Financial Fraud: Bishap Mittal Pleaded Guilty To Conspiracy To Access a Protected Computer And Tech Support Scam

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North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty For His Role In International “Tech Support Scam”

<h2>North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty For His Role In International &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Tech Support Scam”<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>CHARLOTTE&comma; N&period;C&period; – A Charlotte&comma; North Carolina man pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to access a protected computer&comma; for his role in an international &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Tech Support Scam” that defrauded hundreds of victims&comma; including seniors&comma; of more than &dollar;3 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Assistant Attorney General Brian A&period; Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division&comma; First Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney William Stetzer for the Western District of North Carolina and Special Agent in Charge John A&period; Strong of the FBI Charlotte Field Office&comma; made the announcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bishap Mittal&comma; 24&comma; pleaded guilty before U&period;S&period; Magistrate Judge David S&period; Cayer&period; Mittal has been released on bond&period; A sentencing date has not been set&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the information and plea agreement&comma; Mittal was part of a conspiracy that carried out an international internet &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Tech Support Scam&comma;” by placing fake pop-up ads on victims’ computers to convince them they had a serious computer problem&comma; and to induce them to pay for purported &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;technical support” services to resolve the issue&period; Mittal admitted in court today that he and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Individual 1” resided together in Charlotte&period; Individual 1 was the owner&sol;manager of Capstone Technologies LLC &lpar;Capstone&rpar;&comma; a company headquartered in Charlotte that claimed to provide computer-related services to its customers&period; Capstone conducted business using several different aliases&comma; including Authenza Solutions LLC&comma; MS-Squad Technologies&comma; MS-Squad&period;com&comma; MS Infotech&comma; United Technologies&comma; and Reventus Technologies&comma; &lpar;collectively&comma; Capstone Technologies&rpar;&period; Individual 1&comma; Mittal&comma; and others carried out the tech support scam using a call center located in India&comma; set up to handle &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;tech support” calls with potential victims&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the information&comma; pop-up ads were a central part of the conspiracy’s tech support scam&period; Individual 1 and other co-conspirators purchased blocks of malicious pop-up adware from publishers around the world&period; The fake pop-ups would suddenly appear on victims’ computers freezing their screens&comma; prompting victims to contact Capstone Technologies at a number shown on the pop-up ad&period; When victims called the Indian-based tech support center for assistance&comma; the co-conspirators used remote access tools to gain control of the victims’ computers&period; Once in control of the computers&comma; the scammers identified various fictitious causes for the victims’ purported computer malfunction&comma; including the presence of malware or computer viruses&comma; and induced victims to pay for virus clean-up or other tech support services&period; The co-conspirators then charged victims between &dollar;200 and &dollar;2&comma;400 to make computers operable again&period; According to the information&comma; Mittal and his co-conspirators defrauded hundreds of victims throughout the United States&comma; some of whom were elderly&comma; of more than &dollar;3 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The FBI conducted the investigation&period; Trial Attorney Timothy Flowers of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Taylor Phillips of the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office in Charlotte are prosecuting the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In March 2019&comma; U&period;S&period; Attorney Andrew Murray announced the Office’s Elder Justice Initiative&comma; which aims to combat elder <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"920">financial<&sol;a> exploitation by expanding efforts to investigate and prosecute financial scams that target seniors&semi; educate older adults on how to identify scams and avoid becoming victims of financial fraud&semi; and promote greater coordination with law enforcement partners&period; For more information please visit&colon; https&colon;&sol;&sol;edit&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-wdnc&sol;elder-justice-initiative<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Earlier this month&comma; the Justice Department announced the results of the largest-ever coordinated nationwide elder fraud sweep&comma; involving more than 250 defendants from around the globe who victimized more than a million Americans&comma; most of whom were elderly&period; As part of the sweep&comma; the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners announced a tech-support fraud takedown&comma; designed to combat an increasingly common form of elder fraud in which criminals trick victims into giving remote access to their computers under the guise of providing technical support&period; In 2018&comma; technical-support schemes generated over 142&comma;000 consumer complaints to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network&period; Older adults filed more loss reports on tech-support scams from 2015 to 2018 than on any other fraud category reported to the Consumer Sentinel Network&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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