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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.
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.)
Vigilante justice has never been funnier.
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.
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.
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.
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.