage of customer service work they outsourced to India and turned to the Philippines, which had once been a US colony. The Philippines had a standard American accent, and Indian workers were slowly being replaced. What's more, India's IT industry was booming, producing hundreds of thousands of software engineers every year. Silicon Valley in the US had the largest number of Indian and Chinese employees. Some Indian engineers entered the core working circles of US tech giants and government agencies, which means that certain Indians had access to a lot of personal information of American citizens. So, if a couple of them had malicious intent, it would be a natural breeding ground for cybercrime. So, how do the Indians run their scams?
The method is quite simple. They call and say, ""Sorry, I'm from the IRS, and you owe taxes that need to be paid right away."" You see, the US tax system is very complex, and many Americans have no idea how much they owe. This tactic has been tried and tested many times. In addition to these acting scammers, there are the tech-savvy ones. Since many Americans use Microsoft systems, the scammers send them a link to a malicious website. When the victim clicks on it, malware is installed on their computer. The scammers lock the browser, then call and say, ""Hello, I'm from Microsoft, and we can unlock it for $200."" Then, another call follows. ""Uh-oh, that was a scam. I'm the real Microsoft employee. We've detected someone stealing your information, and you must use our antivirus software to fix it."" See the trick? It's a play within a play, a continuous loop of scams. When they download the so-called antivirus software, all their information is stolen, including bank account details. Is scamming this severe hard to tackle? Yes, it is. Victims are in North America, scammers are in India, and cross-border law enforcement with solid evidence is extremely challenging. Also, the scammers are quite cunning. They set up their operations in major slums or rural-urban transition zones, where the roads are terrible, and the traffic is inconvenient. It's not just difficult to catch them; you might get lost trying to find them. Many of these scam groups are well-organized and operate like professionals. They continuously receive tip-offs, so if anything goes wrong, they can quickly delete and clear all their data. The most important thing is that their system for laundering money is very mature.
Within seconds, they can convert the stolen dollars into cryptocurrencies or gift cards. Months later, if they are caught, the ringleaders have probably moved on to another location, while the foot soldiers have cooled off. Even if they trace the scam back to its source, the real masterminds might not even be in India. When the heat dies down, they set up a new base. Various factors have led to the increased audacity of scams in India. It has become the world champion of scams, and you might be thinking about regulating it. Well, it's not that easy!" |
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Post time 25-10-2023 13:25:05
