Two Arrested In $10 Million Tech Support Scam That Preyed On the Elderly (gizmodo.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Two individuals were arrested this week in connection with a fraud scheme that manipulated thousands of victims into paying for invented tech services that they didn't need. The Department of Justice announced that the two individuals Romana Leyva, 35, and Ariful Haque, 33, were arrested Wednesday for their alleged participation in the fraud scheme, which involved convincing victims -- many of whom were elderly -- in both the U.S. and Canada that they needed tech and virus protection services that were neither real nor required.
Between March 2015 and December 2018, both Ariful and Haque were allegedly involved with the fraud ring responsible for the crimes. According to an unsealed indictment, the scheme involved targeting victims with pop-up windows -- sometimes under the guise of being a legitimate tech company -- that claimed their computer had been infected with a virus and directed them to call a number for technical support. In some cases, the message threatened that if the individual closed the window or shut down their computer, it would either bork their device or result in a "complete data loss." Once users contacted the number, they were connected with a fake technician. To convince victims to hand over money, after receiving "permission" from the victim, the fraud ring allegedly remotely accessed the individual's computer, loaded an anti-virus tool that's available for free online, and informed the individual that their computer was infected with a virus (which, again, was a lie). The DOJ says the scheme was able to successfully scam "at least" 7,500 victims out of a combined $10 million.
Both of the individuals arrested are charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.
Between March 2015 and December 2018, both Ariful and Haque were allegedly involved with the fraud ring responsible for the crimes. According to an unsealed indictment, the scheme involved targeting victims with pop-up windows -- sometimes under the guise of being a legitimate tech company -- that claimed their computer had been infected with a virus and directed them to call a number for technical support. In some cases, the message threatened that if the individual closed the window or shut down their computer, it would either bork their device or result in a "complete data loss." Once users contacted the number, they were connected with a fake technician. To convince victims to hand over money, after receiving "permission" from the victim, the fraud ring allegedly remotely accessed the individual's computer, loaded an anti-virus tool that's available for free online, and informed the individual that their computer was infected with a virus (which, again, was a lie). The DOJ says the scheme was able to successfully scam "at least" 7,500 victims out of a combined $10 million.
Both of the individuals arrested are charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.
So, they sold a service you didn't actually need? (Score:1)
How is this different from when you go to one of those $20 oil change places and they practically tell you your car is going to explode in the next hour if you don't get their $299 super mega dynamic everything flush service? Or, to use a non-car analogy, it's like when one of those dumb free-to-play games starts bruising the ol' ego if you don't stock up on that sweet, sweet in-app currency. "Sorry, you don't have enough FarmDiamonds to buy animal feed! Your cute critters are going to slowly and painful
Re:So, they sold a service you didn't actually nee (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's selling a product that doesn't exist, so a better analogy would be charging people for exorcisms or SEO
Psychic readings are legal last I checked, as is selling homeopathic "drugs" (which are 100% placebo). I there's also some company selling something called the NoPhone, one of which is just an empty bag. The burden is on the buyer to realize they're paying for nothing. [thenophone.com]
There's apparently a very fine line between "scam" and "caveat emptor".
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So obviously the original reading is legal, but the cursed money scam is not. Likewise, an aggressive upsell (you need to buy this $100 candle and burn it every night) would not be.
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There's apparently a very fine line between "scam" and "caveat emptor".
In this case I think the existence of the fine line is due to the direct correlation between scam and caveat emptor.
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NO, this is the reason police, courts and correctional services exist, to investigate and prosecute and rehabilitate those who would commit crimes, in this case fraud. However I think they are entirely at fault in the number of charges, each and every victim was an individual crime and they should be penalised for each and every discovered victims, those individual victims are entitled to their day in court and have justice provided for them. Those criminals deserve to be penalised for each and every crime
Re: So, they sold a service you didn't actually ne (Score:1)
Nobody from Wells Fargo went to jail.
These people are simply in the wrong class of human.
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Do we have to keep them in the human class? Shooting them on sight would be so much more legal if we didn't.
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Most companies indemnify themselves against fraud charges in their EULA / Arbitration clauses.
If that is legally binding, it is time to change the law to declare such clauses illegal.
And considering fraud is covered by criminal law, not civil law, would the DA be bound by the clause anyway?
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Re: So, they sold a service you didn't actually ne (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why I always get oil changes at Walmart. Really. I can actually count on them to be honest about whether my air filter needs to be changed without needing get my hands dirty to look at it, and they don't charge anything to change wiper blades that you can buy off of the shelf for $6.
Oh and if they fuck something up, they'll actually own it too instead of pretending that it was already that way to begin with. Sure, it costs $10 more for a synthetic oil change at Walmart, but so fucking what? Every other place you go to treats oil changes as a loss leader and they make every mechanic into a salesman.
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I just don't trust anyone else to torque a drain plug properly. The number of ostensible professionals i have seen abuse them and obviously overtorque things has convinced me to do most of my own service.
Which means i guess i should just knuckle down and do the fluid and filter on the sprinter myself, but i sure do hate doing transmission pans.
