Regulators Smash Global Phone Tech Support Scam Operation 110
A reader sends this excerpt from ZDNet:
"Regulators from five countries joined together in an operation to crack down on a series of companies orchestrating one of the most widespread Internet scams of the decade. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other international regulatory authorities today said they shut down a global criminal network that bilked tens of thousands of consumers by pretending to be tech support providers. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, speaking during a press conference with a Microsoft executive and regulators from Australia and Canada, said 14 companies and 17 individuals were targeted in the investigation. In the course of the crackdown, U.S. authorities already have frozen $188,000 in assets, but Leibowitz said that would increase over time thanks to international efforts."
Heh, I remember them (Score:2)
Re:Heh, I remember them (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Heh, I remember them (Score:5, Funny)
Stick the phone up your ass? I see you went for Premium Service...
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Ditto - I had an indian-sounding fellow that I took for a ride. I asked him which computer, as I have many, and he said all of them...., then I asked which which IP address, 'cos he sure didn't have the internal network address, again he said any of them...
I strung him along for about 5 minutes, and he got more and more upset, finally calling me a f#cking arsehole then hanging up.
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Bah, 5 minutes, you are a lightweight. Remember you are running an infected vista machine. They do not boot in under 10 minutes, and when you tell them that your machine has been running slowly, they are eager to wait for you. Then another 10 minutes to "download" the file they want you to install - again my computer has been running slowly. Remember the tearing your hair out pain when trying to trouble shoot your mother in laws computer over the phone? Comes in useful, give it back to them, they will
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Well, I managed to fit a lot into that 5 minutes "- which computer?", "OK, will this one do?", "yes, sir, is it booting up yet?", "yes, it's already running", "please click the start button", "what start button, this is linux", and so on until he started to get upset - actually called me a liar. Had to stifle a laugh at that one.
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wonder how much repeat business they get? (Score:2)
scammers - total idiots are our best customers
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I told them - "I don't really understand this computer stuff - I will hand you over to my kid who does it for me" passed it to my 5 year old daughter whispered in her other ear to say "I always use linux it is safer" - he wished her a good day and hung up
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I spoke with them on two occasions. Both times, I got them quickly off the line by saying I run Macs, not Windows PCs (this was actually very confusing for them). I had actually hoped they would call them again, because I wanted to string them along as long as possible by acting as the nightmare customer of all tech support folk: Basically, by acting like an idiot. I'd planned on getting confused by common terms (what's a mouse? left click, right click, huh?) and just doing everything as slowly as possi
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I've had them on the phone on more than occasion, the funniest time was was probably the third time they called, it was an asian sounding woman who told me my computer was sending them messages that it was infected. I asked which one as I have three, she said I could go to any one, anyway I humoured her to find out what the scam was. She took me to a remote access site (which in itself seemed perfectly legitimate), anyway at this point I'd seen enough and called her out as a scammer, her response made me laugh, 'Hey you!' She said, 'Stick the phone up your ass!' and then she hung up on me. Awesome customer service :)
Glad they've been caught.
I got the "your computer was infected" call a couple of times, but now it's all "Lower my credit card interest rates" and "We want to give you a free cruise." Regardless, I string them along a bit (if I have the time) and then drop the "you're a slimy scammer!" and (for the male callers) "Next time I'm over at your house f***ing your wife, I'll wait 'til you come home so I can smack you!" or (for the "ladies") "Why don't you go back to turning tricks? It's more honest work." The callers are generally non
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Who the hell is so stupid that they would just do what a random person calling them tells them to do?
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Who the hell is so stupid that they would just do what a random person calling them tells them to do?
You don't really understand how conmen work do you? With the huge increase in the number of people with computers, there will inevitably be a lot of people with almos zero IT knowledge. If you tell them plausibly enough you are ringing from "Microsoft Techinical Support" some people will fall for it.
Everyone is stupid at something. They work different cons with people who are inexperienced with credit cards, car mechanics, investing in shares, women, or whatever.
