Anndy Lian
India’s ‘back office’ reputation under threat amid rise in sophisticated cyber scams
India’s hard-won reputation as the world’s back office, built on trusted call-centre and IT services, is coming under pressure as increasingly sophisticated cyber scam networks emerge within the same digital ecosystem that underpins its outsourcing success.
A police raid late last month on a Hyderabad call centre that allegedly trained tele-callers to mimic Australian accents has sharpened those concerns, with analysts warning that organised fraud rings could erode confidence in India’s service industry.
According to local media reports, the callers had contacted Australian citizens by falsely warning that their computer systems had been hacked or compromised, then coaxed them into handing over remote access that allegedly enabled the criminals to infiltrate bank accounts.
The stolen funds were redirected to other Australian bank accounts before being transferred to India through illegal channels.
“These operations are no longer ‘old school’ crude phishing outfits, but are professional units replete with linguistic training and cross-border coordination, signalling a shift from low-skill fraud to high-sophistication social engineering ecosystems,” said Raj Kapoor, president of the India Blockchain Alliance think tank.
The manner in which the tele-callers were trained to imitate Australian accents suggested a structured fraud economy, complete with training modules and managerial oversight, he said. “This mimics the organised cyber-fraud hubs seen in Southeast Asia.”
Southeast Asia – particularly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos – has become a global hub for cybercrime due to a convergence of weak rule of law, authoritarian protection and economic desperation.
The stakes for India to prevent such crime are higher than those for other Asian countries because of its thriving US$150 billion outsourcing industry, analysts say.
“The primary threat is reputational damage – global clients may question whether Indian service providers can adequately vet operations and prevent brand impersonation,” said Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based adviser to governments on blockchain and IT.
Fraudsters leveraging India’s cost advantages and skilled workforce for criminal enterprises created a systemic risk for legitimate businesses, he said.
Lian suggested that India introduce measures for call centres such as stringent “know your customer” procedures to verify client identities and financial profiles, and establish a centralised cybercrime intelligence to prevent such offences.
The Chinese criminal gangs behind Southeast Asia’s scam centres
Industry executives say such institutional and technological tools need to be used in tandem with joint law enforcement with other countries because the manner in which the Hyderabad-based call centre secured information about Australian citizens points to a cross-border network.
“This raises serious questions about data brokerage, leaks from private companies, and unsecured digital ecosystems where personal information is traded like a commodity,” Kapoor said.
A UN report from October 2024 estimated that financial losses from online scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia were between US$18 billion and US$37 billion in 2023. These operations leverage advanced technology like AI and deepfakes to exploit victims, and challenge weak legal frameworks.
According to Kapoor, cybercrime thrives because it functions like an open market, with scripts and tech tools being bought and sold.
Indian-origin cyber syndicates were increasingly plugging into transnational scam infrastructures, especially those operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and parts of Africa and the Middle East, he said.
“Indian gangs are using these global marketplaces to outsource operations, hire foreign specialists or collaborate with offshore crime-as-a-service providers.”
Experts say such cooperation allows overseas gangs to exploit India’s large labour pool while masking their own footprints.
The establishment of a sophisticated cybercrime network is a worry for India’s rapidly digitising economy. According to an Indian government report in late October, more than 86 per cent of households are now connected to the internet with the aim of easing citizen services that range from payment transactions to healthcare.
India’s Information Technology Act 2000, which serves as the bedrock of the country’s cyber law framework, is aimed at addressing offences such as impersonation and cheating through computer resources, but industry executives warn enforcing the law against sophisticated cyber criminals across the country’s vast and diverse landscape is a task fraught with challenges.
Fake call centres like the one in Hyderabad exploit regulatory gaps, digital anonymity and the ease of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) – which enables phone calls over broadband internet – to mask their geographic origins, according to Amritraj Kaushal, an advocate in India’s Supreme Court.
“Traditional policing tools struggle against such hybrid fraud structures, which merge local recruitment with international command centres,” he said.
Indian authorities say they envision industry-led collaborative centres that would continuously monitor multiple systems and layers within the country’s complex digital ecosystem.
Niharika Karanjawala-Misra, principal associate at law firm Karanjawala and Co, said scaling up public awareness through campaigns would be key to preventing such cybercrimes.
“Once the scam has been committed, no matter how quickly and efficiently authorities act, not only is it close to impossible to recover the full amount taken fraudulently from the victims, the kingpins of such fraud operations often escape punishment, sometimes conducting the operations virtually from foreign countries,” she said.
Industry executives also called for cross-border cooperation between law enforcement agencies to boost crime prevention.
“If criminal networks can globalise, coordinate across continents, and evolve technologically in real time, why are our protective frameworks still confined within outdated borders, old laws and reactive policing?” Kapoor said.
He urged Indian authorities to upgrade their cybersecurity infrastructure against modern digital crime, or risk only firefighting against scammers.
Source: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3335229/indias-back-office-reputation-under-threat-amid-rise-sophisticated-cyber-scams
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