Pierogi from Scammer Payback on YouTube joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about scams and scambaiting. Why do scammers ask victims to buy gift cards? What are some of the biggest scammer red flags? Do they ever get caught? How many scams are out there? Should I mess with scammers for fun if I identify one? What software and hardware does Scammer Payback use? How can those creepy sex bot internet commenters lead to a scam? Pierogi answers these questions and many more on Scambaiting Support
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Mark Denney
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Pierogi
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Franz Criscione
Sound Mixer: Mark Cochran
Production Assistant: Reed Vrooman
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael; Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Special Thanks: The Entire Scammer Payback Team
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Mark Denney
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Pierogi
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Franz Criscione
Sound Mixer: Mark Cochran
Production Assistant: Reed Vrooman
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael; Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Special Thanks: The Entire Scammer Payback Team
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00An Amazon scam just called me.
00:02How can I help you today?
00:03Let me cut to the chase actually.
00:04Will you let me remote onto your system and give me the access to your computer?
00:10Why?
00:12For fun.
00:13Are you crazy?
00:14Yes, I am.
00:15I'm Perogi from Scammer Payback on YouTube.
00:17Let's answer your questions from the internet.
00:19This is Scambaiting Support.
00:25I'm Mango May and the question is,
00:27What are the red flags of a scammer?
00:29Someone that is trying to rush you to go make a quick decision like,
00:32Hey, you need to go to the store and buy gift cards.
00:34You need to send money through Cash App as soon as possible.
00:37That's a red flag.
00:38They want to move as quickly as possible on their victims
00:41because if there's any lag in time,
00:43maybe a family member or something will intervene and say,
00:45Hey, who are you talking to?
00:46Why are you sending money to these people?
00:47Also, someone remoting into your computer or your phone.
00:51That's more than likely a scam.
00:52So don't ever let anybody do it,
00:54even if it's someone claiming to be tech support.
00:56And then the third is this form of payment.
00:58So a lot of scammers will use Zelle, Cash App.
01:01They'll have you go buy gift cards, just like these right here.
01:04Send wire transfers or even go buy Bitcoin and send it to them.
01:07That's typically a pretty big red flag that you're talking to a scammer.
01:15This is the easiest way for a scammer to get money from a victim.
01:18They get the victims to buy these target gift cards, for instance,
01:21have them scratch off the code on the back
01:23and then tell that code to the scammer
01:25and they'll go to a website.
01:26It's kind of a bartering system.
01:28And they'll say, hey, I'll give you $1,000 of gift cards.
01:30You give me $800 of Bitcoin.
01:32This is how they launder money.
01:34And it's a way for them to stay anonymous
01:36and get the money really, really quickly.
01:42On our channel, we deal typically with the pop-up tech support scams.
01:45You get a pop-up on your computer
01:47and then you call into a fake Microsoft support
01:49and they want to see all your money.
01:50We've run across other types of scams
01:52that are out there from romance scams
01:53or someone's pretending to be a celebrity.
01:55We had someone just came by our office.
01:57Their mother, who's 90-plus years old,
01:59was falling in love with a country star out of Nashville.
02:02And the only way she could help him
02:03was by sending tens of thousands of dollars.
02:05If your mama or your grandma is talking to some celebrity on Facebook,
02:09it's probably not them.
02:16When I mess with scammers,
02:17I really enjoy reversing to their computers.
02:19I can actually watch them when they're on phone calls with victims.
02:22Just like right here, this is their phone system.
02:24And from there, we can intervene in actual scams that are happening.
02:27So say grandma wants to send $25,000 to the scammer.
02:31She's on the phone with them.
02:32We can see the phone number.
02:33We can get in contact with the victim.
02:35Or we can even send law enforcement directly to their house and stop the scam.
02:38One of my favorite things to do is just pissing off scammers.
02:41They're trying to remote into my system
02:43and have me do different things on my computer.
02:45So I do things like right-click when they say left-click.
02:48I ask them to turn their volume up on their microphone.
02:51Are you not able to listen to me? Are you deaf?
02:53I don't listen to them.