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Who the hell is so stupid that they would just do what a random person calling them tells them to do?
Apparently an alarming number [slashdot.org] of fast food restaurant managers.
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ur mom
my mom
no, seriously, my mom
Re:Heh, I remember them (Score:5, Funny)
They finally hung up when she told them she had made a mistake, and the screen she was looking at was not actually a computer monitor, just the TV.
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Your mum is my favourite person for this week.
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I never did understand why someone would trust their computer, with all their pics and docs and private stuff, to some guy halfway across the planet.
And on that note I use to have a co-worker with a strong Indian accent, even though he had lived here in Canada for about 20 years, and he would have people hang up on him because they didn't want to speak to someone in India.
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Clever... (Score:1)
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I used to be angry at them, but in the end it was $$$ for me. Getting rid of scareware etc was a job for me too.
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I used to be angry at them, but in the end it was $$$ for me. Getting rid of scareware etc was a job for me too.
Cool, so really they were just one big privately run job creation scheme that cost no one anything and contributed to the growth of the economy. Oh, wait...
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Yeah exactly. I wasn't looking forward to jobs like that as most of the time they are hard to remove and sometimes the removal process damages core files requiring user data backup, reformat and reinstall. Pain in the arse that takes up hours + the inevitable forced MS updates. Vista is particularly bad at that as it requires SP1 to fully automate updates. You can never get paid enough to do that job.
A Horse of a Different Color (Score:5, Funny)
Where were they getting the phone numbers? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I would like to hear more about how these guys got their phone number lists..
Ever reply to those "Free iPad!" spam emails? No? ...Me neither.
The same gullible people that give out their personal information to random strangers on the internet are the ones who get hit with this stuff.
The only reason I know this is because the shitty company that I work for does business with companies that purchase these spam-generated phone lists.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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They use ancient technology, based on dead trees. I believe it's called "phone books", especially the "white pages" variant.
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Informative? Right. Because randomly dialing numbers to find modems (as if anyone's on dial-up these days) is totally the same as calling and asking for a person by name.
Did you even read any one of the article, the post you're replying to or the article you linked to?
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Re:Where were they getting the phone numbers? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Online you can find valid area codes and exchanges. See http://cnac.ca if you'd like. Then start dialing 0001, 0002, etc. Private numbers are not safe from these types of attacks. A tracking random number generator or phone book attack is also possible. The fact is, if you're Crooked enough to run a scam like this, you're Crooked enough to target everyone by taking a shotgun approach. As long as enough people pay for their crapware at stupid prices, and pay call center employees peanuts (ie: on par with out
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I would like to hear more about how these guys got their phone number lists..
Pick up your phone and dial a random number in a valid exchange. You will only have to do this a few times before you reach someone who is having problems with a Windows computer.
This is why Apple is the most valuable corporation on the planet right now.
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The story I heard was that some of them are frontline call centre people from country x. They have all the equipment already set up and they just use what's available. No big mystery.
I got a couple calls from them... (Score:2)
Which I found amusing at first, especially since I run a Mac ;)
The first time they called, I hung up immediately since I had better things to do. The second time, though, I got fairly annoyed at the guy who sounded like he was on the other side of the world in a shack somewhere. I wanted to probe him and ask questions - he claimed to be calling on behalf of my ISP, but did not disclose a name. He wouldn't answer any of my queries and kept on talking and talking - until silence and hung up.
And here I was pla
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Did you get a call later pushing Judy Garland DVDs, poodle grooming services or buttplugs?
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They called here two nights ago. We're an Apple-only household, so I just said "I'm sorry, you have the wrong number and hung up."
You threw a double 6 and cast the Spell of Smugness. Congratulations.
Re:A pic of the goatse guy when you need it (Score:3, Funny)
I would have created a Vm with the goatse guy in the background and let him have and listen to his or her reaction upon seeing it. I would then go on claiming that was the last guy who called here. Want to be next?