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When I was young and a mechanic, I'd often go to other shops to pick up cars or drop off parts and stuff.
On more than one occasion (never in our shop!), I saw mechanics reinstalling oil drain plugs with an impact wrench. It made me queasy to see what they were doing and hear that chunk-chunk-chunk...
And ugh, transmission pans.
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This took me all of 2 minutes to find. So asshole, you bitch and moan about how the older generation has raped the earth. You mother fucker are doing the same thing right now ju
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Honestly, the elderly generation have stolen so many resources from this planet weather it's lumber, fossil fuels, or money, that frankly when I hear about "scams" like this I honestly wonder we're wasting police time on them
But fortunately, we vote and you don't.
Re: So, they sold a service you didn't actually ne (Score:2)
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It's also no different from the Prosperity Preachers. They have a TV show that rotates around a few of them, one per week. They are all white guys and the show always starts out with a black choir. After music, the Preacher gets on and proceeds to regale the audience in some story of a miserable situation. The situation only gets better when the Preacher has given $1000 "seed" to G-d (which is a bit odd since He has no where to spend it) that he didn't think he could afford and, whallah, a miracle happens a
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How is this different from when you go to one of those $20 oil change places and they practically tell you your car is going to explode in the next hour if you don't get their $299 super mega dynamic everything flush service?
The oil-change place exists in your city and can be nailed by local authorities or reported to your city's Fourteen On Your Side consumer affairs news segment. It can't scam thousands of people who have no idea where it is located, responsible to nothing and no one.
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They also ran other scams once you were on the hook. They put viruses on the computers said they'd need to be paid to remove it (or to purchase free antivirus tools). They'd also give "refunds" then claim they made a mistake and needed the victim to reimburse them.
It's extremely difficult to convince some elderly to stop trusting everyone on the internet or who calls them over the phone. These aren't even tricky con games with elaborate set-ups, and the adage that cons only snare people who are greedy is o
Your mac is infected with three viruses (Score:2)
I keep getting these periodic pop-ups on my mac, only in safari. when I click on a link in some websites. It's not reproducible on demand. I'm stumped if it's Safari or the web sites that are doing this. As far as Safari goes I've removed every extension listed. Anyone know if it this is the nominally legit websites (such as SMBC) or if it's some worse corruption of my mac.
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Well that's just it. these are not shady website. THey are things like Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, king features comics, and various news outlets like the washgington post.
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Because the legitimate sites are lazy and rely on third party advertisers to do all the effort - sign up once and wait for ad money to show up. Then those third party sites use other third party script services, and so forth. Just one compromised script screws it all up.
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I'm stumped if it's Safari or the web sites that are doing this.
It's the ad servers used by otherwise legit sites. They are somehow allowing malicious JavaScript through. I don't know why they allow ANY JavaScript through at all.
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Thant's great to know. But can you tell me how you know that? I'm surprised they can re-direct the main site the ad is displayed in, didn't think that is possible.
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Process of elimination. I was on a site, walked away from the computer and came back to one of those beeping pop ups. I went back to the original site, which was pretty simple, not a lot of code, and looked through the JavaScript. Nothing unusual. The only remaining possibility was the ad server.
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I hope that's it. Not sure why safari should be more prone to this. And in the past I have found extensions that were a problem. So I'm nervous when I see this now.
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Because it's easy. No one wants to pay for on-site support services, so they go to the cloud for everything, contract out the advertising to someone else, and so forth. Noscript is an essential service that most people don't bother with because it breaks 99% of the sites out there.
Grifter, Con-Artist, Hustler, Gypsy (Score:3)
I personally try to minimize my use of "Gypsy" as a derogatory as in "Hey I got Gyp'ed"
While i don't think it's widely considered a slur in the US , because people don't realize that "Gyp'ed" (jipped, gypped,etc) is related to Gypsys.
The con-artist is now using a computer. It's nothing new.
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I personally try to minimize my use of "Gypsy" as a derogatory as in "Hey I got Gyp'ed"
While i don't think it's widely considered a slur in the US...
Because most Americans have never had to run the gauntlet of a European railway station swarming with pickpockets.
Execute them! (Score:1)
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We need to send a message. 2 people is NOTHING. They need to be executed
Harsh penalties are far less of a deterrent than a high probability of getting caught.
We should spend fewer resources on executions, less on long sentences, and more on catching the crooks in the first place.
Re:Execute them! (Score:4, Informative)
If you aren't giving decent punishments then what the hell is there to fear of getting caught.
Execution is not a "decent" punishment. Neither is a prison sentence more harsh than many murders receive.
Punishment should be proportionate to the crime.
This is why youth crime is through the roof
Bullcrap. Youth crime is highest is states like Louisiana where sentences are harsh, and lower where sentences are more lenient, such as in New England. Recidivism is highest where sentences are harshest. Our prisons are crime factories.
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We should spend fewer resources on executions, less on long sentences, and more on catching the crooks in the first place.
