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Crime

Who's Making All Those Scam Calls? (nytimes.com) 150

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Every year, tens of millions of Americans collectively lose billions of dollars to scam callers. Where does the other end of the line lead? From a report: I flew to India at the end of 2019 hoping to visit some of the call centers that L. had identified as homes for scams. Although he had detected many tech-support scams originating from Delhi, Hyderabad and other Indian cities, L. was convinced that Kolkata -- based on the volume of activity he was noticing there -- had emerged as a capital of such frauds. I knew the city well, having covered the crime beat there for an English-language daily in the mid-1990s, and so I figured that my chances of tracking down scammers would be better there than most other places in India. I took with me, in my notebook, a couple of addresses that L. identified in the days just before my trip as possible origins for some scam calls. Because the geolocation of I.P. addresses -- ascertaining the geographical coordinates associated with an internet connection -- isn't an exact science, I wasn't certain that they would yield any scammers.

But I did have the identity of a person linked to one of these spots, a young man whose first name is Shahbaz. L. identified him by matching webcam images and several government-issued IDs found on his computer. The home address on his ID matched what L. determined, from the I.P. address, to be the site of the call center where he operated, which suggested that the call center was located where he lived or close by. That made me optimistic I would find him there. In a recording of a call Shahbaz made in November, weeks before my Kolkata visit, I heard him trying to hustle a woman in Ottawa and successfully intimidating and then fleecing an elderly man in the United States.
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Who's Making All Those Scam Calls? More

Who's Making All Those Scam Calls?

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  • Warning, Rant I May Regret (Score:3)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:13PM (#61006344) Journal
    Most of the summer has been spent talking about the role of police in our society. How they are overarmed and prone to busting heads of marginalized people. If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people? Furthermore, why can't they catch porch pirates when they are caught on camera? [youtube.com]

    Something is wrong here.
    • Furthermore, Mark Rober [youtube.com] and Jim Browning [youtube.com] seem to have no trouble tracking these guys down. It's like the police aren't even trying.

      • The level of corruption and relatively low price for buying local officials make any prosecution unlikely

      • Re:Warning, Rant I May Regret (Score:5, Interesting)

        by sheph ( 955019 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @03:11PM (#61006528)
        Well the math doesn't really work. Which one generates more revenue for the city (who in turn pays the officer's salary)? Handing out tickets, or tracking down stolen goods and returning them to their rightful owner? I'm not a fan of defunding the police, but I do think it's about time to demand they start working for our benefit rather than their own. Performance metrics that are based on actual societal benefit. Alternatively we could start shooting porch pirates (and solving other police matters ourselves). That's another acceptable solution in my opinion.

        • OTOH, if police ticketing slows down drivers enough to avert critically injuring even one single victim, it could save society as much cost as thousands of porch pirate thefts.

          • If we cared about people putting other people's lives ask risk due to speeding, we would mandate governors on the cars so they couldn't go so fast in the first place.

            That would raise the cost of the car a few hundred dollars but if they were mandated then every car would get one. It would increase road safety in a huge way but it would also literally defund the police.

            Police budgets shouldn't rely on writing traffic violations. Police aren't suppose to be a profitable organization. It cost resources to have

            • The governor idea is probably unworkable. Obviously it would need to be a high tech GPS-based system that knows speed limits. Now you've got a privacy nightmare, and jackasses would avoid the whole thing by only buying old cars without governors.

              I generally agree that the police shouldn't be keeping ticket proceeds themselves.

              The funds from tickets probably ought to distributed to the public as tax credits, similar to how some states distribute part of their lottery proceeds. That way you'd see a big increa

        • I'm not a fan of defunding the police, but I do think it's about time to demand they start working for our benefit rather than their own.

          Our political discourse is so dysfunctional we're left with eliminating police entirely, or buying them all jackboots. Most police forces have a motto of, "to serve and protect." That's what most Americans want!

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by spun ( 1352 )

            Most sane folks know "defund the police" does not mean to do away with them entirely, but simply to reduce their funding and put those funds to use in other areas. A few radicals like the "boogaloo boys" or some of black lives matter folks do believe we should abolish the police entirely, but they are a small minority of those who talk about defunding the police. Most of us just want more fund for social workers and housing the homeless.

            • Most sane folks know "defund the police" does not mean to do away with them entirely, but simply to reduce their funding and put those funds to use in other areas.

