CBI books 10 call centres on Amazon and Microsoft for alleged cheating

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The CBI has booked 10 call centre operators for allegedly cheating the customers of US-based technology behemoths Amazon and Microsoft in the name of offering technical support and luring them with attractive offers for plan upgrades, officials on Friday said.

The central probe agency had registered the FIR against 10 call centres on a complaint from the Microsoft of which five also appear as suspects in the case registered on the basis of Amazon's complaint, they said.

The two cases were registered on October 4 last year but have been made public on the orders of the special court, the officials said.

These call centres allegedly charged the foreigners from their accounts by offering them technical solutions when they tried to activate their fire stick or other Amazon devices, they said.

In case of Microsoft, it is alleged that the perpetrators sent 'pop-up' messages to the victims, asking them to call the number to sort out the purported threat that their computers are facing.

Once the customers called the number, they were duped by the call centre operators, the agency alleged.