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Turning the Tables On "Phone Tech Support" Scammers
mask.of.sanity writes A security pro has released a Metasploit module that can take over computers running the Ammyy Admin remote control software popular among "Hi this is Microsoft, there's a problem with your computer" tech support scammers. The hack detailed in Matthew Weeks' technical post works from the end-user, meaning victims can send scammers the hijacking exploit when they request access to their machines. Victims should provide scammers with their external IP addresses rather than their Ammyy identity numbers as the exploit was not yet built to run over the Ammyy cloud, according to the exploit readme. This is much more efficient than just playing along but "accidentally" being unable to follow their instructions.
Providing your own IP address to a criminal so you can trash their computer just doesn't sound like a good plan to me.
Since moving back I find myself plagued with "windows support" and similar type phone calls, who try to claim my "windows" machine has a virus. The calls are from withheld numbers, all Indian accents (could be Birmingham, not India). They will never tell me the name of the company, and they insist on personal details. I've had these from the very first day of moving here and getting a new phone.
The joke is I only use Debian. But I'll keep them on the phone for as long as possible to waste their time and cost them their metrics.
I will love reading about anyone who managed to destroy a call centre of these scammers and get them out of business.
Myself, I would fear bad legal consequences if I did it, because hacking into their computers isn't going to be legal just because they are scammers.
Now telling them that you just hacked into their computers and asking them to open log files to show evidence, that would be fun.
THEM: Hi this is Microsoft and...
US: hang up
Done. Fuck this war.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
Seems like a lot of effort just to get back at a bunch of call center guys who may or may not call you. I mean, if they kept calling on a daily or even weekly basis, it might would seem reasonable.
Them: Hi This is Microsoft. You have a problem on your desktop
Me: Oh! Wow! how do we fix it?
Them: Do you see your START button?
Me: (Looking over my Gnome Desktop on my Fedora workstation...) No.
Them: Just look on you lower left.
Me: I have ACTIVITIES on the upper Left.
Them: That must be it. Pull down the menu from that START Button.
Me: OK
Them: Do you see the RUN item
Me: No...
And they get more and more frustrated by this looser who can't seem to work the START menu.
I really try to follow their instructions.
After all they said that they had analyzed my machine and knew exactly how to fix it. They MUST know what they are doing then.
You mean that, maybe, possibly, thay were not completely truthfull???
I'm always surprised by how people can be scared into using this service. I'm the NA for the largest private GP clinic in the state of Montana and I still have quite a few old customers call me from back when I ran my own tech service company. People who I would consider "smart" or "less-than-scamable" have fallen time after time from this exploit and handed over personal information and pretty chunky sums of money. No matter what you've done in the past to help educate or bring people up to speed on current scams it never is enough. The lack of deep understanding of technology seems to render even the most reasonable person inept.
I always get the statement "In the back of my mind I knew this seemed a little fishy, but the other day I was having trouble with X and then Microsoft called. I figured they knew!". Part of me wants to blame the current news reports of the NSA and how they are passing around the watercooler your email about how your last batch of zucchini made the best pickles... your everyday man thinks that Microsoft or these huge companies like Google are literally standing over your shoulder examining your every move. Hell, of course Microsoft knows about your problem with that Outlook plug in that keeps crashing on startup... they've been watching you for the last 2 weeks daily!
All it's doing is funding my side business and bringing me a stream of easy to fix computers at $80/hr. Maybe I should send these guys a cut of the cash.
My husband loves the duct cleaning guys. He tells them that he needs there service so bad but first he wants to know how they clean the ducks and if they will clean his geese too. He continues his hilarious routine interspersed with quacking and squawking noises from his iphone in the background for a good 5 minutes.
For the tech support guys he pretends to feel it necessary to save them from the devil's work AKA the evil computer. Hilarious stuff.