              Maybe it does in your circle. However, I think "defund the police" means something different depending on who you ask. That's a big problem. It's hard to get a concept to gain traction if not everyone agrees on what it is in the first place.

              An idea is worthless unless you can share it with others.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by XXongo ( 3986865 )

                Most sane folks know "defund the police" does not mean to do away with them entirely, but simply to reduce their funding and put those funds to use in other areas.

                Maybe it does in your circle. However, I think "defund the police" means something different depending on who you ask.

                Yep. https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]?

                And some of the people who say "defund the police" do, in fact, literally mean remove all their funding and abolish them. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0... [nytimes.com]

              • Even Obama agreed the people that came up with "Defund the police" picked the exact wrong set of words.

                Any time you have to explain your sound bite, you need to go back to the drawing board and come up with something more marketable.

        • Great point (other than the last two sentences). Some many laws about about extracting money from, especially poor, people, like civil forfeiture. Changing metrics should be the priority.

      • Re:Warning, Rant I May Regret (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Moridineas ( 213502 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @03:48PM (#61006612) Journal

        For many of these cases, don't blame the police, blame the politicians and court system.

        My car was broken into about 5 years ago. The police got a great finger print from the door and some surveillance footage. They found the guy who did it. This was not his first arrest.

        The DA strongly recommended I not press charges, and told me that if I chose to press charges she would basically not pursue the case and she would ask for no sentencing. End result, the guy went through some rehabilitation program (again).

        I google his name every year or two, and every year his rap sheet gets longer.

        This kind of crime is perpetrated by a relatively small number of people, it's done with impunity in full sight of cameras, etc., becasue they know they won't get punished.

        • The DA strongly recommended I not press charges, and told me that if I chose to press charges she would basically not pursue the case and she would ask for no sentencing. End result, the guy went through some rehabilitation program (again).

          I google his name every year or two, and every year his rap sheet gets longer.

          Why no effective prosecution? Corruption, perhaps?

    • Re:Warning, Rant I May Regret (Score:4, Insightful)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:23PM (#61006364)

      If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people?

      Yeah, the local cops should just hop on a plane to India and grab the guy.

      • If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people?

        Yeah, the local cops should just hop on a plane to India and grab the guy.

        There's a better way. [wikipedia.org]

      • I had a live one from India forward me to an insurance guy in Springfield Ohio. He legit thought that I was looking for insurance. So some people pay for leads, apparently. I wrote down his business info so email me and Iâ(TM)ll let you contact him and ask who and how he bought his service.

    • Re:Warning, Rant I May Regret (Score:5, Insightful)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:25PM (#61006368)
      Because the people the police bust are in their jurisdiction. What the hell are the police in your city supposed to do about someone in another country? Before you come up with some explanation ask yourself if your actions wherever you live violate the law in another country in any way and ask yourself if you'd like their police force to show up at your door and cart you off to face trial in a country or municipality that you don't even live in or may not even know exists.

      The easiest people for police to catch are the people they are already in the physical presence of and even if you know who someone is based on an image or where they live if you somehow figure that out, the police would still need a warrant to search their home or arrest them. On one hand you complain that they're somehow too cavalier, but on the other you seemingly want to be able disregard the protections citizens already have. Make up your mind.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        What the hell are the police in your city supposed to do about someone in another country?

        How about try to work with the local police in that other country through Interpol?

        • I'm afraid that comes down to resources, or the lack of them. Small town, and many big city, police departments simply don't have the resources to prosecute crimes that cross international boarders. The only thing they can do is kick it up stairs, if they do that at all.

          Then it comes down to resources again at the federal level. To put it bluntly your grand maw getting scammed out of a few thousand dollars, or several grand maws, simply isn't worth the resources it would take to go after these peopl

        • What the hell are the police in your city supposed to do about someone in another country?

          How about try to work with the local police in that other country through Interpol?

          According to Jim Browning, the Indian police are not permitted to act on any complaint that does not come from within India. So if you want to make a complaint, fly to India to make it. Good luck with that though, the district police chief's wife probably works in the scam centre, and these places do wonders for the local economy too.

      • On one hand you complain that they're somehow too cavalier, but on the other you seemingly want to be able disregard the protections citizens already have. Make up your mind.

        If the crime is committed in a jurisdiction, the police in that jurisdiction should prosecute that individual. Residence doesn't matter, where the crime is committed does.