02:54I don't do anything that they ask me to do.
02:56Why are you opening that again and again if I'm telling you not to?
02:59It's the best feeling ever when you hear them yelling at you and cussing at you.
03:02You know whom you're f***ing talking to right now, you f***ing piece of s***.
03:05And I know the fans really enjoy that too.
03:07They enjoy all those moments of scammer rage.
03:10I've even done things like access the scammers' webcams
03:12and force them to show their face to the world.
03:15One of the best things I think in our channel's history was
03:18we hacked one of the guys that sends out these scam emails.
03:21And that's all he does every day.
03:23He logs in these U.S. cloud servers to be able to bypass email security.
03:26We have his face from his webcam and we had his location from his computer.
03:30He had a Python script that was sending these scam emails out to victims.
03:34Tens of thousands every day.
03:35And we edited the email so when he would send out the scam email,
03:38the entire email said,
03:39Hi, here's my photo. I'm trying to scam you.
03:41He finally realized that he had gotten got
03:43and he had been sending his own information out to all these victims.
03:46It was a real fun way of trolling these guys.
03:54I want to start scambaiting. Any tips how?
03:56I know I can make a fake persona, make an email and stuff, virtual box,
03:59but I'm just worried I'm going to get hacked or something.
04:02If you're worried about getting hacked,
04:04maybe you probably shouldn't do scambaiting.
04:06The number one thing is really just protect yourself.
04:08Never let a scammer on your physical computer.
04:11Also, never talk with scammers on your actual phone number.
04:14They will take that information and find who you are.
04:16I've seen scammers swap people before.
04:18Some of them are really malicious,
04:20so you don't want to make the wrong scammer angry.
04:27To see if one, somebody is actually there,
04:29or two, if they're going to respond.
04:31If they can get you to respond,
04:32then they probably got you because then they can now start to run their scam.
04:36Most of the scammers just work off of first name,
04:38last name, phone number, email address.
04:40There could be a data breach
04:41and they're buying this off the dark web with a bunch of information,
04:44so just even an email address or a phone number
04:46could lead a scammer to know everything about their victim,
04:49from their full name, their husband, wife, kids, physical address, you name it.
04:53It's all out on the internet.
05:00I'll probably say Facebook.
05:01There's a lot of bots on Facebook and scammers,
05:04and they target specific groups.
05:05I've seen a lot of religious groups that donate money to certain causes.
05:09They'll go in there and they'll start seeing,
05:11hey, this person's giving $500 to this cause.
05:13I'm going to reach out to them and try to scam them.
05:15It doesn't matter if you're on Instagram, X, Facebook, whatever.
05:18Private your profiles so that these people can't target you.
05:26I don't think that's the case.
05:27Scammers are not that sophisticated.
05:29They are mass messaging people,
05:32and then if somebody is actually willing to respond,
05:34then they'll start running their scam.
05:36It's not like somebody sitting on a phone on the other side,
05:38so you're really not getting back at anybody
05:40by cussing them out or anything like that.
05:42Just don't respond.
05:43Report it as junk and block it.
05:45Also, scammers will send links,
05:47for instance, a UPS tracking number,
05:50and those are deadly to your phone.
05:52It's a phishing attack, and they'll get you to click on something
05:54and go to Safari or, if you're on Android,
05:57which is more susceptible to malware on mobile devices,
05:59you might click on that link,
06:01and it could download an app onto your phone.
06:03If they know it's a live person,
06:04they will mark that down, that somebody's responded,
06:06and then the next scam, and then the next scam,
06:09they'll just keep sending it out.
06:10So you'll get more.
06:11If you want more spam, respond.
06:13That's actually the truth.
06:15By the way, I kid you not,
06:17I do have an Amazon scam that just called me.
06:20I don't know if you guys want me to call it, but...
06:26I got a voicemail from you guys.
06:30All right, let me cut to the chase, actually.
06:32I've got a $10 Google Play card.
06:34Will you let me remote onto your system
06:38and give me the access to your computer?
06:42For fun?
06:45Yes, I am.
06:46About you guys, because I want access to your computer.
