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Tech Support Scammers Used Victims' Webcams To Secretly Record 'Testimonials' For YouTube (gizmodo.com)
A team of scammers sneakily filmed dozens of Australians by remotely accessing their webcams, then uploaded those videos onto YouTube, according to Australian news outlet ABC. From a report: The victims were reportedly lured in through a false tech support operation. One victim, Geoff Sussman, told ABC he looked online for a service that could help him download Adobe software. He says he was duped by a fake Adobe support page claiming to provide "Support for Adobe Australia," and called a 1-800 number on the site. The number led him to an operation called Macpatchers, which told him he had a virus and asked him to download software to give them remote access to his computer. This is a common scam technique, but Macpatchers seems to have taken it a step farther and asked him to read a script that appeared on the screen, claiming he was pleased with the service. Unbeknownst to him, Macpatchers were accessing his camera, and recorded the statement. The group then reportedly uploaded the video to YouTube along with the videos of 68 other victims -- a chorus of fake testimonials recommending the service. A man who describes himself as a "scam-baiter" uncovered the operation and shared his finding with ABC. He told ABC that Macpatchers recommended he check out their reviews.
Dude, seriously, never let your own understanding of computers make you forget just how little some people know about them. Suddenly they have one and don't know much about it, and it's a big scary thing.
What, like, viewing a PDF for instance?
These tech support scams still work, because obviously people still fall for them. By the time you're setting up a web page to claim to be the people to call, and getting users to unknowingly record YouTube testimonials ... you've taken that to a degree of sophistication that the people who will fall for this kind of scam will be unable to avoid.
I mean, my god, you find it via a Google search, check on YouTube and see testimonials, and then you call.
There are corporate executives who would fall for this.
This isn't cold calling, this is actively building pages that show up in searches so people call you. Short of knowing the initial website is a scam, that's awfully hard for someone to guard against.
I had a spare VM image lying around when they called my parents. Was curious what they actually 'did'.
Got me to download LogMeIn and guided me to Event Viewer. Pointed out "red crosses" as signs of a virus. They then proceeded to poke around the PC, occasionally firing up Regedit, and just generally looking through folders.
At the end of the process, I explained I'd just been following along as I was curious what the patter was, he attempted to delete My Documents, My Pictures and My Music, and proceeded to swear at me for wasting his time.