Online Scam and Fraud

Originally I had planned to write about something other today, but I ended up on this topic.

I was setting up FreshRSS today to aggregate blogs I regularly check by and read. I had a TinyTinyRSS instance back in the day, but it was way outdated and made some problems so I abandoned it also way back.

After I installed the new software on my Server, I started adding some feeds. In one of them, the following video was mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le71yVPh4uk

It is about a guy that hacked the system of a call centre. Normally a criminal act, but he hacked a Scam call centre. If you don’t know about Security Scams, it is a Scam where you get on a website and a fake Windows Warning is shown with a number you need to call immediately.

After you call them they talk you into buying their help and giving them access to your computer. Both with the intention to get you paying for services you don’t need.

Back to the video. It’s interesting to see the inside of such scam call centres. I knew that there are some people out there doing this shit, but I didn’t know that it can be and is such a big business.

If you’re interested in IT stuff, I would recommend checking the video out. If not, I got a general advise for you:

If you were on a shady website (no, I’m not only talking about the NSFW stuff) and you are confronted with an error message advising you to call a number, don’t call the number immediately. Ask a friend or coworker who knows more about computers than you do and ask him, if this warning looks legit.

I’m regularly contacted by my freelance business customers if a Scam Mail they got is legit, even though I recognize most of them immediately as a scam, I regularly talk to my coworkers and show them the mails. Those scammers are getting really good at their job. Sadly.