06:49What?
06:51Excuse me?
06:59I enjoy this too much.
07:00At user 108901,
07:03what is the most absurd scam call that you have received?
07:07I've had scammers write up wills,
07:09like living wills for my grandma characters.
07:16A scammer went through a wedding ceremony with me.
07:19It's weird when you're on this side,
07:21you're playing a character,
07:22but you hear him saying,
07:23I'm kissing you right now.
07:25I'm kissing you.
07:26It's just, it's a special moment, I guess.
07:29He had me reveal myself.
07:30I pulled down my mask and it was me.
07:35They're playing a character,
07:36they're playing a Microsoft rep,
07:37and now he's getting married to some grandma,
07:39but it's really a guy with blue hair on the other side.
07:46I actually don't use software.
07:47I've got a hardware device
07:48that I use when I talk with these scammers,
07:50but I think it'd be easier to show you the device
07:52and all the voices that we do on these scam calls.
07:55Let's go.
07:57Here is my scambait setup.
07:59This is everything that I use
08:00when I'm messing with scammers.
08:02It starts with how I change my voice.
08:03Now, I use the Roland VT-4,
08:05and I've got a couple of presets on here,
08:07but it allows me first to pretty much
08:09become anybody that I want to with a few clicks.
08:12If I want to change my voice
08:13into becoming a grandma, Vivian Rogers,
08:16I can do that.
08:17Vivian Rogers is just a blend of my grandma,
08:22my mom, and I blend it all into one crazy character
08:25that takes these scammers on a crazy trip.
08:28All crazy characters and shenanigans aside,
08:30these tactics allow me to distract the scammers
08:33so that I can get into their computers.
08:37And that's how I change my voice to mess with scammers.
08:39GreatWasTaken on Reddit says,
08:41how do people spoof their number to a specific number?
08:43Scammers can use specific software
08:45to spoof their phone numbers.
08:46They can pretend to be the FBI.
08:48They can pretend to be your best friend.
08:50They can pretend to be you.
08:51Never believe just because somebody calls you
08:53pretending to be X, Y, Z person,
08:55that it's actually them.
08:56Hang up the phone and call the phone number back
08:59because if a scammer spoofs a number,
09:01they can make it look like
09:02they're calling from the number,
09:03but they can't receive calls.
09:04At OogooGreat100 says,
09:07I was scammed yesterday
09:08as I connected my wallet to CryptoWolf.
09:11They collected my money.
09:12Please, how do I get my money back
09:13and also secure my wallet from these scammers?
09:15This is a red flag to me.
09:16I don't know if this is actually a real tweet or not,
09:19or a real question
09:20because they go into the comment section.
09:22They go into tweets
09:23and they actually write this exact thing.
09:25I was scammed.
09:26Somebody went into my crypto account
09:28and started to take money.
09:29How do I get my money back?
09:30And then from there,
09:31somebody will respond and say,
09:33hey, you need to reach out to X, Y, Z person
09:35because somebody that's genuinely
09:36trying to figure out how do I get my money back,
09:38they'll run across this and they'll think,
09:40oh, they recommend this person.
09:41I'll go reach out to them.
09:42Crypto is supposed to be very secure.
09:45If you don't understand it,
09:46I would highly suggest to not deal with it.
09:49There are ways to have physical key codes
09:51and phrases on a physical device.
09:53A lot of people want the simplicity
09:55of having everything in a computer
09:57or have everything in the cloud
09:58or saving my password here or there.
10:00There's something to be said
10:01about having physical security.
10:03If you've got a bajillion dollars in Bitcoin,
10:05put those codes onto a physical device
10:08because it's another step
10:09that they would need to be able to access your stuff.
10:16I would say absolutely no.
10:17If you look at the culture
10:18in India, there's a lot of unemployment,
10:20especially when the pandemic hit.
10:22You have these kids
10:23that are doing everything that they can
10:24to pay for their families,
10:25for their mom, their dad,
10:26their brothers and sisters.
10:27One of the things we do
10:28when we are monitoring scammers
10:29is we download their files.
