Programmer Develops Phone Bot To Target Windows Support Scammers (onthewire.io)

Trailrunner7 quotes a report from On the Wire: The man who developed a bot that frustrates and annoys robocallers is planning to take on the infamous Windows support scam callers head-on. Roger Anderson last year debuted his Jolly Roger bot, a system that intercepts robocalls and puts the caller into a never-ending loop of pre-recorded phrases designed to waste their time. Anderson built the system as a way to protect his own landlines from annoying telemarketers and it worked so well that he later expanded it into a service for both consumers and businesses. Users can send telemarketing calls to the Jolly Roger bot and listen in while it chats inanely with the caller. Now, Anderson is targeting the huge business that is the Windows fake support scam. This one takes a variety of forms, often with a pre-recorded message informing the victim that technicians have detected that his computer has a virus and that he will be connected to a Windows support specialist to help fix it. The callers have no affiliation with Microsoft and no way of detecting any malware on a target's machine. It's just a scare tactic to intimidate victims into paying a fee to remove the nonexistent malware, and sometimes the scammers get victims to install other unwanted apps on their PCs, as well. Anderson plans to turn the tables on these scammers and unleash his bots on their call centers. "I'm getting ready for a major initiative to shut down Windows Support. It's like wack-a-mole, but I'm getting close to going nuclear on them. As fast as you can report fake 'you have a virus call this number now' messages to me, I will be able to hit them with thousands of calls from bots," Andrew said in a post Tuesday.

Comments

Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this even legal? It is a crime to waste the money of corporations. Maybe some of these tech support companies will put him in prison or send someone to physically harm him.

Re:Legality

[DonaId Trump]

It's all part of a bigly 4-D chess game! This American hero is going to flood Indian call centers with thousands of cyber. It's the biggest cyber anyone has ever done. And when those Indian call centers get overwhelmed with cyber, Microsoft Support scamming jobs will come back to America!

Re:Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

Its only a crime if you get caught. He's using robots and everyone knows you can't catch robots!

Re:Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

They'd have to admit who they are first. They're not a corporation they're a bunch of scamming assholes. Wasting their time is nothing compared to lying to people and probably stealing millions of dollars.

Re: Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

They can't put him in prison for the same reason they can't stop the scam calls: no international judicial system.

Re:Legality

[number6x]

How is this even legal? It is a crime to waste the money of corporations.

What planet do you live on? It cannot be planet Earth!

In no way, shape, or form is it a crime to waste the money of a corporation. Besides, they are free to hang up at any time and to stop wasting their own time.

This is a completely ridiculous thought. Almost as laughable as when people write things like "Corporate officers are obligated by law to make a profit." This is a completely false statement.

Companies are under no obligation to profit. They are completely free to fail and go bankrupt. They would like to profit and not fail, but they are under no legal obligation to do so. Stockholders or owners would like a company to be profitable and to make them money. They may choose new corporate leadership if a company is doing poorly, but they seem to be just as likely to hire a Carly Fiorina and run the company into the ground, while patting each other on the back for their great ability to pick such a great leader!

Corporate officers are required by law to follow legal accounting practices, and to follow the law when reporting their accounting to government agencies for things like paying taxes, or complying with insurance reserve laws, or payroll employment insurance obligations. This is just the same as an individual filing their taxes must be honest. They would be subject to fines if they don't follow these tax and accounting laws. Jail may be possible if criminal intent or negligence could be proven. However, they can be losing money, wasting money and frittering it away and still be completely in compliance with the law.

If it were truly a crime to waste the money of a corporation, pretty much all corporate managers and officers would be criminals.

Re:Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he was being sarcastic (ironic, actually, but saying that would trigger a silly argument about what is and isn't irony.).

Re: Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

Ironically.

Re: Legality

[CaptainDork]

(Score:+1, Ironic)

Re:Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

President Trump! Welcome to /.

Re: Legality

[Darinbob]

Ironically sarcastic.

Re:Legality

[Rudisaurus]

How is this even legal? It is a crime to waste the money of corporations..