        Example: Suppose a resident of Nevada crosses into California, holds up a liquor store, and then goes back to Nevada. That person committed a crime in California and should be prosecuted. However, many times law enforcement won't press for extradition, citing lack of resources. Usually when such extradition happens, it's a high prof [apnews.com]

        • I criticized the Chinese government recently, which is pretty much in violation of an unwritten law in China. Should I expect Beijing's finest to show up at my door soon to arrest me?

          Your example is meaningless because the person in India never left India, just like I never left the US. Does it matter that what I did was tantamount to criminal activity in China?

          Since we're not in some kind of ideal world where even minor injustices go unpunished, yes resources matter. It's way easier for the police to

          • I criticized the Chinese government recently, which is pretty much in violation of an unwritten law in China. Should I expect Beijing's finest to show up at my door soon to arrest me?

            No, I expect the Chinese Government to petition your government for extradition, and for your government to laugh in their faces. Fraud and theft are illegal in most of the world, and the case for extradition should be pretty clear for scam calls. If India refuses to cooperate in extraditing these people, it should be international news. Yet I hear nothing.

            The problem is US law enforcement isn't even trying.

      • There are extradition treaties to cover crimes that cross international borders. Under most of those treaties, if you are suspected of committing a crime in or against another country, the offended country requests your arrest by local police, and then your country's judicial system reviews the case before deciding whether to extradite or not. So, we do have a way to handle these crimes that does not allow other countries to just assert their laws globally.

      • Re:Warning, Rant I May Regret (Score:4, Insightful)

        by sheph ( 955019 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @03:16PM (#61006538)
        This argument falls apart if you start talking about selling counterfeit software in India. American corporations will waste no time in hunting you down and employing the local authorities to put an end to your evil deeds. We have international legal agreements that make pursuing these people no problem. The problem is it's only little people getting hurt and unless you're protecting big money corporations no one can really be bothered.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by sjames ( 1099 )

        This does require action higher up the chain. A diplomatic message that unless the countries these scams are coming from cut the number of scam calls WAY down there will be a per/call tariff placed on calls into the U.S. from that country might get some traction. Increase the tariff until the calls stop. Meanwhile, require telecoms in the U.S. to clearly indicate country of origin on caller ID.

        Use collected tariffs to fund scam reparations.

        A lot of these scam operations have to make a couple thousand calls

    • Ok, you have a picture of a porch pirate who stole a $500.00 laptop. Now what?

      Facial [slashdot.org] recognition [slashdot.org]?

      Offer a reward? How much will be needed? [wikipedia.org]

      Spend hours looking through mug shots?

      Tell me how to use that picture to find the person.

      • Tell me how to use that picture to find the person.

        You don't. If there is problem with porch pirates in an area, you set out bait packages. [youtube.com] Some areas already do this with vehicles. [wikipedia.org] Chicago even used a bait semi once. [cnn.com] However, they stopped after residents complained.

    • they're there to keep order for the upper classes so that nothing interferes with their profits. This is why they (and the Patriot Act) were used to shut down the Occupy Wall Street movement.

      Heck, modern policing in America (and most countries) grew out of strike breakers and Pinkerton Agency detectives whose job was to dig up dirt on Union leaders.

    • It's called "jurisdiction". The calls don't originate within local police jurisdiction and they don't originate with US borders. This is all by elegant design, of course, because we all know what happens when you have ONE law enforcement force dealing with issues on a global scale. Be very wary of anyone who suggest the creation of a national police force just as well-funded and equipped as the US military.

    • > If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people?

      They really don't have the resources to pursue this. The beat cops on the street don't investigate that sort of thing and the detectives are focused on violent crimes and financial crimes in the millions. If we gave them the resources, we would live in a police state.

      I used to be in the POS and Credit Card payments business. It was not rare for identity thieves to create a bogus business with a stolen identity and run a bu

      • A contact we had at the FBI looked at it and said it was fascinating but that they had to stay focused on terrorism and violent crime.

        Bin Laden succeeded when his teams flew planes into the World Trade Center.

        Another viewpoint is that the vaunted FBI is simply incompetent. Let's be realistic, it was founded and immediately used to help a corrupt J. Edgar Hoover get dirt on politicians.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by clovis ( 4684 )

      Most of the summer has been spent talking about the role of police in our society. How they are overarmed and prone to busting heads of marginalized people. If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people? Furthermore, why can't they catch porch pirates when they are caught on camera? [youtube.com]

      Something is wrong here.