I've gotten 4 of these calls. I'm glad there's someone working on a way to scam the scammers, a la 419eater.org. I've tried to keep them on as long as possible and mess with them, the last one got so upset he told me, "You're an idiot, your mother's an idiot, everyone in your family is a big fucking idiot. F*ck you!" Before he hung up on me, it was adorable. I did, of course, record him to show to all my friends how funny it was. I can't keep them on for more than 5 minutes or so before they grow wise and flustered and just give up though. As no law enforcement agency is going to go after these guys, and they are running free, I'm pleased someone is working on a way to mess them up a bit. It's not going to be illegal to scam a scammer, as in order for the authorities to know about it the hackers would have to identify themselves to them, something they would never do. And there's no way Interpol is going to deal with it, just as they won't deal with our complaints.
Them: Hello, this is Microsoft. We have detected a problem with your computer.
Me: Really? And you're calling to help me?
Them: Yes of course. Do you see your "start" button?
Me: No I don't see any "start" button.
Them: It's in the lower left corner.
Me: I have a button in the upper left corner that says "OS/2 Warp"
Them: Asshole. (hangs up)
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I get those calls surprisingly often (I'm IT support already), and as fun as it is to keep them on the line as they try and guide me to the download (which I do with Lynx), fighting back would be so much more fun!
Who receives these calls or any spam calls for that matter? Like an ever increasing number of people, I only have a mobile number. It's registered on the Do Not Call list. I've never, to my recollection, received a spam call. I know this is for scammers and they don't play by the rules but it's been like this for a decade (DNC started in 2004 and I've been mobile only since then). Am I an anomaly? Am I not worthy of a spam/scam call for some reason? My phone number is out there and with every online site I need to enter it in. Perhaps I've just been lucky or this isn't a problem for most Americans due to the Do Not Call list? I'm not sure. https://www.donotcall.gov/ (620)867-5309
One thing Microsoft could do easily and cheaply, which would eventually end this "Calling you from Windows and you have a virus" scam, is to have a short mention about this being a scam on the front page of their website. A single sentence would suffice.
When you get called by the indian call center employee, who for most of them believe they are working for a legitimate business, mention how the caller is NOT really affiliated with Microsoft because their website say it's a scam. "See for yourself !" and hang up.
The actual pirates can probably not do the mass phone call themselves and still rack up enough money, which is why they hire call centres to do it for them, and why they also take precautions to show them some pretense of legitimacy. If the call centres stop working with them they'll go away.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Them: Hello, this is Microsoft. We have detected a problem with your computer.
Me: Really?
Them: Yes of course. Do you see your "start" button?
Me: No
Them: It's in the lower left corner.
Me:The lower left corner of what ?
Them: The lower left corner of your computer.
Me: The lower left corner?...........when viewed from where ?
Them: From the front.
Me: OK, let me see.....All I see is a little sticker that says Intel Inside on the lower left corner.
Them: I don't understand.
Me: The computer has a little sticker on the lower left corner. but no start button.
Them: No, I mean the lower left corner of your monitor.
Me: Wait I'll have a look..........I don't have a start button on the lower left corner of my monitor either. I do see a little sticker that says "Infant Optics" (it's a baby monitor) Them: click
I had a "Microsoft" guy walk me through installing TeamViewer. After twenty minutes of goofing with him, I said it was installed (which it already was).. When he asked for my team viewer ID, I asked for him to give me his ID first. They didn't and were mad I wasted their time. But.. it makes me think that the TeamViewer company might be able help track down these jerks.
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I like to get these scammers on the line for as long as possible, but without wasting my time. So far, what I've seen to work well was "Oh, my computer just crashed, I need to reboot" and "Now windows is applying updates". This means they'll wait without me having to think of stuff to tell them. Any other effective tricks?
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
I never have these guys calling me, but several of the stories here mention these guys shouting profanity and abuse. I wonder if it is some sort of defense mechanism to keep themselves from realizing how low they are to be using these fraudulent tactics on innocent people.
I've taken to asking them questions like:
Does your mother know that you spend your days trying to steal money from people much like her? How does she feel about that?
How does it feel knowing that every minute you're at work, you're making the world a worse place to live? Do you sleep well at night?
etc.
