Indians Made $10 Billion in 2022 by Scamming Old Americans

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found that illegal call center scammers and internet fraudsters based in India have stolen over $10 billion from Americans, especially elderly US citizens, in 2020.

According to the details, the scamming trend has been on the rise and US citizens lost $10.2 billion in the last eleven months this year. It is a 47 percent increase from last year when they lost $6.9 billion.

In response to an increase in Indian scammers stealing money from elderly Americans, the FBI has appointed a permanent delegate at the US embassy in New Delhi, who will work with the Indian authorities to clamp down on these gangs.

Speaking about the issue, the FBI’s South Asia head and legal attaché with the US embassy in New Delhi, Suhel Daud, revealed that these scammers steal billions from the elderly under the guise of tech support, romance-related calls, business investments, etc.

He further remarked that the issue may not be that of national security but it involves the image of a country and added that the US doesn’t want India to suffer. In addition, he maintained that tech support scams have increased by 130 percent annually, which has cost naïve Americans INR 92 billion.

Suhel Daud noted that the FBI’s complaint portal recorded 0.85 million complaints in 2021 and 0.78 million in eleven months this year. In addition, he disclosed that the $10.2 billion is comprised of $3 billion in investments, $2.4 billion in business emails, $1.2 billion in personal data breaches, $1 billion in romance, $781 million in technical assistance frauds, and remaining amount in other kinds of online scams.