Three Years in Prison for an India-Based Tech Support Call Center Operator

What happened

On May 27, 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island, part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), announced the sentence of Himanshu Asri, 34, of Delhi, India.

Asri admitted that for at least the five years before his arrest in early 2020, he ran a call center in India that engaged in what prosecutors called "Tech Fraud." The scheme worked in four steps:

1. Pop-up advertisements appeared on computer users' screens.
2. The ads falsely claimed malware had been detected and urged users to call a telephone number.
3. Callers reached operators at Asri's call center and other India-based centers, who repeated the false malware claim.
4. Operators sold fictitious computer protection services at an exorbitant price.

According to the release, victims paid on average $482, and sometimes over $1,000. They received no actual computer protection service.

The numbers

Prosecutors used call data from a three-month period to estimate the scheme's scale over five years:

• About 6,500 people viewed the pop-ups and encountered the call center pitch.
• An estimated 1,950 of them fell for it.
• Asri and his coconspirators took at least $940,995.74.
• Had every attempt succeeded, losses would have reached an estimated $3,133,000.

When he pleaded guilty on December 3, 2020, Asri admitted that he had 325 callers routed to call centers in India where operators repeated the false malware claim. The parties agreed that the scheme was structured to exploit people over age 65. The plea announcement describes the charge as wire fraud conspiracy. Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. sentenced him to 36 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He faces deportation proceedings after his term. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated.

Why it matters

This case is a reminder that inbound calls are not automatically safe. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) focuses mainly on outbound calls. But the deception here began with an advertisement and ended with a sales script. Wire fraud covers both.

Note also how the government measured harm: it extrapolated from three months of call data. Your call records can be used the same way.

Practical steps

• Review every ad that drives inbound calls. Claims of detected malware or infection, without a real scan, are a red flag.
• Audit sales scripts for statements the caller cannot verify.
• Monitor average ticket size and refund rates by traffic source.
• Retain call data and assume it may be reviewed by regulators.