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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.
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.
Some of the youtube calls are funny. I have salty sally on quick transfer. Its only six bucks a year.
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.
Hi, this is Lenny!! Come again?
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.)
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.
Vigilante justice has never been funnier.
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.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
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.
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
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.
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).
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
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.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
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....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
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.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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!
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.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
It's wintery here.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
This will discover if the telemarketers are really intelligent and self-aware.
... 1-800-whitehouse.
Thanks, Roger.
You're a peach.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
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.
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.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
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.
You've been pushing this virus for YEARS now on here. When will you give it up?
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.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I heard somebody posted an article about you on Encyclopedia Dramatica but it got deleted. I wonder why anybody would do that.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Never heard of it before. Youtubed it. Absolutely hilarious!
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Are any of the popular tech support scam baiters on YouTube based out of Australia or New Zealand?
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.
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.
No! No capes!
http://i.imgur.com/9Ybgz.gif
Read the rest of this rant...
> 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
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
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?
Such modesty from one who's got a whole archive dedicated to him at Ars Technica. How touching.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Oh, right, it's Syracuse, not Poughkeepsie. Whatever.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"