It is a crime to waste the time of Slashdot readers with idiotic drivel like this.

Maybe some of these tech support companies will put him in prison or send someone to physically harm him.

The first of your suggestions is ludicrous. The second is (surprisingly, coming from you) indeed possible -- provided they can find him. They are criminal enterprises, after all. And there's hope for you! You actually had a coherent thought!

Re:Legality

[stealth_finger]

It's all part of a bigly 4-D chess game! This American hero is going to flood Indian call centers with thousands of cyber. It's the biggest cyber anyone has ever done. And when those Indian call centers get overwhelmed with cyber, Microsoft Support scamming jobs will come back to America!

It will be the easiest of the EASY D

Re:Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

1. It is not a crime to waste the time of anyone calling you - not even a corporation. No caller has a 'right' to nice treatment.
2. The "windows support" scam isn't run by a corporation. (The 'windows' scam is, though.)

Re:Legality

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

Companies are under no obligation to profit. They are completely free to fail and go bankrupt. They would like to profit and not fail, but they are under no legal obligation to do so.

In the USA you can sue publicly traded companies if you feel that management has been derelict and hope for the best in the court system, but in general you are quite right. My previous job was working for a US subsidiary of a European telco. I don't like to name who I worked for because I don't want to give them free publicity as I still, years later, have some grudges against them and how they treated their US based employees. Anyway, we competed in a market segment as a minnow against much bigger fish like AT&T. Our bigger competitors could offer pretty much the same stuff we did but cheaper because they had economies of scale in North America that we couldn't match that enabled them to have a lower price structure. Desperate to get business, our European bosses somehow got a major American company with offices all around the world as a customer. I don't want to name the company or what we did for them, but you would be absolutely appalled to know what we did for them, the fact that they needed it done at all, and the fact that they were too stupid to just do it themselves. I'll just vaguely say that we fixed a major email issue for them. We sold this service at a huge loss just to be able to get their business because management decided that if we could tell prospective clients that we had company X as a customer, we could get more business. It didn't work. In fact, it not only didn't work, our crazy North American sales team took it as a green light to literally sell everything they could at any price, even if at a loss, just to get business. Our CEO had to send out a company wide email around the world to every employee saying that we could no longer sell services to customers at a loss. That's how bad it got. Another point is that Amazon lost truckloads of money for years after it started and I remember investment writers seriously asking in the 1990s if the company would ever turn a profit. Sometimes you have to run at a loss to get established and hopefully you have the money available to do that.

Re:Legality

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for Making America Great Again, Mr President!

I liked it

[Revek]

Some of the youtube calls are funny. I have salty sally on quick transfer. Its only six bucks a year.

Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Problem solved.

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't help it. I'm lonely. Sometimes I even buy stuff from them just so they'll stay on the line and talk to me.

Re:Solution

[Sigma 7]

Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Problem solved.

Impractical for those who are job hunting, or those who are a major contact in some community organization (such as for a church, community group, etc.)

Re:Solution

[bobbied]

Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Problem solved.

My provider, Ooma, does a really good job of keeping an up to date listing of Telemarketing numbers, plus they allow you to deny any calls that don't provide a valid ANI. All I do is turn on their filters and I rarely get any unwanted calls. They are also cheap (after you buy the device that is).

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

I just use a Google Voice number for that. Cuts down on a lot of obvious scams, is easy to report numbers that make their way through, plus the numbers are tied to the email address I use for said group.

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus, we're a community of nerds - MOST of us are required to answer our personal phones and we don't always have the luxury of having everyone's contact information in our address book.

And for Mr. "this is illegal!" above, what these assholes are doing is illegal to. Put me in the same fucking cell and I'll teach them a lesson the courts aren't allowed to teach.

Re:Solution

[PRMan]

Ooma Premium is SOOO worth it. I get more bad calls on my cell phone now, because the home phone only rings for real people.

Re:Solution

[darkain]

As someone who runs the IT department at a retail establishment where half of our orders are placed via phone calls, it would be near impossible to just "not answer" the phone. Not every entity has this luxury. Though, I do personally have the luxury of fucking with all these "tech support" callers every time they contact us!