10:31And a lot of scammers
10:32will host financial information
10:34on their computers.
10:35So if you get a manager's computer,
10:36it's like a gold mine.
10:37One of the call centers we were monitoring,
10:39they were making almost a million dollars,
10:41up to a million dollars a month.
10:42And their salaries equaled up to about $7,500
10:45for almost 100 scammers.
10:46So you look at this
10:47and who's really making the money?
10:48It's not X, Y, Z
10:49that you're talking to on the phone.
10:51It's the boss.
10:52Scammer A,
10:53that's on the phone with a victim
10:54and runs the scam,
10:55they might get a percentage,
10:57let's just say 10% of a scam,
10:58based in Indian rupees.
11:00Their salaries are so tiny,
11:01it's hard to live off of.
11:13There's these types of scams
11:14where there are bots
11:15that are mass producing
11:16these likes and comments
11:17and trying to get you
11:18to engage with them.
11:19They'll pretend to be
11:20even like a love interest
11:22or romantic interest
11:23and they'll get you to
11:24send compromising photos,
11:25for instance.
11:26And they're recording this,
11:27they're taking pictures and video,
11:29and they're saying,
11:30if you don't give me money,
11:31I will release this.
11:32And it's really
11:33one of the most disturbing
11:35types of scams.
11:36This actually happens a lot
11:37to teenagers as well.
11:38And there's been a lot of
11:40mental health problems
11:41from these types of scams.
11:42Imagine a teenager
11:43that has no money
11:44and they think that
11:45they have no future
11:46because somebody took
11:47a picture of them
11:48and they're going to
11:49use it against them.
11:50It's very sad.
11:51So it goes way past
11:52just like these idiot bots.
11:54Sextortion scams
11:55are really, really terrible.
11:57These scammers
11:58will then start to push like,
12:00you need to end your life,
12:01you need to do this,
12:02you need to do that.
12:03They're cruel, very cruel.
12:04It really pisses me off, honestly.
12:06There actually were
12:07some scammers in Nigeria
12:08that got extradited
12:09to the United States
12:10because of a teenager
12:11that lost his life
12:12because of a sextortion scam.
12:13So there was justice
12:14for that teenager.
12:15At Lazy Nerd tweets,
12:17what are the programs
12:18that you use?
12:19We use a VPN
12:20to protect our
12:21internet traffic.
12:22We also use
12:23virtualization software,
12:24so VMware.
12:25We've used VirtualBox
12:26in the past as well
12:27to hide our systems
12:28in a virtual environment.
12:30We have fake bank accounts.
12:32We can use these fake banks
12:33and we can change
12:34the dollar amounts
12:35and all that
12:36just to make sure
12:37that the scammer
12:38thinks that we're
12:39an actual victim.
12:40At Kasuri says,
12:41why do scam callers
12:42keep calling me
12:43and then say nothing?
12:44I'm listening.
12:45Give me your pitch.
12:46I'm here for it.
12:47I think that they're
12:48just trying to see
12:49if somebody's there
12:50who's on the other line.
12:51Also, with the increase
12:52in artificial intelligence
12:53that's happening,
12:54they could just be
12:55recording your voice.
12:56So they want somebody
12:57that's talking to them
12:58so they can get a sample
12:59and use that voice
13:00to scam another person.
13:01So you might actually
13:02be helping out scammers
13:03if you pick up the phone
13:04and start talking.
13:05So I would advise against it.
13:06At DKellyFCU,
13:07what are some
13:08common scams
13:09targeting seniors
13:10and how do they occur?
13:11I remember getting
13:12a phone call
13:13because my grandmother
13:14had almost been scammed
13:15and it's the
13:16typical grandma scam.
13:17They'll get data
13:18from data brokers
13:19on elderly people
13:20in a certain area
13:21and they'll call up
13:22the victim.
13:23They called up my grandma
13:24and she's in her 90s
13:25and they say,
13:26your grandson is in trouble
13:27and they need money
13:28to either get out of prison
13:29or out of the hospital.