      It's discussed in detail in the linked article including the fact that they often do raid and arrest these people.

      As a second note, regarding "if the police have so many resources ...", we do not spend as much on police as you've been led to believe.
      There are more doctors in the USA than certified police officers. (or nurses, teachers, or even college professors)
      https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
      https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]

    • They can't be caught because they're outside of the US jurisdiction. And they're secretive. The first thing they do is caution the victim to keep everything a secret. And there's no paper trail. Money from the victim is sent via bitcoin, money orders, gift cards, and other ways to hide and launder the transactions. No paperwork gets sent to the victim, everything is done online or with a phone call. The phone numbers are local in the US. And the local police are not going to get involved when the oth

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by XXongo ( 3986865 )

      If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people?

      You think police departments are really going to spring for tickets to send a squad of officers to India to arrest some low-level peons of a charge of violating the do-not-call act?

      • If the police have so many resources, how come they can't catch these people?

        You think police departments are really going to spring for tickets to send a squad of officers to India to arrest some low-level peons of a charge of violating the do-not-call act?

        Last summer there were people all over TV saying the police had too much funding, so yes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Because there isn't a "the police." American police have more military equipment than is good for them. Indian police are somewhat less well equipped.

      Also, most police know just enough about computers to write reports.

  • I like to waste their time (Score:4, Funny)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:17PM (#61006358)

    Go on an auction site and find a VIN for a Ferrari. Keep that handy for when the car warranty scammers call. If you really want to hit them hard ask if their mother knows they steal for a living.

    • Re:I like to waste their time (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:26PM (#61006372)
      I like the idea of sticking it to them, but I don't know that your plan will work. The VIN part... Unfortunately if you're getting a call from them, they already know what kind of car you drive, and a lot more. I was getting them pretty incessantly for a while, so I started answering questions. The only way I was ever able to get past the first level of people is giving them at least semi-truthful information. Even this first level knew at least my name, make, model, and approximate mileage of my car. Once I got to the next person in line I was astounded at what the knew. I had kept stringing the dude along for about a half hour, trying to figure out who they actually were. Finally he got pissed and was all "You realize I know your just jerking me around." then started rattling off my full name, address, birthday, all the info about my car, etc. Then he hung up on me. Thankfully I haven't heard much from them since then, but still pretty unsettling.

      • DMVs sell this data.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by stikves ( 127823 )

          Yeah, this came up a few years ago.

          For all the folks in the government about "privacy" they have little concern about it when they are the ones selling or abusing the data.

          CA DMV sells data to basically anyone who pays. And even after outrage, I think they are still doing it.

          US office of personnel is hacked. All federal employee information is leaked, but no actual consequence was there. With Experian, at least people got a -- rather puny -- settlement.

          TSA employees took home "undressed" jpegs from those sc

      • Re:I like to waste their time (Score:5, Informative)

        by bws111 ( 1216812 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:46PM (#61006436)

        I don't know about that. My wife keeps getting these calls that her car warranty is 'about to expire'. The warranty expired 8 years ago. I get the calls too. My warranty has 4 years left on it. Once I tried asking WHICH car they were going to warranty, and all they could answer was 'your car'. Yeah, OK.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Of course ymmv (ha, punny) but they absolutely had my info, no question. Even on my car which is well outside of its warranty period the opening is still the same pre-recorded message. "Your warranty is about to expire, press 1 to talk to someone or press 5 to be removed from our list." The "remove from list" obviously doesn't work. If you press 1 you get to a drone who will immediately hang up on you if you question them, ask to be removed, or give them crap information. I've tried giving them complet

        • I just don't answer the phone if I don't know who it is. I try to convince my mother of this, but she does not have caller ID and she can barely work her smart phone. She grew up in a time where you trusted everyone and you stopped everyting you were doing and ran to the phone because it was clearly more important than anything else. Instead of deciding to just not answer the phone during dinner the common attitude was to tell other people to pleasenot call during dinner. Because the clal *might* be an

      • Maybe some, but if they all had that type of information they wouldn't be telling me that the warranty "is about to expire" since my car is 16 years old. Also I know people that have gotten these calls that don't even own a car.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Absolutely. Obviously it's not a perfect system, and of course there are 10s (if not 100s) of different places running this kind of scam. I'd love to get my hands on one of them though.

        • "is about to expire" is just standard sales tactics for increasing pressure to buy.