About time! I was getting calls from them (Score:1)
At least once a week - one time, I let them go thru all their b.s. (especially the .inf file part, made me laugh when he said "they slow you down", lol - the scammer asked why I was laughing too).
I stayed on the phone with them though - just so I could get their host-domain or url they wanted me to go to so I could block it in my custom hosts file (got it too).
I told them "THANKS!" at that part, & he asked why - I told him... lol, he hung up!
Funniest part is, later? They tried it again... lol!
* One time
Another story on this (plus, a trick they pull) (Score:1)
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/317816,us-authorities-bust-microsoft-support-scam.aspx [itnews.com.au]
More importantly - here's 1 of the "tricks" they try pull that I noted:
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/257822,how-the-microsoftlogmein-support-scam-works.aspx [itnews.com.au]
* They TRIED to pull the EventLog one too that THIS article notes, & I was like "wait a second - are you REALLY trained in this? Those are merely eventlog entries, not errors of a serious nature!" - guy was quick too, & asked IF there were any "warning" ones (th
Re:Another story on this (plus, a trick they pull) (Score:5, Informative)
That's legitimate software, as is Teamviewer, a related remote access and desktop sharing tool.
http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx [teamviewer.com]
Remote tools like this are used every day by remote sysadmins. The scam was to get you to install it yourself so they could connect from their end, take your banking information, and clean out your accounts. It looks like the reason why they picked Amyy was because the license fee for "unlimited simultaneous connections" is relatively cheap ($99 for top tier) compared to Teamviewer's rather expensive license for unlimited connections - $1499.
And then through the remote tool, they would make your machine unbootable when everything was done. There have been people who have let these guys run loose in a VM to find nothing, only to watch them start disabling services and delete system files.
Teamviewer, Amyy, other remote access/desktop sharing tools are third parties to all of this and aren't part of the scam.
--
BMO
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That was the scam: to persuade me to buy some worthless software. Beyond that there was no damage.
And the reason for that is that selling the software isn't in itself a crime. It doesn't do any good, but like the tiger-repelling rock in the Simpsons, you never get bothered by whatever it was it was supposed to clean up.
But remotely accessing a computer and destroying information/causing damage is certainly a crime in many places in the world.
Today (Score:4, Interesting)
They must have missed some. My aunt got a call this afternoon from them.
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I was called yesterday. I expect this will never go away since it works well enough.
This scam was unique in its early days since it used legitimate call centers to make the outbound calls which pre-screened the suckers. The call center would get paid when they handed off the call to the real scammers.
There are counter scripts floating around for people who want to waste their time.
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Got a call from them yesterday here in Australia. About the 12th call.
Please Please Please (Score:2)
Tell me it was that god damn MyFuckingCleanPC (a.k.a. MySlowPieceOfShitPC) company that got busted...
PULLEEEZZZZEE!
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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WhyDoTheyAllUseCamelCase?
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BecauseAllTheFakePCMaintenanceToolsInTheWorldCan'tFixABustedSpaceBar.
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Tell me it was that god damn MyFuckingCleanPC (a.k.a. MySlowPieceOfShitPC) company that got busted...
PULLEEEZZZZEE!
LOL I haven't seen the MyFuckingCleanPC shill/troll recently on here. I found some of his tales quite heartwarming, although he did tend to spoil the endings by rattling on about Windows crapware.
Well, I'm glad to hear they're being dealt with. (Score:3)
Interestingly enough, when I smelled scam a year ago and asked for particulars (company name and address) I was given them! The company was a pronounced like Symantec but spelled differently. I Googled them after hanging up and found about 40 want ads from them looking for tech support people in India... Even the scammers use the internet to recruit.
I've received about 30 of these calls over the last year. The last time (yesterday) I lambasted the salesman for working for fraudsters, I was told "Well, don't blame me when your computer breaks down". *sigh*
What I want to know is how or why their credit card privileges weren't terminated a year ago.
