October 8, 2025
NEW DELHI – The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday carried out search operations at fifteen premises located in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram (Haryana), and Mumbai in connection with a probe into an alleged technical support scam, sources said.
The investigation, initiated under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is based on multiple FIRs registered by the Delhi Police.
According to the probe, the fraudsters were operating several illegal call centres in areas such as Rohini, Paschim Vihar, and Rajouri Garden in the national capital. These centres allegedly duped unsuspecting foreign nationals — primarily from the United States — by impersonating customer support representatives of reputed companies.
One of the key methods used by the accused was the “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) scam. Fraudsters would trigger deceptive pop-ups resembling genuine Windows error messages, warning users of critical system failures. The pop-up would prompt victims to call a helpline number for assistance, leading them to fake tech support agents who extracted payments under the guise of “fixing” the non-existent issue.
The investigation further revealed that the scammers converted the victims’ money into cryptocurrencies, gift cards, and other digital assets. These funds were later routed through hawala channels to the fraudsters in India, allegedly with the help of their accomplices.
The ED has found that crypto wallets linked to the accused have transactions amounting to millions of US dollars.
During the course of Tuesday’s operations, the agency also unearthed another illegal call centre in Delhi, which was subsequently searched.