The pop-up looks harmless: a flashing alert, a fake Microsoft logo, a toll-free number offering urgent technical support. On the other end of that line sits a young man in rural India, headset on, voice calm, fluent in English.
He walks the caller through a bogus fix, asks for remote access, and eventually guides them toward a fraudulent payment. It is a routine that’s now second nature to Arif*, a 29-year-old school dropout from a village in northern India’s Haryana state.
For Arif, it started as a temporary gig during the pandemic but it quickly became his primary source of income and pays him far more than any legal job available to him locally. “I didn’t plan on doing this forever but when you see dollars coming in just for talking, it is hard to walk away, ” he said.
The “payment” he collects is the endpoint of an elaborate scam that preys mostly on elderly people in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom, helping fuel a growing underground economy coursing outward from India’s forgotten margins.
Across India, thousands of such young men and also women from cities, suburbs, and rural areas are stepping into roles in this fast-expanding multi-billion black economy. Some are out of jobs, others never had one. They are fluent in English, tech-savvy, and navigating Telegram groups instead of job portals. All of them are exploiting the same ingredients: low risk, high reward, and a system struggling to catch up.
The extent of these operations has grown so massive and transnational that international law enforcement agencies like the FBI and Interpol have stepped in. Joint operations between Indian police and foreign agencies have become increasingly common, targeting scam call centers and cyber fraud syndicates that exploit global loopholes while operating with local impunity.
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In February 2024, a federal court in Montana sentenced a 24-year-old man from Haryana to more than four years in prison for his role in defrauding older Americans of more than $1.2 million, including $150,000 from a single victim. The scheme involved fake tech support alerts, remote access tools, and in-person cash pickups in the US.
India has long served as the back office of the world’s IT industry. But as automation, job saturation, and a post-pandemic economic crunch have upended the formal sector, a parallel cybercrime economy has emerged.
“Honestly, it is a combination of desperation, lack of opportunity and awareness,” said Vivek Verma, a Delhi-based cyber-security expert, currently working with KPMG Netherlands. “Post-COVID, many young people, especially from smaller towns, were hit hard economically. The job market was tight, education got disrupted, and at the same time, there was this explosion of access to the internet and digital tools, which led to the explosion of this industry.”
This surge in cyber fraud coincides with India’s persistent unemployment crisis, particularly among the youth. According to the India Employment Report 2024, published jointly by the International Labour Organization and the Institute for Human Development, individuals between the ages of 15 and 29 make up 83% of the country’s unemployed population. With limited access to stable employment and few opportunities in the formal economy, many young Indians are turning to online fraud not just as a side hustle but as a primary income.
Verma added that what compounds the problem is that the barrier to entry is dangerously low. “Cyber fraud doesn’t require a degree or a massive investment. It just needs a phone, a laptop, and some Telegram groups. The lack of digital ethics education and very little fear of getting caught just fuels the fire.”
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On top of desperation, the infrastructure that once powered India’s global IT dominance has also enabled the shift toward cybercrime. With cheap smartphones, widespread internet access, and a vast pool of tech-literate youth, the country offers fertile ground for such operations.
In many cases, the same skillsets once funneled into customer support or IT troubleshooting are now veering into social engineering and online scams. Arif, like many others in scam-heavy pockets such as Mewat, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Gurugram, never planned for this path but once he entered it, the money proved too lucrative to walk away. He started as a helper at a local phone repair shop. When COVID shut everything down, he joined a neighbor who ran a call center from a rented flat.
“They taught me how to talk, what to say, when to scare,” Arif said. “Now I earn between ₹40,000 to ₹60,000 a month [roughly $480 to $720]. It is more than my father ever made.”
These scams don’t operate in isolation. Experts describe them as structured enterprises with internal hierarchies, designated roles, and daily targets.
Verma said these “disturbingly well-organized” scams, adding: “A lot of them function like proper BPOs. They have HR departments, scripts, targets, even motivational posters on the walls. Many of them work from rented buildings, sometimes even posing as real customer support centers.”