          It's never going to be based on reality because 1) they can't know about extended warranties since it's not int he DMV data they use, and 2) The goal is to push you into a mindset where you must do something now, not make an accurate statement.

      • > I like the idea of sticking it to them, but I don't know that your plan will work.

        It does for KitBoga [youtube.com]

        His schtick is using a voice changer and role-playing as a poor, helpless, grandma who scams the scammers. He is fricking hilarious!

        Some of the best pranks are when the scammer pretends to give him a refund so KitBoga changes it be a much larger [youtube.com] one! The scammers freak out when they watch him spend their fake money. Usually they end up getting extremely angry, name calling, shouting, swearing, etc.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Yeah, I've watched a bunch of his videos. They are a little over the top and tend to be repetitive, but still pretty entertaining, and I love that he's able to waste SOOO much of their time. My comment was specifically addressed towards my experience with the car warranty assholes. Their "front line" won't engage, they'll just hang up if you don't pass their test. The only way I've ever gotten past them was giving them my real make/model/year/mileage.

          • Yeah, sadly there is not much you can do about those "expired" car warranty fuckers.

            The only thing I have that seems to help is to have an out-of-state phone number. Makes it REAL easy to tell instantly what is 99.99% a spam call.

    • I managed today to engage in conversation a charming Chinese lady who very kindly called to warn me that my Virgin Media internet connection was going to be terminated in three hours. Virgin always gives three hours notice. The subject was job satisfaction. She said she wasn't getting very well paid. A few seconds after I asked her if she was receiving a high level of job satisfaction from sitting there being a fucking parasite trying to scam people out of their money my phone said "the other party has term

  • Why do people even answer these calls in the first place? Even before T-Mobile started flagging these callers with "Scam Likely", I would let any call from numbers I didn't recognize just go to voicemail. If it's legitimate, they'll leave a message.

    Actually, it can be amusing to listen to the voicemails that some scammers do occasionally leave.

    • Even before T-Mobile started flagging these callers with "Scam Likely", I would let any call from numbers I didn't recognize just go to voicemail.

      I've had calls from my doctor's office labeled "scam likely". That particular office didn't have a incoming direct line. Every call went to an answering service, and then the doctor would call back.

      Bottom line, it's not an acceptable solution in some cases. Also, I found a different doctor because that was some BS.

      • You never know -- your doctor might've run a backdoor viagra+mortage refinance business after hours. Anyone hiding their phone number like that is "scam likely" in my book these days.

    • It is fake >50% of the time, it might as well not exist. You're better off operating on the assumption that there was no caller ID information than believe likely false information.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      I carry a work phone, and it's expected that I answer it. On the practical side, it gives me a slight amount of pleasure to fuck with them for 30 minutes, knowing that it's taking away time from scamming someone more gullible people.
    • These scum have evolved over time to send caller ID with area code and prefix that look close to the called victim's area. That said, I got a cell call a few days ago that identified Bangladesh.
      • I actually preferred the prefix spoofing, as I know zero other people with a number in the same exchange (or even the same first two digits), making it a very simple wildcard block to nix like 90% of junk calls I was receiving at the time. Seems they go for 'somewhere in the same state' but will settle for 'somewhere in the same country'. I have over 100 area codes blackholed on my phone, which manages to deal with most of them.

      • I got my phone number when I lived in another state, and never changed it when I moved.

        Prefix spoofing is extremely handy, since any phone numbers that call me from that area code are going to be caller-ID spoofed.

    • Actually, it can be amusing to listen to the voicemails that some scammers do occasionally leave.

      The only scammers that leave messages on my voicemail are speaking Mandarin. I know they are scammers because I played them to someone who does speak Mandarin.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        I have a friend who's daughter is taking Mandarin. When he gets those calls he passes the phone to her so she can practice / fuck with them.

  • I'd like to send them my thanks

  • True story, mostly (memory isn't what it was) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rilister ( 316428 ) on Friday January 29, 2021 @02:39PM (#61006414)

    I guess many people have tried to mess with the scammers: one day when I had nothing much to do I got a scam call from 'Microsoft Tech Support'. Judging by accent and idiom alone (I know), I'd say south-east Asian. I strung him along for a few minutes figuring that time he was wasting with me (and my Mac) he wasn't using to scam vulnerable people.

