Vigilante hacks into Indian criminal call centre’s CCTV to show fraudsters laughing

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Vigilante hacks into Indian criminal call centre’s CCTV to show fraudsters laughing as they fleece their weeping British victims out of thousands through fake messages placed on their computers by viruses

  • Online vigilante ‘Jim Browning’ gained access to a fraudulent call centre in India
  • Footage shows scammers laughing while one of them speaks with a British man  
  • The victim, who suffers with depression, is told to pay £1,295 to ‘fix’ his device

By Henry Martin For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A hacker gained access to an Indian call centre’s CCTV footage to reveal the scammers laughing as they fleeced their weeping British victims. 

The cyber vigilante, who uses the alias ‘Jim Browning’, went through hundreds of hours of video footage from the office in Gurugram, near Delhi, and listened to 70,000 phone calls. 

Footage given to the BBC shows a British caller chatting with one of the scammers – who used the name ‘Chris Lawson’ and claimed he was based in San Jose, California.

The victim, who told the scammers he suffered from depression, said he felt ‘sick’ when he was told to hand over £1,295 to have his computer ‘fixed’.

The cyber vigilante, who uses the alias ‘Jim Browning’, went through hundreds of hours of video footage from the office in Gurugram, near Delhi, and listened to 70,000 phone calls

The caller says: ‘Oh bloody hell, I’ll have a heart attack.’  

The fraudster says: ‘Hey, why you crying, man? You’re a very good man. Why are you crying?’ 

Footage obtained by the hacker showed the fraudsters laughing at their call centre in India. 

The scam operated through fake pop-up warnings that would appear on computer screens of unsuspecting victims. 

The call centre's boss Amit Chauhan was filmed laughing as he told his team 'we don't give a **** about the customers'

The call centre’s boss Amit Chauhan was filmed laughing as he told his team ‘we don’t give a **** about the customers’

Unsuspecting Brits would then be told to call ‘Microsoft’, but the number provided really directed them to the scam centre, where fraudsters would ask for four-digit payments to ‘repair’ the problem. 

How the scam works 

Pop-up warnings that appeared on the computers of unsuspecting British victims would tell them to call ‘Microsoft’ to repair their computer.

The phone number provided has nothing to do with the tech giant – and instead directs calls to fraudsters based in Gurugram, near Delhi.

After building a rapport with the callers, the scammer would tell them that in order to fix their device, money would have to be transferred. 

The call centre’s boss Amit Chauhan was filmed laughing as he told his team ‘we don’t give a **** about the customers’.

Jim Browning, who hacked into the CCTV cameras in May 2019, called in himself, asking if the person on the other end is in the UK.

The fraudster responds saying he is located in San Jose.

Jim asks him: ‘Can you name me one restaurant in San Jose?’

‘What kind of question is that, sir?’ the scammer responds, telling the vigilante to ‘book your ticket to California and you will find me’.