Re:Solution

[stealth_finger]

Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Problem solved.

Nah, you answer calls from unknowns with "Hello, Burger King" or some other random company. If it scam you can get rid easily if it's legit you change track and they forget all about that first bit.

Re:Solution

[AmiMoJo]

There is an Android app called TrueCaller that is great for screening calls. It uses crowd sourced data to identify numbers and shows you how many people marked them as spam.

Re: Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Well you could always make out with a .45.

Hi

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi, this is Lenny!! Come again?

Re:Hi

[DonaId Trump]

Believe me, I want to. But this Propecia makes it where I can only come about once a week! SAD!

Invalid numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

I've received calls from some of these scammers before. I've even tried to call them back to record them, but the caller ID records for the numbers they call from are most likely spoofed because without a single ring I either get disconnected or get the standard "doo doO dOO, we're sorry" message. Granted, they could have a system set up to block calls or play this message for calls from numbers on their lists, but it seems like you would need to wait for them to call you.

Re:Invalid numbers

[bobbied]

Typical... Scammers just provide spoofed data for the caller ID. Apart from having the right kind of trunk connection with ma bell (pretty much anything except a POTS line) you can set up the caller to receive just about ANY number. I had our PBX operator show me how once. He knew the White House switch board number so he used that to set up the PBX and called my cell phone. Voilà, I got a call from the White House! Great to amaze your friends or hide your true identity from the hapless person you want to abuse who depends on the caller ID.

Of course, none of this slight of hand actually keeps the Phone Company from knowing who to charge or from telling law enforcement who you are if presented the proper warrant....

Re:Invalid numbers

[omnichad]

Providers should pass the ANI number down to the SIP trunk, separate from caller ID. Then the PBX would see the same number calling in each time on that side.

I know you automatically get that on incoming calls if you have an 800-number, but I don't know if it's possible with normal numbers or whether it's part of the SIP standard.

Re:Invalid numbers

[bobbied]

Sometimes the ANI isn't what you send for the Caller ID data. It's like the difference between E-mail "from" and "Reply TO" headers.

There ARE valid reasons to do this slight of hand, so the phone company usually allows it from PBX operators.... At least the ones who don't abuse the privilege...

I'm sure that part of this SS7 ISUP signaling protocol is mirrored in SIP, but I left the Telco world right when SIP was getting started so I'm not well versed in the various protocols used to handle signaling in the SIP world.

Re:Invalid numbers

[omnichad]

I don't mean send it as caller ID, but rather as extra metadata. That way, you can block further calls entirely. I suppose if it's a large call center, there's going to be a large block of numbers anyway. But a lot of these scammers are lone operators. I get phone calls every day on my business line from Houston, TX and Chicago, IL and I have no business with either area, vendor or otherwise.

And yes - I use caller ID spoofing every day to have certain outgoing calls from my PBX show up as my Google Voice number.

Re:Invalid numbers

[crypticedge]

I usually use my local FBI Field office number when I'm testing a new system I setup. There's next to no controls on CID reporting on any voip provider.

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[Revek]

Go read how it works. You transfer crap calls to one of the robots and it talks to them for you. It now works with sip, so I added an extension on my pbx to transfer it to them. It emails you the recording but I also record it on my pbx.

This Man is a Goddamned Superhero!

[RumGunner]

Vigilante justice has never been funnier.

Re:This Man is a Goddamned Superhero!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and what could possibly go wrong, too!

Re:This Man is a Goddamned Superhero!

[Anonymous Coward]

She was great in ViCTORIOUS...

Re:This Man is a Goddamned Superhero!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not that intelligent, though.

Maybe you find it satisfying, knowing you can fuck with some brown person in a 3rd world country 1000s of miles away with no repercussions, but don't forget that the reason they do this is because they live in rather desperate surroundings that you can't even imagine. I don't know where you are in the world, but it is statistically likely you are in a large city in a white western democracy which nonetheless has a few neighbourhoods which most people avoid if they can. Do you often go to these places and play practical jokes on the local gangbangers, disrupting their enterprises, just for shits and giggles? I would hate to make myself a big enough target (like the subject of this article) that it would be worthwhile for the more well resourced criminal entities in India removing this threat to their business.