13:30And these are actually
13:31scammers in the US
13:32that are carrying out
13:33these scams
13:34which is pretty scary.
13:35They were going to have her
13:36go to the bank,
13:37use her debit card
13:38and get out $10,000 or $15,000
13:39and the scariest part
13:40was somebody
13:41was actually going
13:42to drive to her house.
13:43They'll pick up this money
13:44and then the money's gone.
13:45So thankfully,
13:46my aunt was there
13:47at the house at the time
13:48grocery shopping
13:49so she had the debit card
13:50and no money was lost.
13:51But this is one of the things
13:52they work upon
13:53is the fear
13:54of the grandparent.
13:55Another one on top
13:56of the grandma scam
13:57that's gotten a little bit
13:58more sophisticated,
13:59the scammers are using
14:00voice changing technology,
14:01artificial intelligence.
14:02They will take
14:03a video
14:04of a child's
14:06social media account
14:07for instance
14:08and they can actually
14:09not have
14:10the grandchild
14:11call in and say
14:12hey I'm in trouble
14:13please
14:14but it's not a real person.
14:15It's a voice clone.
14:16They're doing deep fakes
14:17of family members,
14:18celebrities.
14:19They've even done
14:20deep fakes of myself.
14:21We've seen two of them.
14:22Your case is a huge
14:23financial case of scam
14:24and I will need
14:25to hand it over
14:26to the federal
14:27anti-scam agency.
14:28Not that they're amazing
14:29but if you look for it
14:30to be me
14:31you might think
14:32it's me actually.
14:33This next one is from Quora
14:34and it says
14:35how do scam
14:36call centers work?
14:37If they take up
14:38office buildings
14:39aren't they making
14:40their presence obvious
14:41and how can they
14:42not get caught?
14:43There's been big buildings
14:44that we've highlighted before.
14:45Tucked away on
14:46one of the floors
14:47could be one of these
14:48scam call centers.
14:49A lot of these scammers
14:50especially the bosses
14:51they will go create
14:52side businesses
14:53with that dirty money
14:54to make it look as if
14:55they created
14:56a legitimate company.
14:57There's so many eyeballs
14:58on the scam
14:59call center industry.
15:00I don't think
15:01there's going to be
15:02these huge huge
15:03call centers anymore.
15:04They're moving more
15:05towards these
15:06they call them safe houses
15:08that's got a hundred
15:09scammers in it
15:10but they're in five
15:11different locations
15:12because if one location
15:13gets hit
15:14then the other one's
15:15shut down.
15:16Not all scammers
15:17are in India.
15:18We've seen a lot of
15:19different call centers
15:20opening up in
15:21different parts of Asia
15:22Eastern Europe
15:23and even like
15:24Pakistan for instance
15:25and we've run across
15:26political figures
15:27tied to these scam groups
15:28and even in the United States
15:29from a money laundering
15:30standpoint
15:31really big organized crime
15:32that are working with
15:33these call centers overseas
15:34it gets pretty serious
15:35once you start to
15:37Scammer Payback
15:38I just spent two hours
15:39scambaiting a guy
15:40and got a money mule address
15:41not sure what to do with it
15:42can you help?
15:43First off good job.
15:44One thing people
15:45ask me a lot are
15:46what are these money mules
15:47what is Havala?
15:48Havala is a process
15:49that the scammers
15:50in India use
15:51to transfer money
15:52and they do this
15:53money laundering technique
15:54so that they don't
15:55get caught by authorities.
15:56It could be a gift card
15:57it could be a wire transfer
15:58it could be bitcoin
15:59it could even be
16:00I kid you not
16:01having the victim
16:02take cash
16:03and putting it inside
16:04of a box
16:05and giving it to somebody
16:06in the United States.