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My strategy these days is to ask them to hang on 'for just a minute' and then go and leave my phone under a cushion for 20 minutes. I figure that wasting their time is the most effective way to fight back.
Re:Well, I'm glad to hear they're being dealt with (Score:5, Funny)
Well, given the arrests, if I get another call, I'll be seriously attempted to answer something like..
Scammer: I'm calling from Microsoft and ....
Me: Wait a moment, its all over Google News in the last hour. They're raiding 23 workplaces all over India for you guys... Oh, right. Google India is probably blocking it until they're finished the raids... Wait... There, I've got it up here on my screen. OH MY GOD!
They've updated. The police have found bodies! OH MY GOD. Lots of bodies. Why? Why? Oh Jesus. [Reading] Police suspect the criminals decided to eliminate all witnesses who could testify against them. Oh My God. Jesus. 48 men and 6 women in 3 locations? Dear God, what sort of psychos are you working for? Look it up. Look it up on American Google, if you can get through.
Oh God. I'm so sorry. Oh God. This is crazy! They used machetes in one location! I'm so sorry. You don't deserve this. Nobody deserves this. I'm so sorry.
Click.
Actually, I don't think I'd have the guts to pull that off. But oh boy, am I tempted.
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Look, I can help you.
They're going to try to seize your funds. I can shelter them in my escrow account, but you'll have to wire them quick...no wait, use western union, it should be easy.
I'll set up plane tickets to get you out of there. Be at the airport tomorrow by 8 am, the agent will have the tickets for you. I'm pretty sure my travel agent can get them by then, but if not, keep checking back.
We can get through this.
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At least they were honest:
"Semen Tech. Confidence in a fucked up world."
Wait a second I never heard of this (Score:5, Funny)
Are they saying Tech Support calls you?
This must be some kind of joke
Re:Wait a second I never heard of this (Score:5, Funny)
To quote a typical slashdot meme ... "Must be Russia"
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oh god i wish i had mod points to give you today
"Must be Russia," he says.
You're killing me.
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hi my name peggy (Score:2)
You have viruses, spyware. and for $50 we can fix ok?
I assisted the AFP on one call (Score:5, Interesting)
They've rang us a number of times but the last time it came through with a caller ID, which was surprising. I've had a fair bit to do with VoIP here with Optus and I recognised that the number had a block ID which was reserved to Optus, so I used their block allocation lookup and found it allocated to a specific company with an ABN (Australian Business Number) and then rang my sales guy there to see what could be done to track them down. He was surprised and said he would pass it on to their internal scam monitoring department and within half and hour I received a call from them asking me about the call and asking if I would be prepared to talk to the Australian Federal Police, who then rang me 10 minutes after that and grilled me about the call too. Didn't hear anything more about it.
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...within half and hour I received a call from them asking me about the call and asking if I would be prepared to talk to the Australian Federal Police, who then rang me 10 minutes after that and grilled me about the call too.
Is anybody else bothered by the fact that this is the last post Centurix has ever made?
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Yes. Wait, there's someone at the door...
Re:I assisted the AFP on one call (Score:4, Funny)
You joke, my husband used to do L2 corporate internet support and was on the phone to a customer on time when the police raided the premises - from memory he put it on speaker so the rest of his team could hear it.
Stubborn can beat them too (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I just wasted their time and would thank them for calling and say my computer was acting up and all slow. I would tell them it was booting but to be patient as it would take a few minutes. Then I would say oh something says it installed something and I need to reboot again. I would do this over and over until they hung up. Didn't take my time as they were on speaker phone and I would only talk to them during compiles.
Also the phone conversational radio show Wiretap by CBC seemed to keep them on the line for a long while.
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You may like http://barrystaes.nl/scambait/ [barrystaes.nl]
This scam was still going?! (Score:1)
They finally got them.
And $188,000..., sounds like everyone will get their money back!
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Comment removed (Score:3)
Recorded the conversation. (Score:4, Interesting)
They called me once, i recorded the conversation and trolled the guy. http://barrystaes.nl/scambait/ [barrystaes.nl]
I always assumed they where in Indonesia and used compromised voip exit servers in their victims country..