Re: This Man is a Goddamned Superhero!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're fucking stupid dude. The point is not to prank the scammer but to waste its time. That way they can't pull off the scam.

Scam

[Archangel Michael]

When your scam relies upon a script, it is easy to script a response that falls within the norms of what you're expecting out of your victims.

Queue the robot that checks the "I am not a robot" check box ... because it can.

Re:Scam

[Anonymous Coward]

*cue

Re:Scam

[AmiMoJo]

If you just want to get rid of them, a very short disconnected tone or the sound of a fax machine modem for a second or two is usually enough to turn robocallers away. They won't even bother to hand the call to a human, and may even mark the number as dead.

Re:Scam

[Anonymous Coward]

This. I have made a little hobby out of fucking with these guys scripts.

For one dude, I pretended to be concerned and asked what I should do. He told me to open chrome and go to the website that gives him access to my machine. So I said ok. Then I waited. I put him on speaker and did something else until he asked what was going on. "Oh I am installing chrome". ROTFL! He started like he wanted to say something but, stopped and just said "ok"....and then waited another 3 minutes!

The key is to never hang up, pretend to be interested, keep them on the line until they hang up. One dude eventually caught on and actually started singing to me before he hung up. Totally worth it.

Re:Scam

[Archangel Michael]

Why would I want them to stop? There is nothing more fulfilling than playing dumb while walking them through the long line of stupid questions, wasting their time. We should all waste as much of their time as we can, that is the only way to make them stop. Cost of finding a victim goes way up, the profits go way down.

Re:Scam

[Archangel Michael]

"What's Chrome?"

"What's Firefox?"

"Whats IE?"

"Is that like AOL?"

"I'm on Compuserve is that like the Internet?"

Re:Scam

[AmiMoJo]

Isn't the point of wasting their time to make them stop though? To make it unprofitable. Or do you mean you actually enjoy wasting their time in person?

Re:Scam

[Anonymous Coward]

It's wasting your time though. Presumably your time is more valuable than that of a semi-illiterate urchin working out of a third-world call center. So I'd call it a loss.

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[cstdenis]

The summery says " 'you have a virus call this number now' messages" so it sounds like they are giving out a real number they expect the victims to call.

they don't know any better

[Anonymous Coward]

Most call center scammers are blissfully unaware they're commiting a scam. They really think they're trying to help people solve their computer "problems" by having them sign-up for support plans. They're just script monkies. Some of the reps may know that their "services" are bogus and commit the scam anyways as long as they get a paycheck, they don't care. The ones that really know what's going on are the C-level types within the call center company. Check out Lewis's Tech channel some time. Really funny and sad stuff there.

Re:they don't know any better

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. They know. Once they know you have found them out they invariably start cursing at you and being rude. Don't be so fucking naiive.

Re:they don't know any better

[Darinbob]

No, many are real. They fool the listener into installing a variant of TeamViewer so that they can remotely control the computer. And my mother nearly fell for this three times. Once was "Microsoft" saying they detected a virus on the computer, but she figured out something was funny and hung up and turned off before too much happened. Second time it was "Best Buy" (actually bestbuy??.us) who called her, shortly after a fake "you've got a virus!" messaged showed up. They offered to help fix her computer, for free. Step one was to remove the old antivirus. Then she bought the new Symantec Endpoint from "Best Buy". Then they ran a virus scan

I was sending some email back and forth and a bit confused by what she was saying, until I got an email update saying "I'll call Microsoft in the morning". So I called and woke her up to get the whole story, explaining that not even the President gets to just call Microsoft and that it was all a scam. She wondered why Best Buy would bother helping her if it was a scam. And she purchased the Symantec Endpoint using a bank transfer number(!!!!). So I had to talk hard to convince her to head to the bank the next day and cancel any transactions, and then monitor every week or so for unusual activity.

