34-year-old Sushil Chouhan and his scam call centre in Delhi (image-X/@NanoBaiter)
New Delhi: Disguising themselves as startups or fake customer service call centres offering tech support, scam call centres have seen a rise in recent years. According to a 2021 survey by Microsoft, India was found to be a hub of such scam call centres defrauding unsuspecting victims from the United States, Canada, and even India itself. At the same time, there are some individuals out there who routinely expose these centres and save hundreds from potential fraud. One such YouTuber is NanoBaiter.
In his recent mission, the YouTuber explains how he exposed a Delhi-based scam call centre, owned by a 34-year-old Indian called Sushil Chouhan, that had scammed thousands since November 2023. NanoBaiter recounts how a scam popup, blocking his keyboard and mouse input, under the pretence of working for Microsoft, appeared on his screen.
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When he contacted the toll-free number, a person on the other end introduced himself as “Microsoft Certified Technician” and informed the YouTuber that his computer was infected with a trojan virus and needed to connect it to a “secure server.”
The scammer then proceeded to show him non-existent issues and offered made-up “support plans” to make the scam feel believable and genuine. However, on the other side, NanoBaiter reversed the connection back to his computer and traced the exact location of the scam call centre.
6/ This scam call center has Wi-Fi both inside and outside the building. By using the names of the wireless networks and their signal strengths relative to the scammers’ computers, we can precisely determine the location of the scam call center. (28.5182833,77.2806568) pic.twitter.com/FqzkJcmIBS
— NanoBaiter (@NanoBaiter) January 23, 2025
From there, it was easy to gain access to their computers and get live footage of the workings of the scam call centre. The YouTuber then got access to their Stripe and PayPal accounts and, along with them, the entire history of transactions they had ever initiated on their Stripe account.
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Turns out, the scammers used multiple ad campaigns targeting specific keywords such as “best internet provider” and “internet deals.” Moreover, they impersonated Microsoft and other big companies like DirectTV, Xfinity, Spectrum, and others.
Coming back to Sushil Chouhan, the boss running the scam operation, NanoBaiter successfully gained access to his computer, which had important files including salary slips, his Aadhaar ID, bank statements, and company registrations. The YouTuber also got access to Sushil’s personal bank account.
13/ These are photos that were downloaded directly from Sushil’s cloud server. The photos from the server match perfectly with my webcam footage. pic.twitter.com/vRpDuLN1nh
— NanoBaiter (@NanoBaiter) January 23, 2025
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But the interesting part was yet to come. NanoBaiter got live footage of scammer Sushil recruiting a new employee into his scam call centre. The YouTuber got access to photos the scammers had taken from their office and saved on their cloud server.
During the investigation, the scammers eventually grew suspicious and realised they were being spied upon. Panicking, they covered their cameras.
YouTuber NanoBaiter tracks down scammers and reports them to law enforcement. He can also be contacted to track down scam emails or pop-ups you might come across.
