‘Your computer has a virus.’ Frightened U.S. users lost $31 million, feds in Charlotte say
A Dubai man was arraigned and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Charlotte on Friday, accused of stealing $31 million from people across the U.S. by putting fake pop-up virus warnings on their computer screens, prosecutors said.
Frightened users were tricked into sending hundreds, even thousands of dollars when they called a supposed tech support line to remove the viruses, according to a news release by Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Cameron’s office.
The calls rang to overseas call centers that were in on the scheme, prosecutors said.
According to an indictment, Bikramjit Ahluwalia and a co-defendant, Andrew Brolese, owned a company in the east African nation of Seychelles that published and sold the malicious pop-ups. They named their company Digital Marketing Support Services.
The pop-ups mimicked fatal system-error screens, also known as “blue screens of death,” according to the indictment. The pop-ups suggested malware had been installed or included urgent warnings about technical issues related to the victims’ services, software or devices.
Ahluwalia and Brolese are accused of conspiring with other people unnamed in the indictment to sell the incoming calls to owners of bogus tech support companies, including an unnamed person who owned companies in Charlotte.
The pair are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to damage a protected computer, and wire fraud.
Ahluwalia, 39, was extradited from Spain, prosecutors said. He is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates who also went by the names “Biku,” “Internetteam 5000,” “Don Bonsa” and “Bobby,” according to the indictment.
Brolese has been arrested overseas and awaits extradition to Charlotte, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is a dual citizen of Italy and Australia, according to the indictment.
Their scheme ran from 2016 to 2021, prosecutors said.
In U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler’s courtroom, Ahluwalia waived his right to a detention detention hearing and was later booked in the Gaston County jail. His bond information wasn’t immediately available.
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud each carry a maximum 30 years in prison, money laundering up to 20 years in prison and conspiracy to damage a protected computer five years in prison.
The Cyber Task Force in Nashville, Tennessee, led the investigation. The task force consists of the Nashville FBI office and Knoxville Police Department.
Prosecutors thanked the government of Spain for its “substantial assistance arresting and extraditing Ahluwalia,” according to Cameron’s office.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs “provided significant assistance” securing Ahluwalia’s extradition, prosecutors in Charlotte said.