FBI Says It Shut Down India-Based Call Center Accused of Defrauding Elderly Americans

The FBI said on May 20 that it shut down an India-based call center accused of defrauding elderly Americans of millions of dollars, and it confirmed that two senior executives of the call center “just admitted” to charges that they allowed the fraud to occur.

In a post on X, the FBI’s Boston office said that “hundreds of elderly victims here in the U.S. [and] abroad” were defrauded “out of millions of dollars through tech support scams.”

“Our senior citizens deserve honor, respect, and protection, and if you target them, we will do everything we can to bring you to justice,” the office said in the social media post.

The announcement came as the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a statement on May 20 saying two business executives, Adam Young of Florida and Harrison Gervitz of Nevada, “admitted to operating a business that provided telecommunications-related services, including telephone numbers, call routing services, call tracking, and call forwarding services, to customers they knew were engaged in tech-support fraud schemes.”

Young and Gevirtz entered the guilty pleas after an investigation that started roughly six years ago led to the convictions of five India-based telemarketing fraudsters and a former employee of their call routing company. Indian citizens Sahil Narang, Chirag Sachdeva, Abrar Anjum, and Manish Kumar were convicted of fraud charges. They defrauded American citizens of millions of dollars, authorities said.

“The investigation further revealed that call centers based in India utilized Young and Gervitz’s business to route their ‘tech fraud’ scheme calls and, in some instances, advised those fraudsters on methods intended to reduce complaints and prevent account terminations,” the DOJ said, according to the statement, which was linked by the FBI in its announcement on X.

It said that Young and Gervitz had failed to report fraud schemes to law enforcement officials after they had received a number of complaints from telephone companies and law enforcement officials relating to concerns about tech-support fraud.

“Despite that knowledge, they advised some of their customers about techniques the customers could use to avoid complaints by fraud victims and prevent account termination,” the DOJ stated.

The department stated that they even “assisted some of those customers to buy and sell fraud calls amongst themselves.”

Earlier this year, the FBI said that Americans were defrauded of $21 billion in 2025 amid a rise in cryptocurrency schemes and artificial intelligence-based abuse.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said in a report in April that total losses of $20.87 billion among U.S. adults in 2025 are more than 20 times higher than the $1 billion loss that was reported in 2015.

The FBI also stated that its internet crime agency gets “nearly 3,000 complaints per day” and that people are advised to contact their local FBI office or “submit a complaint at ic3.gov as soon as possible” if they believe they are being targeted by scammers or fraudsters.

Separately, the FBI has advised that people be wary of tech-support scams or fraud schemes distributed through pop-up advertisements or other means. The scammers may pose as representatives from legitimate companies such as financial institutions, utility companies, or exchanges before saying that they can fix a possible problem with your account for a fee or attempt to steal your personal information.