Third time it was something similar, only 6 months after the previous thing. She shut off the computer after seeing the mouse moving by itself. Then she got a local guy to remove viruses which he did by wiping the computer, reinstalling windows, and making a huge mess of things (he didn't know there was a backup, she didn't know any of her passwords, and he set her up with a new "free" email account even though the router on the desk should have made it clear she had a paid-for ISP account). I think she was too embarrassed to call me.

Really... when you're young your parents try to teach you beware if strangers. When you get older you have to each your parents to distrust strangers on the internet.

Re:they don't know any better

[Anonymous Coward]

Only the sole scammers. The larger ones hire a generic call center which follow given scripts. You can buy these services for next to nothing through the massive data capture services running in Manilla (cheaper than India). If you want 100,000 people contacted within a few days, they'll do it and follow your precise script (that's question flow, not some bash/perl/python file), and provide you with a uniformed export. You can even handle the calls and hook them through to their people who'll do the rest with no idea what's going on. It's trivial to do a farmed SIP breakout, exclusion lists, auto-learning and capture (which are then sold to others).

Disclaimer: I used to write the tools that allowed them to create phone support and market research capture within a few hours. Some were complete wank like the vehicle prospects, others were high level medical and pharma science (these are worth more than gold). My stuff was 100% legit, but I know the bastards sold my system when I started to get devs emailing me after finding my details in the source.

Re:they don't know any better

[Anonymous Coward]

pajeet's a good boy who dindu nuffin

Re:they don't know any better

[Anonymous Coward]

What you say is true about large scamming operations just hiring labor like anybody else. But the hire companies know they are supplying scammers, and the phone operators definitely know they are operating scams. They aren't idiots, they are qualified tech workers and they just don't care. They know they are not working for Microsoft when the say "I work for Microsoft". And they fucking know that the dialog and process scripts they are given don't match up.

Re: Scammers don't use real numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

Atleast until the call centers turn all their extensions to 900 numbers

nothing new

[Lumpy]

I was doing this 10 years ago with Asterisk phone server. get a phone call at the house, press *1 and it transfers them to telemarketer hell where it plays random human responses that are a lot better than his as I was looking for pauses in audio to respond, his is just random audio that is not responding to the audio coming in.

There was a asterisk guru that published all the goodies on how to do this over a decade ago and I used his code and modified it a bit. worked great and the longest I tired up a telemarketer was 2 hours.

about 4 years ago someone had a better one called "this is lenny" that emulated an old senile man and was recording the calls for everyones entertainment.

Re:nothing new

[sims 2]

Lenny is still going! https://www.reddit.com/r/itsle...

We waited for one

[Anonymous Coward]

When this first started happening we waited for one and had a VM setup just waiting and wasted a couple of hours of ones time! Watch it here.....hilarious! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T3e34DzGvo

targeting windows support scammers

[Anonymous Coward]

But - now what do I do for entertainment?

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[sconeu]

It's wintery here.

Re: I do even better vs. ...

[Anonymous Coward]

How could a hosts file possibly block phone calls?

Turing Test

[khelms]

This will discover if the telemarketers are really intelligent and self-aware.

Read closer (telemarketers not in my list)

[Anonymous Coward]

See my subject: Says it all - but vs. advertisers & malwaremakers/botnet herders etc. it does wonders blocking 'em out!

APK

P.S.=> Anyhow, onwards & upwards... apk

I hav one ...

[CaptainDork]

... 1-800-whitehouse.

Thanks, Roger.

You're a peach.

Re: Scammers don't use real numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares if it's a 900 number? The scammer calls you, and that is all that is needed to utilize these response scripts.

This guy...

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy should be forced to wear a cape because he's a god damn hero.

Re:This guy...

