The CBI on Thursday said that it has registered a case against several companies for transmitting pop-ups to the victims' personal computers with warnings or bogus messages about serious technical problems including malware infections, as it carried out searches at 10 locations in several states.
A CBI spokesperson said that the agency registered a case against Softwill Infotech Pvt Ltd, Innovana Thinklabs Ltd, Jaipur, Benovellient Technologies Pvt Ltd, Noida, Systweak Software Pvt Ltd, Jaipur, Saburi TLC Worldwide Services Pvt Ltd, Saburi Global Services Pvt Ltd, Gurugram and unknown others on a complaint.
The official said that it was alleged that these companies transmitted pop-ups to the victims' personal computers with warnings or bogus messages about serious technical problems including malware infection in their Microsoft Windows Systems.
"The employees of these companies allegedly advise the victims to install certain anti-malwares or anti-virus, which are essentially PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs). Then victims were allegedly given the option to activate PUPs," the official said. He said that the victims were fraudulently influenced in the manner that they fell in the trap to maintain their systems properly.
The official said that in the complaint it was also alleged that the victims were made to pay online by clicking the link on the interface for resolving the non-existent problem or when they ask the call centres to seek resolution of the fake problems.
"Searches are being conducted today at 10 locations including Rajasthan`s Jaipur, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh`s Noida and Mainpuri, Haryana`s Gurugram and Faridabad at the premises of these companies and the residential premises of other persons," he said.
