National e-crime team brings down “Microsoft” phone scam operator

Posted 31/03/14

A national e-crime team, based in Yorkshire, has brought what is believed to be the first ever successful prosecution in the UK of a defendant involved in the Microsoft computer scam. On Friday 28 March, the defendant, Mr Mohammed Khalid Jamil, was sentenced to 4 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and fined £5000.  Jamil was also ordered to pay £5665 in compensation to his victims and £13929 in prosecution costs.

Specialist e-crime investigators from the National Trading Standards eCrime Team (NTSeCT), working closely with ActionFraud and colleagues in Redcar and Cleveland Trading Standards, helped bring Mr Jamil to justice after his company ‘Smart Support Guys’, duped a large number of UK consumers into handing over money.  

Consumers found programs protecting their computers were removed by the Indian call centre operators, working on behalf of Mr Jamil, and that their computers were left in a worse state than before.

The Microsoft scam involves people from overseas call centres cold calling consumers in the UK claiming to be “Microsoft Certified” engineers or from a company working for the American software giant. They tell consumers their computers have serious faults, which if not fixed, could cause them to crash.

The call centre cold callers go on to persuade consumers they can fix the problem if the consumer gives them remote access to their computer. They then charge the consumer for installing anti-malware software that Microsoft makes available for free. The victims in this case were charged between £35 and £150, and many were elderly.
In reality the cold callers have no links to Microsoft at all, and a Microsoft spokesman confirmed that SmartSupportGuys, run by Mr Jamil, is not a Microsoft registered partner and should not charge consumers for products which Microsoft provides for nothing.

Mr Jamil aged 34, of Luton, Bedfordshire, pleaded guilty at York Crown Court, to unfair trading by allowing his staff to make false claims regarding computer support services.  Jamil agreed he had tried but had failed to control call centre staff and not adequately supervised them.  Rebecca Brown, prosecuting, said that Luton trading standards officers had earlier warned Jamil about the conduct of a previous company run by him called Online PC Masters, which had operated in a similar fashion in 2010.

In sentencing, Recorded Baird said “This is a matter which passes the threshold for a custodial sentence.  There were a number of aggravating features including a series of warnings from 2010 and the sending of false satisfaction emails’.
 
Giving Jamil credit for an early guilty plea, Recorder Baird sentenced Jamil to 4 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and fined him £5000.  He also ordered him to pay a total of £5665.74 compensation to 41 of his company’s customers that had been scammed and £13,929.60 prosecution costs. 

Lord Toby Harris, chairman of the National Trading Standards Board, who oversee the work of the National Trading Standards eCrime Team said “This is a landmark case, as we believe it may be the first ever successful prosecution of someone involved in the Microsoft scam in the UK. It’s an important turning point for UK consumers who have been plagued by this scam, or variants of it, for several years. Many have succumbed to it, parting with significant sums of money, their computers have been compromised and their personal details have been put at risk. Now that one of the many individuals who’ve been operating this scam has been brought to justice, it’s a stark warning to anyone else still doing it, that they can be caught and will be prosecuted.”

The National Trading Standards eCrime Team is run by both North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council through the National Trading Standards Board, together with funding from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills. Its role is to protect UK consumers and businesses from online scams and rip-offs.

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For more information about this case contact Mike Andrews 01609 534901 or 07807 083774. To speak to the National Trading Standards Board with a more general enquiry please contact the Trading Standards Institute press office on 0845 6089430 or [email protected]

Notes to editors

The National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) represents all trading standards services across England and Wales. The Board was established by the Government to improve the enforcement of laws intended to tackle rogue traders operating both regionally and nationally who are causing harm to consumers and legitimate businesses. The NTSB issues grants and funds national and regional initiatives such as Scambusters, the Illegal Money Lending Teams and Safety at Ports.

Funded by the NTSB, the National Trading Standards eCrime Team (NTSeCT) recognises that a secure and safe online environment that protects consumers and allows businesses to flourish is vital to the long term success of the UK economy. The NTSeCT provides a national resource to support all local authority areas in England and Wales, tackling the increasing threat to businesses and consumers in relation to internet scams and rip-offs.  There are separate arrangements in place in Scotland.

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