I once had the employee's manager call me to chew me out for making the employee feel bad. Hopefully he quit.
I keep an old XP laptop loaded with furry porn, pictures of cows and pigs being slaughtered, BDSM porn, transsexual midget porn, stuff from rotten.com/ogrish like beheadings, gential mutilation, etc., set on random rotate every second for the desktop with a nice fading transition, everything locked except the remote assistance tool, and when they call I put that machine live and let them in.
The extortion begins, and then they see something that invariably offends the piss out of them while they're forced to watch a constantly-changing desktop wallpaper they can't stop, and the extortion ends with me laughing in their ears.
Endless entertainment. I even got a "You're the sickest thing existing on this planet." from some chick that was playing the scam.
I lol'd hard at that one.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Had one Indian woman claiming she was Dave from Microsoft...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I have never gotten one of these calls. But I have gotten a few calls like this:
[Phone vibrates. I see the non-local calling number. Reject and block.]
That's the new, lazy version. Until a few weeks ago, I had many of these:
[Phone vibrates. I look at the non-local calling number and wonder who that could be. Google the number and apparently every non-local number that ever calls me, is associated with robocalling. Reject. They call again a few days later. Reject and block. Then a few days later I look at my Visual Voicemail which my shitty Galaxy S4 software never tells me has new entries until I refresh it, and some actual human speech may happen.]
ME: "Fuck."
[And I see they left a few messages containing nothing but silence. Delete.]
But that second scenario doesn't happen anymore. Robocallers have successfully trained me.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I hope they call me one day so I can play dumb and let them into one of my worthless virtual machines..
s/©//g
So, why do you waste money on the phone? Ask your phone company to change it to 'dry DSL'. A line with no dial tone. They will balk, but if you insist, then they will do it.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
No scammer group has ever called me, and I have never used this except to test it and in demonstrations.
So has anyone actually used this module successfully in the real world?
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
ugh, this is a real disgrace on India. I think this scamming here is frequent from India because there is little to no regulation, law or enforcement of it if there were one about scamming 'foreigners'.
This is how most of the Indian GDP were composed of.
It is part of their culture. In the university that I went to, 90% of the Indians are cheating. This is in a electrical engineering master's program.
That's why our organization will not hire any H1Bs.
New Economic Perspectives
It's fun to tell them you have 23 computers and insist they tell you which one is infected.
Not in UK they won't due to BT's Universal Service obligation. This is so you can always contact the emergency services should you need to.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
So, why do you waste money on the phone?
It provides a convenient phone number to provide to people who require one but to whom you don't want to talk, e.g. charitable organizations that will pester you to increase your donation. Turn the ringer off, give it an answering machine or similar service, and let people leave messages which you pick up later.
(It may also work better for speakerphone calls than a mobile phone.)
I know this is sort of off topic, but duct cleaning is a real thing. I work in the HVACR (air conditioning / refrigeration) business. Now there are scammers in all trades, but if you are worried check the BBB or Angie's list to see. Duct cleaning makes the system more efficient, removes mold and bacteria. Just my $.02 .
i have no sig
Your computer has performed an illegal operation
You owe a civil fine of $150, please to be sending to me C/O the Prince of Nigeria or I will have to be sending the police to your house.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I have been using the "Yes..and" Improv method of Step In.
"What? Again? My damn kid put a virus on the computer again? Boy!! Get your Ass down here now... yes you... talk to this guy... WTF (whack)" [pull phone away from head, change voice "No Dad, that hurts, let go, stop, ow ow" "You get the phone with this guy right now and fix this.... and after we're going to have a talk...."
or -- two old people "Ethel - do you understand what this guy wants? Something about a computer... hmm.. our grandson was over last week. Hold on while I get him"
or -- "Oh - I've been waiting for you to call. See I have this problem where....."
of course if I'm in a rush I just say, "I have a Mac" and they hang up immediately. Seriously.. click.
oh yeah - I'm sure they've never heard that joke before.
har har. [click]
If they're cold calling, they're scammers. 90%+ certainty. Some of them may not know it. Perhaps.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I usually just do my best to channel R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, laced with the dredges of 4Chan and Bash.org, and see how long it takes for them to hang up under the verbal onslaught. Some of them last several paragraphs.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Probably because I dont have a landline phone and scammers (and telemarketers for that matter) dont call on Australian mobiles because it costs them too much.