It's too bad... (Score:2)
Called me three times in 3 months (Score:2)
1st time - Caller: "You have a problem with your Microsoft Windows".
Me: "I run Linux"
Caller: Hangs up
2nd time - Caller: "You have a problem with your Computer".
Me: "How do you know which one, I have 6"
Caller: Hangs up
3rd time - Caller: "Your computer...."
Me: Hangs up
It is good they have been taken down, after working on helpdesks in the past I imagine many non-technical users would fall for a scam such as this.
How did they pay? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've had 4 calls from them in the last few days (Score:3)
Grandma's on Ubuntu... Confusion ensued... (Score:5, Interesting)
I switched my elderly mother to Ubuntu a few years back and she recieved one of these calls. Acording to her it went something like this.
Caller: This is *** from *** we noticed that there is somthing wrong with your computer and we are calling to help you fix it.
Her: Okay, let me get on my computer. What's wrong with it?
Caller: We have recieved notification from your computer that it has spyware on it. It has notified us and we are calling to help.
Her: Okay, I'm in front of my computer. What do I do?
Caller: First, click on the start button.
Her: I don't have a start button.
Caller: It's the icon on the lower left that says start.
Her: I don't have one of those. I have Yoobunto, Ewebantoo, I don't know, my son put it on here...
Caller: Please just click the button that says "Start".
Her: But I don't have one of those.
This apparently went on for several minutes. Finally she hung up and called me. If she was running Windows, she probably would have gone along with the scam. This is not to say that the problem is with Windows, but rather that, as long as MOST people use Windows, there will always be an idiot to be found and these scams will occur.
But imagine the problems these callers would have if Debian, (or Debian based), systems were the norm...
Caller: Okay, which desktop do you have installed?
Her: Desktop? What do you mean?
Caller: What does your screen look like?
Her: Flowers. I found I nice picture of lilacs.
Caller: Umm... Can you open a terminal?
Her: What's a terminal?
I don't think these scammers would even gotten started.
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It's like phishing attacks, it really makes no difference which bank or software you use, if you're prepared to reveal your account details and login information to a stranger on the phone/by email, you're fucked anyway.
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But this is where the Linux desktop confusion and social enginering breaks down. KDE, Gnome, LXDE, XFCE, Unity, Enlightenment, and on and on and on... There would not be a 'one size fits most' way of perpetuating this scam. Even if the user could be led to a website to download something, would it be .deb, .rpm, .tar.bz? Idiot users wouldn't know, and idiot scammers wouldn't be able to make money doing this sort of thing. As far as Phishing goes, Grandma has no idea that I update her computer remotely every
Was on TV news troubleshooter (Score:2)
This was on the local TV news troubleshooter segment ("Turko Files") in San Diego a couple months ago.
An elderly woman had called because somebody called her to tell her that her computer had a virus, and he was with Microsoft and could help her remove it. But first she had to "renew" her anti-virus subscription.
As Turko says:
"It's a scam!"
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Why did it take so long ? (Score:2)
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Operating in Belgium too (Score:2)
Got a call from them last week. Odd think was I had got a few of those "Application X has crashed" a few days previously. Normally I don't bother sending the reports (it's not like they'll actually fix anything) but it's possible I'd hit the wrong button once or twice.
Almost had me convinced for a second, but I was pretty sure I'd never given Mickeysoft my phone number. But had it got to the point where they were asking me to install random stuff, well...
I've gotten a couple of calls (Score:2)
I got a call awhile ago, late at night. I was half asleep and couldn't understand their accent, but I heard something about my computer. I hung up, and later woke up enough to realize that it was a scam attempt.
A few days ago, I got a similar message on my answering machine, and I couldn't understand them much better when I was awake. But I suppose it was believable; real helpdesk people are just as hard to understand.
So this would mean ... (Score:2)