The Bengaluru police have busted a major cybercrime racket that duped unsuspecting US citizens by posing as Microsoft 's technical support team. The gang is said to have used fake security alerts and fictitious Federal Trade Commission (FTC) violation warnings to extort money from their victims. Scam strategy Gang's modus operandi and payment methods The gang is said to have used malicious Facebook ads specifically targeting US users. Clicking on the ad would freeze the computer and trigger a fake Microsoft technical support pop-up with a bogus helpline number. Once victims called this number, fraudsters posing as Microsoft technicians would claim their system had been hacked, compromising their IP address and banking information.