[DrackenFireBreather]

No! No capes!

http://i.imgur.com/9Ybgz.gif

any way to go further ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do those scammer make you download a "custom" teamviewer with virus or is it a genuine one ?
Could one develop a fake teamviewer "client" that will ultimately syskey the scammer pc ?
Maybe by pushing a command in the buffer and convincing the scammer to run it (with some social engineering) or by displaying a fake window
"
The teamviewer client didn't respond in time.
This is probably because of a too lengthy road.
We recommend you raise the maxhops [currently:100] for host [124.113.115.124].
The following command should fix this 'teamviewer.exe -clientreset -124.113.115.124 -maxhops:500'
This command has been pushed into the buffer of teamviewer server
It can be run in a cmd.exe
"

make sure it's a long text so that scammer will prefer to paste the command

but in the buffer you'd really push some nasty code after a donothing command
teamviewer.exe -clientreset -124.113.115.124 -maxhops:500............lot of space to hide this =>...............--comment:"teamviewer fix by"; __here_your_nasty_code__

It can't APK is a loon

[Anonymous Coward]

So they won't stop peddling their crap because they won't get paid and, I suspect, it is now merely to grief slashdot for not letting him peddle his shit freely on here.

Opinions vary #1/2 unidentifiable troll

[Anonymous Coward]

his hosts program is actually pretty good by xenotransplant

his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources by alexgieg

I've never tried to belittle (APK's) work, I've flat out said it's good by BronsCon

take a look at the APK hosts file engine by SuperKendall

APK is kinda right. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works by bmo

APK is totally right on this count. Adblock Plus on Firefox mobile is a dog on older, or lower end, phones. A hostfile based adblocker makes for a much better experience by chihowa

I like your host file system by Karmashock

I find your hosts file admirable by vel-ex-tech

* See subject: My code's liked & used + recommended & hosted by Malwarebytes' hpHosts!

(You WISH you could say the same but all you are is offtopic trolling unidentifiable scum... lol!)

APK

P.S.=> More coming... apk

Opinions vary #2/2 unidentifiable troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I support APK's stand on the hosts file by Trax3001BBS

Your premise that hostfiles are a good way to deal with advertising and malvertising is quite valid by JazzLad

No complaints from me, I like APK... Reminds me to use a host file. Also, his stuff is free by aaaaaaargh!

APK's monolithic hosts file is looking pretty good by Culture20

APK... Awesome to see he's still spreading the good word by Molochi

ABP is insufficient as a solid hosts file does everything that APK reminds us about by fast turtle

APK isn't wrong by cfalcon

APK, I know people give you a lot of shit regarding hosts, but please don't ever stop by nasredin

You need APK's hosts file by Teun

APK solution STILL relevant by Thud457

you're right about hosts files by drinkypoo

APK

P.S.=> They're in addition to https://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10221475&cid=53831617/ + 1,000's worldwide - there's no arguing w/ my success & YOUR failure... apk

Re:Opinions vary #2/2 unidentifiable troll

[crypticedge]

You've been pushing this virus for YEARS now on here. When will you give it up?

Eat your words troll... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See my subject (brand new 7 digit sockpuppet account troll) & proof vs. your libelous lies https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e01211ca36aa02e923f20adee0a3c4f5d5187dc65bdf1c997b3da3c2b0745425/analysis/1433430542/ that prove my ware's safe/clean in addition to & the fact that the highly esteemed Malwarebytes' own employee verifed the code as safe too "I've seen the code & it's safe" http://forum.hosts-file.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4290/ PLUS h t t p : / / f . v i r s c a n . o r g / A P K H o s t s F i l e E n g i n e I n s t a l l e r 3 2 _ 6 4 b i t . e x e . h t m l (take out spaces here)

* You WISH you could do the same vs. being an off-topic trolling sockpuppeteering "ne'er-do-well" that you clearly are!

APK

P.S.=> You're pitifully jealous others speak well of my work and they never will YOUR non-existent programs... apk

Re:Eat your words troll... apk

[Zontar The Mindless]

I heard somebody posted an article about you on Encyclopedia Dramatica but it got deleted. I wonder why anybody would do that.