Callers often impersonate tech support agents from Microsoft or Amazon, tax officials from the IRS, or fraud investigators from major banks. With practiced accents and alarming urgency, they persuade victims to grant remote access to their devices and eventually their bank accounts.
“The scary part is, they are too good at it,” Verma added. “The victims, usually elderly people abroad, don’t even realize they have been played until it is too late.”
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Rahul*, a 24-year-old from Gurugram, said a friend already working in the scam trade helped him enter the shadowy industry. In the beginning, he memorized a script and certain phrases. A week later, he was working a night shift and making calls during US business hours, dialing and repeating the script throughout 10-hour shifts. “The better your accent,” he explained, “the more you earn.”
What drives someone like Rahul and Arif to keep at it despite their moral qualms? While poverty and joblessness are factors, experts say other answers lie in the way cyberspace alters human behavior.
“One of the most significant factors is the three As of cyberspace: authority, accessibility, and anonymity,” said Nirali Bhatia, an India-based cyber psychologist, explaining that many believe they will fly under the radar and avoid trouble in cyberspace.
I am not proud, but I am not broke either.
She explained that many young people also succumb to peer pressure and the instant gratification of fast cash. “The glamorization of this quick money and how social media showcase stories of overnight success entices the youth to participate in these online scams.”
Verma warned that the landscape is constantly shifting, with fraudsters adopting new trends faster than enforcement agencies can respond.
The infrastructure behind these networks is equally robust, turning the scams into full-on businesses. “There are recruiters, trainers, callers, money mules, and even people just dedicated to laundering the stolen money,” Verma said.
He added that most networks operate across borders, with call centers in India, money routed through countries like the UAE or Singapore, and victims located in North America and Europe. “That level of decentralization makes them hard to trace.”
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Scams also increasingly rely on fake websites and digital ads that mimic trusted portals. “Scammers build near-perfect clones of sites like Amazon, PayPal, government portals, or bank login pages. In some cases, fake scam pages actually run paid ads to appear on top of search results,” he said.
Meanwhile, in cities like Jaipur and Gurugram, some of these operations have become so normal they blend into the urban sprawl. In poorer areas, they offer both jobs and opportunities. “Peers who have made money in shortcuts will influence others,” Bhatia said. “It’s that instant gratification world we are living in.”
Unemployment and rising economic aspirations also push youth toward these choices. “Today the rate of unemployment and economic hardships are growing. The aspirations also are growing because the world has gone digital and smaller,” she said. “Anybody and everybody is desiring almost the same thing. Disparity, economic disparity, or socio-economic disparity is not there in the online world.”
While many join these networks by choice, Bhatia warns that coercion and even “cyber slavery” push others are into these crime networks. “It’s a completely different reason where people are kidnapped, hijacked, and then forced to commit these kinds of crimes.”
In such cases, criminal groups target vulnerable youth with fake job offers, then trap them, sometimes physically, sometimes through debt bondage and compel them to carry out frauds in controlled environments.
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In March 2024, the Indian government confirmed that scams had duped dozens of Indian citizens, trafficking many to countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. There, they were made to operate scam call centers under threat and surveillance. The Ministry of External Affairs said it had successfully repatriated more than 280 Indians from such cybercrime compounds in Southeast Asia.
Still, observers have insisted that cracking down on this phenomenon will require more than just police raids and repatriations. “First of all, this isn’t just a law enforcement issue,” Verma said. “It is a mindset, unemployment and awareness issue too. Tackling cyber fraud requires a three-layered approach: education, enforcement, and ecosystem support.”
Back in Haryana, Arif says he knows what he is doing isn’t right. But for now, it pays the bills and more. “I bought my first bike,” he said. “My sister got married last year. I am not proud, but I am not broke either.”
*Denotes the use of a pseudonym.
