Indian-American pleads guilty to USD 3 million tech support scam

An Indian-American from Charlotte in North Carolina has pleaded guilty for his role in an over USD 3 million tech support scam that defrauded hundreds of victims, including senior citizens.

Bishap Mittal, 24, who pleaded guilty before US Magistrate Judge David S Cayer, has been released on bond. A sentencing date has not been set yet.

According to the information and plea agreement, Mittal was part of a conspiracy that carried out an international internet "tech support scam" by placing fake pop-up ads on victims' computers to convince them that they had a serious computer problem, and to induce them to pay for purported "technical support" services to resolve the same.

On Wednesday, Mittal admitted in the court that he and "Individual 1" resided together in Charlotte. "Individual 1" was the owner/manager of Capstone Technologies LLC (Capstone), a company headquartered in Charlotte that claimed to provide computer-related services to its customers.

Capstone conducted business using several different aliases, including Authenza Solutions LLC, MS-Squad Technologies, MS-Squad.com, MS Infotech, United Technologies and Reventus Technologies (collectively, Capstone Technologies), he said.

Mittal added that "Individual 1", he and others carried out the tech support scam using a call centre located in India, set up to handle "tech support" calls with potential victims.

According to the information, pop-up ads were a central part of the conspiracy. "Individual 1" and other co-conspirators purchased blocks of malicious pop-up adware from publishers around the world.

The fake pop-ups would suddenly appear on victims' computers, freezing their screens, prompting victims to contact Capstone Technologies at a number shown on the pop-up ad, federal prosecutors alleged.

When victims called the Indian-based tech support centre for assistance, the co-conspirators used remote access tools to gain control of the victims' computers. Once in control of the computers, the scammers identified various fictitious causes for the victims' purported computer malfunction, including the presence of malwares or computer viruses, and induced victims to pay for virus clean-up or other tech support services, they said.

The co-conspirators then charged victims between USD 200 and USD 2,400 to make the computers operable again.

According to the information, Mittal and his co-conspirators defrauded hundreds of victims throughout the United States, some of whom were elderly, of more than USD 3 million.