Whitefield company used Facebook, Instagram to lure US citizens, collected ransom via cryptocurrencies

Bengaluru

Musk Communications, a Whitefield-based company, was threatening citizens of the United States and collecting ransom through cryptocurrencies, said a source in Cyber Command unit.

The Karnataka Cyber Command Unit raided a fake software firm masquerading as Microsoft technical support on November 14 and 15. The Whitefield Cyber Crime Police arrested 21 employees associated with the company.

Acting on credible intelligence, the police registered a case under Sections 66 and 66C of the IT Act, 2000, and Section 318(4) of the BNS. Following a court-issued search warrant, the two-day raid was executed under the supervision of SP Savitha Srinivas, IPS.

Musk Communications operated from the 6th floor of the Delta Building at Sigma Soft Tech Park on Whitefield Main Road. The 4,500 sq ft office, established in August 2025, allegedly served as a hub for large-scale tech-support scams targeting foreign nationals.

The raid team comprised ACP C Balakrishna, PI K Suresh of Whitefield Cyber Crime Police Station, PI Eramma of North East CCPS, Detective PI Abhijith of CCD, and technical personnel from the Cyber Command. The operation was conducted under the guidance of Pronab Mohanty, IPS, Director General of Police, Cyber Command Unit.

Modus Operandi

According to a source in the Cyber Command Unit, the company used Facebook and Instagram to lure victims. Pop-ups advertising fake Microsoft tech support were sent via these platforms.

Most victims were senior citizens who clicked on these pop-ups, which redirected them to unsafe websites. Users were instructed to perform certain actions on the website, guided by an auto-generated manual. Following this, they were told that their Microsoft systems had been compromised.

Employees then posed as federal officers, threatening the targets and claiming their systems were at risk. Frightened U.S. citizens were coerced into making payments.

The source added that the company collected ransom through cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, making the transactions difficult to trace.

The Karnataka Cyber Command Unit has now intensified its efforts to curb such cyber scams and warned the public to remain cautious of unsolicited technical support messages on social media platforms.