In India, millennials (aged between 24 and 37) were the most susceptible to such scams in 2021, with 58% of those that continued with the scam incurring monetary loss.

 Consumers in India experienced a fairly high online fraud encounter rate of 69% in the past year, according to the Microsoft 2021 Global Tech Support Scam Research report.

Further, 31% Indians lost money through a scam—the highest globally.

Each month, Microsoft Corp. receives about 6,500 complaints globally from people who have been the victim of a tech support scam. This is down from 13,000 reports in an average month in prior years.

Key takeaways

• 48% consumers in India were tricked into continuing with the scam, three times higher than the global average. 31% of those surveyed continued engaging and eventually lost money.
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• 73% of males in India who proceeded to interact with a scammer were likely to lose money. On average, consumers in India lost Rs 15,334 in 2021, but 88% were able to recover some money.
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• In India, millennials (aged between 24 and 37) were the most 
• most susceptible to such scams in 2021, with 58% of those that continued with the scam incurring monetary loss.
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• Incidences of unsolicited call scams increased from 23% to 31% in India between 2018 to 2021, and this continues to be the scam type that consumers in India respond to most often, followed by pop-up ads, redirects to websites and unsolicited emails.
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Tech support scams are perpetrated globally and target people of all ages. Finding sreveal that compared to the rest of the world, consumers in India are more likely to be targeted, less inclined to ignore scam interactions, and as a result, lose more money…,” said Mary Jo Schrade, assistant general counsel (regional lead) at Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit Asia. “Tactics used by fraudsters to victimise users online have evolved over time.”