    The further I got into it, the angrier I got - he was convincing enough to fool older people in my life. I started to see this guy as a malicious threat.
    Eventually he got to the bit where I download malware and I called a end to the game, pretty much exploded at the guy:
    "You have parents, right? You are trying to steal money from old people: people like your parents. What would they think of what you do for a living?"
    - surprisingly, it got through to him, and he became defensive, tried to explain himself:
    "My parents are very proud of me. I have a job, I work in an office. I can take care of my family"
    - we talked for a little while longer, and while he was still a crook in my mind, I got a little of his perspective. It's a white collar office job to him, he didn't have a range of opportunities. He's aware of the massive wealth disparities in the world and that the older people that he's scamming (even the poorer ones) have 100x (probably 1000x) the wealth that he and his family could ever have.
    No moral, really, apart from crooks have lives too, but it is interesting to see the world in their eyes for a moment. I wish this article wasn't paywalled, I bet it's pretty good...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      If I were dirt poor I would do the same to survive, to be frank. Isn't this the plot of Les Miserables? A guilty conscience is better than a dead conscience. To stop it, we need to go after the fat cats at the top. Start with "locals" such as Wells Fargo, Comcast, and Boeing.

      By the way, my father got scammed by a similar feat and lost a lot of money. Alzheimers unfortunately often attacks judgement, not just memory. It's a horrible disease.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      Use incognito mode, that should get you past the paywall. It's an interesting read, but I can summarize it for you: I found a guy who was a lackey at various scamming businesses. Basically every answer he gave was a lie that I called him out on. He doesn't want to run his own business because he doesn't have the connections to provide leads or launder the proceeds. He knows what he's doing is wrong, but the attitude is that he $300 he's stealing is inconsequential to the individual.

    • crooks have lives too

      True, but they don't have to be able to keep them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mark-t ( 151149 )

      Before continuing, I always make a point of asking where they got my number from, as they always call on our land-line, which we only actually have to buzz people into our apartment.

      If they tell me that they got the number from Microsoft, I call them on it, because Microsoft does not have our land line number. I've had them ask me why they knew to call me at this number, and I turn that aroiund and say something to the effect of "how the heck should I know? I didn't give Microsoft this phone number, an

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )

      and that the older people that he's scamming (even the poorer ones) have 100x (probably 1000x) the wealth that he and his family could ever have.

      Maybe.

  • Calls are too cheap to make. It they charged more, then most mass phone spam would be too expensive to do. The same goes for email. Perhaps require an e-stamp costing a cent or two. I'd gladly pay $30 a year or so to not get spam.

    • I've run my own email server on several domains for about fifteen years now, and I get no significant spam. I may have gotten two or three spam emails in that fifteen year period (Best Buy seemed to have gotten hacked, or an employee was running an illicit side business, about ten years ago), but that's it.

      I simply use a different email address for everyone, and have all the aliases routed to a secret, real email address that I never use publicly. In those rare cases where I got spam (Best Buy), I simply di

  • This goes away if we collect 2 cents per connection. Making 10,000 - 100,000 calls for every successful scam ceases to be economical.

  • The Indian police really does not have any motive to go after them. They steal money from Westerners (even old folks on pension are "rich" compared to the Indian standards), getting it into India, creating an influx that is positive to their country. Ethics are also a bit different in a country where e.g. academic cheating is pretty much the norm (I know this from Indian friends) - stealing from the "rich" foreigners via this scams is pretty much a normal white collar job. The police will only go after them

    • I understand that the Indian police are not empowered to go after them unless the victim is in India. As for caller ID, plenty of people will not bother to look at it. I don't. If the phone rings I pick it up, and if they are a scammer all the better, because I can tell them to get fucked.
  • Puneet Singh, an F.B.I. agent who serves as the bureau’s legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, told me. These include sellers of phone numbers; programmers who develop malware and pop-ups; and money mules. From the constantly evolving nature of scams — lately I’ve been receiving calls from the “law-enforcement department of the Federal Reserve System” about an outstanding arrest warrant instead of the fake Social Security Administration calls I was getting a year

  • People in India fight poverty, servitude and the cast system to become "White Tigers", but then end up sitting in call centres doing tricks for their bosses. They couldn't get past Siegfried & Roy, could they?

  • Fuck this guy. He should die on the business end of a Hellfire missile and the world would be better off.
  • maybe it really is microsoft calling
  • I'll scambait them if I'm bored. I've probably wasted a few hours of scammer time all told, tying up lines and acting slightly dotty but not enough that they catch on. The auto warranty costs $380 per month, by the way....I did point out you could get a warranty for that, with a new car attached....

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