Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

24 People Have Now Been Sentenced In India-Based Phone-Scam Case (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the long-distance-charges dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A total of 24 people who pleaded guilty to their involvement in a massive years-long phone scam often involving fake Internal Revenue Service and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials have now been given prison sentences from four to 20 years. The indictment was originally filed in October 2016 against 61 people and includes charges of conspiracy to commit identity theft, impersonation of an officer of the United States, wire fraud, and money laundering. If victims didn't pay up, callers threatened arrest, deportation, or heavier fines. There were also related scams involving fake payday loans and bogus U.S. government grants, according to the criminal complaint. The lead defendant was Miteshkumar Patel, who was given 20 years.

1 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Now if they could only do something... by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used to enjoy them, my best was 16 minutes and screaming abuse at the end, but I got 4 in one day, so I blocked all incoming international calls. They dropped off for a while, but now they're spoofing local numbers. Sometimes I answer, sometimes I don't.

    I've got some hindi swear/abuse phrases ready to go (stuff like "you're the result of a toilet cleaner fucking a goat"), but my best was asking the girl from "Windows technical department" what her mother would think of her activities. She went silent for about 10 seconds, then hung up.

    Amateur. YouTube has a few people who can get scammers on the phone for at least an hour, approaching 4 and a half. Though to be honest, a good chunk of it is simply dead air - they ask the victim to go out and buy gift cards or something (which is good for a couple of hours of scammers on hold).

    And scammers have an "emergency out" - if they get exposed, they immediately lock the machine and syskey it to ensure it is unbootable. Of course, it all happens in a virtual machine, so restoring the damage is trivial, but it's funny.

    Some YouTube channels:
    Kitboga. He's had scammers insult him, make death threats and all sorts of fun.

    This guy enacts revenge on the scammers by infecting their PC. Most of the scammers are just doing a script, so their PCs are often wide open and infectable, so it's possible to get RATs and such installed on their PC.

    This guy investigates scammers computers. His latest video involves a bank login scam where he manages to install a RAT on the scammer's computer. He watches as a scammer attempts to register for and log into some elderly guy's bank account (luckily, the bank actually sends something to customers when this happens, so the scammer not only had no chance. He also alerted the bank who locked the online account for fraud.

    Yes, it's fun watching scammer's computers and call centers get infected. Perhaps they can call themselves for tech support.

    I admit, I get a lot of those calls. It's amazing how they always use the most robotic of voices. Also, apparently retailers are alert to the scam as well - several times they've been stopped when they see people buying thousands of dollars worth of iTunes or other gift cards. Though, someone was so embarrassed they made up a whole story about being "arrested" and transported and caused the police to issue an alert.