Which crooks are you talking about exactly? Are 'important' crooks included or just those who can't afford to pay the bribes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ? Can you answer this question honestly or is it too hard ? :)
Be sure to include references too, your word alone is worth zilch
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Harsh penalties do nothing when the chance of getting caught is almost zero. What would help is prosecuting the big time criminals: the ad networks delivering scams and malware and the website owners looking the other way.
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The ad networks are not, generally, committing crimes, any more than DNS servers commit crimes by providing valid DNS lookup for www.wikipedia.com. The level of filtering you seek is just the level of filtering where news about organ harvesting of Falun Gong members is blocked from being seen in China. It's an extremely dangerous level of content censorship.
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A far stronger message would be if we put more effort behind catching such criminals.
Harsh penalties mean jack shit if the chance to be caught is close to zero. Tell me, what did jacking up the punishment for copyright infringement to outright ridiculous levels accomplish? Hmm?
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Their spamming and scamming colleagues have already replaced them. Sadly, it is not the extremity of punishment that deters crime. It's the _certainty_ of punishment. And law enforcement against computer fraud or abuse is much like homeopathic medicine. A few molecules of enforcement in a large bottle of cure does not justify the cost of the FBI Computer Crime, which has had no demonstrable convictions with evidence gathered _by them_ that I can find anywhere. The FBI only cites the existence of old crimes
Somethings never change. (Score:2)
The 90s called....
Had to change bank account (Score:5, Funny)
My father fell victim to such a scam. He told me "Microsoft called and they were very helpful."
I told him Microsoft does neither.
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It's sad that people fall for this. I mostly trained my mother to be dubious, though she still falls for things. She did have Microsoft call trying to give her a refund, despite the fact that she never once has given any money to Microsoft. But just the idea of "Microsoft" calling sounds important to someone who thinks that it's very difficult to pretend to be Microsoft on the phone. My mother does start to give a second thought once some money is involved, but is completely gullible about others puttin
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Have to ask - did he say shut up sonny? No back talk?
They got my mother in law. I think for over $240. Then the expense of cleaning it up.
Of course it's a scam! (Score:2)
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Oh you wish...
We once had a message in our code that read something along the lines of "Shit went belly-up, tell Bob he fucked up". Of course, this was never meant to make it into production and get shipped.
But I'm really sure everyone knows how this story ends, right?
It even hit firefox on linux. (Score:5, Informative)
Interestingly the hops that the javascript window were making were also secondarily to a site in Moscow so I suspect that there is more to this story than meets the eye. These guys might well be employed by Russian organized crime. That is my bet on the real origins and backers for laundering the money they stole. I traced the traffic as it was at work pinging away waiting for me to enter my personal information or pick up the phone, call the number and talk to these assholes. The phone number was a real one. It was obvious that it was serious javascript hack otherwise all the firefox macros would not have been completely frozen. The java engine was not up during the freeze so it was an internal javascript hack that hosed firefox on linux.
Funny as hell sitting at a Linux laptop and being told by a pop up that my "Windows" computer was compromised though. ROFL
Don't they know when to quit? (Score:5, Interesting)
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But it's easy money and it comes flowing in! Why stop now?
You see, the idea that getting caught is a very real option doesn't enter the equation.
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It's always the last job that gets you caught. In other words, criminals don't quit until they get caught, unless they're really smart about it, but most smart people are smart enough to not be criminals. It's a little bit like a ponzi scam, you should cash out at the peak, but no one knows when peak will happen until after it has already happened.
Re: Don't they know when to quit? (Score:1)
Perhaps sentence to a long sing in prison with a constant stream of seniors calling them after being told what they did, so that they endure a tongue lashing about dropping off their elders. (and who knows, they might want to talk to a nice young man who is a captive audience)
Kitboga (Score:2)
If these scams keep getting shut down, who will Kitboga call and mess with?!
https://www.youtube.com/channe... [youtube.com]
Kitboga (Score:1)
This is exactly why I watch kitboga (youtube; too lazy to link). You get to see what the scammers do and, as a bonus, he fucks around with them for hours so they get frustrated and lose time trying to scam other people. As a bonus, he's hilarious.
Highly recommend.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodet (Score:2)
These 'people' should be jailed until they're elderly and then set free to fend for themselves in the world they made.
Microsoft Windows strikes again (Score:1)
What was the name of this legitimate tech company?
$10M from 7,500 victims? (Score:1)
Thatâ(TM)s an average of $1200 per victim... for a 3.5 year scam...
The unsealed indictment notes they sold one time, one year and lifetime subscriptions, and sometimes would offer âoerefundsâ for the lifetime subscriptions and thereby access the customerâ(TM)s bank account for more fraudulent transfers. It also notes they transitioned from credit cards toward gift cards and money orders.
The gullibility of computer users is unlimited â" education has failed to keep a (mostly) older g
Comment (Score:2)
Happened to a little old lady who is my best customer for my computer consulting side gig. She's 90+ years old and still capable of reading email, typing church bulletins in WordPerfect (that's still a thing, by the way), visiting websites, and falling for popups that say to call Microsoft. It doesn't help that Windows 10 updates whenever it wants, so it makes the computer so opaque that the user simply has to do what he is told to do.
I have had people tell me that if Linux can run Powerpoint, they'd switch