Seriously, is it safe?
You are welcome on my lawn.
They never seem to call me. I have a clean XP VM all setup ready to go to have them remote into. They do however call my parents (Asking for me by name somehow, my name must be linked with that number). Despite being non-technical, that doesn't prevent my father from screwing with them the old fashioned way. He usually keeps them on the line, saying things like "I already have a Window cleaner, he comes by on Tuesdays and does a good job! Even does the 2nd story windows!" He'll usually tag them along for a good 10 minutes or so. 50/50 change of them ending without incident, the other half they usually scream some swears or insult then hang up. The last time, when he had enough, the scammer asked "What is on your computer screen?" and my father replies "Oh! t's all pictures of naked woman!" The scammer then replied "Oh! That must be your mother! You mother f****er!" then hangs up. They are the ones calling and scamming, and the attitudes these people have are amazing. Some other fun tricks to try is talking in another language. My parents can speak basic French, and occasionally they confuse these scammers, who barley speak English, by talking French and it really throws them off.
The clearly-Indian-accented fellow called last week and I knew immediately that it was this scam. I am not Indian, but know many and I love international movies. I said, "Hey, you're Indian; let's talk about Indian movies!" Him: "No, sir, I'm not Indian; I'm American." Me: "Clearly from your accent, English is not your first language." Him: "No, sir, English is the only language I speak." Me (in my best Hindi, but I only know this phonetically): " ." ("I speak Hindi.") Him (very surprised): "You're Indian, too?!?!" Me: "Let's talk movies! Have you seen _The Three Idiots_? How about _English Vinglish_? _RA-One (Rawan)_? _Barfi_?" So we chatted for a few minutes and then it was time for me to go.
Everyone should see _The Three Idiots_; it's a great movie!
That's my usual policy if I don't have time to mess with them.
But if they catch me on a quiet night, and I've got some excess nerd-rage to vent.. why not put in a bit of public service volunteering time and keep this guy busy so he can't call anyone else?
I know this is sort of off topic, but duct cleaning is a real thing. I work in the HVACR (air conditioning / refrigeration) business. Now there are scammers in all trades, but if you are worried check the BBB or Angie's list to see. Duct cleaning makes the system more efficient, removes mold and bacteria. Just my $.02 .
As a consumer, I'm not going to buy *anything* over the phone. If you're a legit business, you'll have better luck running ads or putting flyers in my mailbox or even knocking on my front door. There's so much spam over the phone (between the OMG-you're-in-trouble to the You-Just-Won-A-Trip-From-An-Airline), that you can be the most reputable company on the planet - I'm not buying shit from you over the phone.
Has anyone actually social-engineered them to provide postal details.
e.g
me: you want me to install __?
them: yes plz sir, please download and install!
me: how about i just send you the money to come and fix it, i take it you're in india.... where should i send the $500 cheque?
them: please wait wile i talk with my supervisor
them: sorry we cannot do that, do you have a credit card....
me: sorry i only have a cheque, i'm a 70 year old retired investment banker... i have no need for a credit card, i can draw up a bank cheque if you like, isnt $500 enough... ok how much do you need, i never deal with my computer so i dont know how much these things cost... $1,500?
them: ok let me talk to my manager again please
them: ok, as your computer is majourly infected, it will be very expensive to repair, please send $5,000 to.........
me: ok, i'll send it tomorrow, thank you.
them: we will call you once we receive the money, hangs up.
me: calls interpol with the details.
It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
I am a lawyer, but this is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, and try to get it on the internet, you need a shrink far more than a lawyer . . .
anyway, the clean hands doctrine is a rule from "equity," not "law". It only applies to equitable relief, such as injunctions, not to suits for money
hawk, esq.