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[AmiMoJo]

Yes, that's how it works. They get you to call them back, because it gives the victim more confidence. People have got the message that if random people call you claiming to be your bank, it's probably a scam, so you need to call them on their official number... And somehow telling people to call back with a number left in a voice mail fulfils this requirement.

It also means you have plenty of time to prepare a Windows 98 VM and set up a Skype account to call them with. Someone needs to make a VM with randomly generated user data and a virtual user who wastes the scammer's time, while auto-reporting their TeamViewer account for TOS violations etc.

Crap Regulation builds an industry!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who's have thought the 'lightness of touch' of your law makers and regulators would mean a whole industry would spring up!?

I'm not sure such a service exists in the UK because you know what - it's illegal for people to call you if you've made a preference for them to leave you alone. And believe it or not, call centres really do take it seriously. You do get the odd call from abroad, but even they're getting the squeeze put on them.

That said, it's great to see a 'solution' that uses SIP. Shame it still hangs up your landline for the duration :-(

Hilarious

[SpaghettiPattern]

Never heard of it before. Youtubed it. Absolutely hilarious!

• Are calling about something?
• I'm kind of like in the middle of something right now. Like what are you exactly calling about?

Zontar the proven nutcase sockpuppeteer!

[Anonymous Coward]

See my subject & proof Zontar makes sockpuppets to harass me & yes that he's mentally disturbed, literally https://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9954349&cid=53427117/ & Zontar's a KNOWN nutjob druggie admittedly in a few links there - so much so, the freak sent me a postcard threatening me, lol!

* Take your meds & GROW UP, loon!

APK

P.S.=> There's a reason you'll always be mentally damaged goods & trolling trash only online Zontar - you waste time & wasted your life (& mind, on drugs + being a pest freak)... apk

Re:Zontar the proven nutcase sockpuppeteer!

[Zontar The Mindless]

Such modesty from one who's got a whole archive dedicated to him at Ars Technica. How touching.

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[tepples]

Are any of the popular tech support scam baiters on YouTube based out of Australia or New Zealand?

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[tepples]

It also means you have plenty of time to prepare a Windows 98 VM and set up a Skype account to call them with.

The scammers have become wise to this. They refuse to deal with Windows 98 and Windows XP on grounds that Microsoft has announced their end of support.

Someone needs to make a VM with randomly generated user data and a virtual user who wastes the scammer's time

Someone needs to go on YouTube and watch Lewis's Tech, Thunder Tech, Each&Everything, etc. do exactly this.

Scammer Sub Lounge

[tepples]

You could waste their time, upload the waste of time to YouTube, and possibly even make a little money on ads. It works for the Scammer Sub Lounge partners.

I do even better...

[Anonymous Coward]

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Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's more to do with cost. Just like with real support, the more OS versions you target the more you have to spend on training. For the small number of W98 boxes still out there it's probably not worth developing a phone script and attack workflow.

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[TheCarp]

> The scammers have become wise to this. They refuse to deal with Windows 98 and Windows XP on grounds that Microsoft has announced their end of support.

So much effort anyway....its easier to not setup a VM and...get this.... Lie to them.

Its fun. Treat it like a video game. Its role playing practice. Your just rolled a new character "stupid user". Just pretend to be the dumbest user you ever tried to help, and imagine what issues they might encounter. Feel free to be "too smart for your own good".

My favorite was when one guy asked me to open a link "in chrome", I agree. 3 mins later he is asking "whats going on now?" "oh I am installing chrome" "oh so you have a web....ok" He waited another 5 minutes before checking in again.

Hint: I wasn't installing chrome

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[tepples]

its easier to not setup a VM

One of the first things a scammer does is get you to install a remote assistance application to give administrative access to Windows. No VM means the scammer can use syskey.exe to apply a boot password you don't know or otherwise completely wreck it.

My favorite was when one guy asked me to open a link "in chrome", I agree. 3 mins later he is asking "whats going on now?"

So your strategy appears to involve stalling the scammer to keep him from even getting to the LogMeIn or GoToMyPC or TeamViewer step. Are there videos of that strategy?

