⚠️ JUST IN: Former call tracking executives plead guilty for enabling global tech support scam ring

Former CEO Adam Young and former CSO Harrison Gevirtz pleaded guilty to hiding a long-running tech support fraud tied to their company C.A. Cloud Attribution Ltd. They face up to three years in federal prison and fines up to $250,000; sentencing is June 16.

Prosecutors say C.A. Cloud, active from 2017 to April 2022, sold phone numbers, call recordings, routing and call-tracking to customers they knew ran scams. Those customers used fake pop-up warnings, impersonated Microsoft and Apple, pressured victims to pay hundreds for bogus fixes, remotely accessed computers, and in some cases stole data and money.

Rather than report the abuse, the executives allegedly told clients to rotate large pools of phone numbers to dodge complaints and shutdowns, steered sales toward fraudulent businesses, and sometimes brokered call trades. They also ran a Tunisia call center where staff carried out similar scams.

The FBI says the pair profited from schemes that targeted the elderly and vulnerable, leaving many frightened or financially ruined. Related cases include a leader sentenced to seven years after taking over $6 million from about 6,500 elderly victims, and the FBI reported Americans lost at least $2.1 billion to tech support fraud last year based on nearly 48,000 complaints to its Internet Crime Complaint Center.

@arch