Spying on the Scammers [Part 1/5]
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a fascinating inside look at how Indian scam call centres operate, often when scams come up in discussion.
What it is
Jim Browning reverses a scammer's remote connection and discovers CCTV in a Delhi call centre. He gives a detailed look at how a tech support scam operation runs, and he shared the footage with the BBC.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends Cyph0n · 2020-07 · on “My dad got scammed for $3k worth of gift cards”
Obligatory kitboga mention: [LINK] . The dude is a genius at baiting scammers and his stream is family-friendly as far as I know. Then there is Jim Browning on YouTube.... I’ll just leave this here: [this video]
Recommends whoooooo123 · 2021-05 · on “How to Tell a Job Offer from an ID Theft Trap”
Yes. Many scam operations are full-fledged "companies" which operate out of commercial office space and have a payroll of employees who show up to work every day Monday to Friday and scam people as if it was a normal job. This is a fascinating YouTube series from a guy who managed to hack into the IT system of an Indian scam operation (including gaining live access to their security camera footage!) It goes into a lot of detail about how this particular outfit operates: [this video]
Cites dmix · 2020-03 · on “Gov report bizarrely claims net neutrality repeal raised incomes $50B a year”
I've been to Mexico so many times all over the country and they have cheaper access to mobile networks than any western country I've been to. That alone makes it a terrible example for western developed countries which was always the context of my comment. Not to mention I'd love to see the penetration and market ROI numbers for what you claim is a legitimate service offering we should be worried about in Mexico alone. The idea that moving from <1mbps-10mbps to basically decent quality fiber speeds on your phone will result in reduced access to networks (via finely controlled interception and inspection) sounds stupid to me. And as I said it only makes sense in the developing world where the
Cites helsinkiandrew · 2021-05 · on “Plaid paid people $500 for their employer payroll logins”
It's hard to differentiate Plaids behaviour in getting user account details from those used by Amazon Refund Scams [1]. Their motive may be different but their actions just help make this sort of behaviour on the vulnerable (ie. non technically/security literate) easier to repeat by the more unscrupulous. [1] [this video]
Cites dmix · 2023-04 · on “FBI Seizes Bot Shop ‘Genesis Market’ Amid Arrests Targeting Operators, Suppliers”
Probably much the same for phone spam which is why all of us get (semi-targeted) calls from indian call centers daily. Plenty of these are spawn out of Discord/Telegram networks to coordinate infrastructure. Via the grey/blackhat versions of Twilio. It's far too common for the operators to give a shit. See: [this video]