Arstechnica = chumps I blew away easily

[Anonymous Coward]

I also WIPED ARSTECHNICA OFF THE MAP in 2003-2006 @ Windows IT Pro easily - Jeremy Reimer got his website removed by Shaw of Canada his ISP & hosting provider + he was put on a tracking ticket by them for email harassment... his "henchman" Jay Little said "I am an EXPERT on Exchange" which much to his dismay worked against him @ "The Memory Optimization Hoax" where I proved to them AND Dr. Mark Russinovich (former "co-worker" of mine @ Sunbelt where we retailed our wares there & he bitched I outsold his work, awww) that that technology unhalted & sped up frozen Exchange Servers USING MICROSOFT'S OWN DOCUMENTATION TO DO IT (clearmem.exe is the same tech, but not GUI, & I designed the 1st program of that nature in GUI no less).

Jay Little then trolled & stalked me to other websites where I annihilated him on ramdrives as well - he was banned + had his website @ CrystalTech removed by that hosting provider for libeling me.

FOOLS... you're the same kind of scum, but you're just as easy to dispatch with truth & facts.

APK

P.S.=> Bad move bringing up the DOLTS of Arstechnica - all they can do is "gossip" like old biddies behind my back, BUT OUTSIDE THEIR "PRIVATE PLAYPEN"? The results are QUITE different, see above, lol... apk

Re:Arstechnica = chumps I blew away easily

[Zontar The Mindless]

And this is why you're too much of a coward to sign in with an account here, right? It would have nothing to do with you getting banned time and again from the Ars forums?

And this is also why I spent last evening enjoying a 10-course dinner for the Lantern Festival at the Great Happiness Restaurant in Guangzhou while you dined on Cheet-Ohs in your mother's basement in Poughkeepsie? In your world, this somehow makes you a winner and me a loser? I'm having trouble following your logic here.

As for the postcard--in no way whatsoever was it "threatening", since all it said was something like, "Greetings from your old buddy Zontar in Stockholm. Behave yourself." Any "threat" you perceived was purely the product of your own imagination, most likely when you realised that (a) it was indeed possible (and even dead easy) to track you down, (b) someone with ill intent and time on his hands could just as easily have shown up at your door, and (c) you fucked up big time by admitting you'd even got the thing. Fortunately for you, (a) I am a more ethical being (and a smarter one) than you, (b) I am not vulnerable in the way that Jeremy, Jay, or your other victims were--and (c) you are not really worth the trouble in any case.

As for your ridiculous claims concerning Russinovitch: Anyone with the time & patience to check out your claims will discover, just as I did, that you managed to get more downloads of your crappy freeware than he did his because you mercilessly spammed every web forum you could find, just like you try to do here.

Saturday in the park,
I think it was the 4th of July...

HAND, AlecStaar.

Re:Arstechnica = chumps I blew away easily

[Zontar The Mindless]

Oh, right, it's Syracuse, not Poughkeepsie. Whatever.

I see u don't deny I dusted Arseholetechnica!

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: It was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'" & I realized they're chumps. Your fake name 4 yer fake life doesn't appeal to me - I know you're mentally disturbed by your OWN admissions here, so that all said & aside? I don't waste time on LOONS like you, ok??

* Grow up, get a REAL life, instead of your 'phantasyland' FAKE NAME one online trolling/harassing/stalking others (as you do me nigh constantly, you sicko)... lol!

APK

P.S.=> There's NO question I took a former "co-worker" of mine down in Dr. Mark Russinovich - I used Microsoft's OWN documentation to do it (took Jay Little of arstechnica down too, the "exchange expert" by his own blowhard bs he couldn't backup when I proved mem defrags do the job - 1 problem w/ linked lists IS that (too many pointers ALL OVER MEMORY, causes 'thrash' 1st & then halting))... apk

Re:Scammers don't use real numbers

[TheCarp]

Right, I don't actually DO any of the things I was claiming, I just lie to him. Its so much easier than actually going through with it. I put him on speakerphone and go about my business while I fuck with him.

No videos, but one dude totally caught on and started singing to me before he hung up.