16:07These addresses are
16:08really important
16:09because we can give them
16:10to law enforcement
16:11and they can find
16:12one of three things
16:13a victim on the other side
16:14that's being coerced
16:15into doing money laundering
16:16on behalf of the scammers
16:17an actual criminal
16:18that is collecting
16:19this package
16:20that's tied to
16:21a big crime organization
16:22or the third could actually
16:23be additional packages
16:24so we found where
16:25one money mule address
16:26could lead to
16:27ten packages
16:28that have actual
16:29cash in them
16:30these money mule
16:31crime organizations
16:32are actually utilizing
16:33things like Airbnb
16:34so they'll fly in
16:35a non-US citizen
16:36into the states
16:37they'll be here
16:38maybe on a visa
16:39or here for
16:40a couple of weeks
16:41or something like that
16:42get them rental cars
16:43they'll get them Airbnbs
16:44they'll get them hotel rooms
16:45and they will start
16:46moving these guys
16:47all around the US
16:48their boss will call them up
16:49and say
16:50hey go to this place
16:51and collect this
16:52$20,000 parcel
16:53or go to this Airbnb
16:54and stay there
16:55for three days
16:56and collect all these packages
16:57they'll even send
16:58actual money mules
16:59to the victims homes
17:00now these victims
17:01are getting cash out
17:02they're buying even gold bars
17:03they've never had a million dollars
17:04of gold bars
17:05purchased before
17:06they're taking this gold
17:07and they're going to pawn shops
17:08selling it for cash
17:09and then putting it into bitcoin
17:10this is where for me
17:11it starts to get
17:12pretty scary
17:13because
17:14a lot of organized crime
17:15they're very good
17:16at moving money around
17:17and they have a very good process
17:18guys that are
17:19they call them runners
17:20that are driving
17:21all around the US
17:22with fake IDs
17:23using rental cars
17:24they get a percentage
17:25of this
17:26so if they steal
17:27$100,000 in gold bars
17:28they might get 20%
17:29we had a group
17:30that we were monitoring
17:31that was doing about
17:32a day
17:33and this is happening
17:34everywhere around the US
17:35the crime groups
17:36they are
17:37working with
17:38these scammers overseas
17:39they work in like
17:40whatsapp groups
17:41telegram groups
17:42signal groups
17:43and they stay under the radar
17:44from governments
17:45from law enforcement
17:46and they're really good
17:47at what they do
17:48at ret and disc
17:49says someone hacked
17:50into my amazon account
17:51and ordered
17:52a couple of things
17:53I now have their address
17:54what devious things
17:55should I do
17:56and PS
17:57I probably won't do it
17:58so be clever
17:59well if you want
18:00a clever answer
18:01secondly
18:02don't send them anything
18:03I'm really not saying
18:04to send anything
18:05essentially what happens
18:06is someone
18:07takes over
18:08somebody's account
18:09and then they buy
18:10these things
18:11and ship all the stuff
18:12to a random house
18:13we actually had
18:14somebody in my neighborhood
18:15I drove by this one house
18:16like nobody lived there
18:17and the packages
18:18just started
18:19showing up
18:20and then you're like
18:21ok maybe they're
18:22out of town
18:23and then you start
18:24seeing the packages
18:25in the windows
18:26and then you're like
18:27ok maybe they're
18:28out of town
18:29for an extended
18:30period of time
18:31and I'm not talking
18:32one or two packages
18:33I'm talking like
18:34a hundred packages
18:35at one point
18:36I finally saw some vans
18:37show up
18:38to clear out
18:39all these things
18:40it's somebody that thinks
18:41that they're running
18:42a business
18:43or a side business
18:44to make a little bit
18:45of extra money
18:46here or there
18:47and they don't know
18:48where the money's
18:49coming from
18:50but they're getting
18:51paid to collect
18:52these packages
18:53they're in communication
18:54with their boss
18:55they're telling them
18:56hey receive this iPhone
18:57go ship it somewhere else
18:58and then that's where
18:59the money's coming
19:00from
19:01how did someone
19:02or something
19:03get into my Instagram
19:04and post a Bitcoin scam
19:05I have 2FA
19:06I'm not stupid enough
19:07to click links
19:08I'm genuinely so lost
19:09there's probably something
19:10that you did
19:11to give access
19:12to the account
19:13if you had 2FA
19:14there are ways around it
19:152FA is two factor authentication
19:16my recommendation
19:17on 2FA
19:18is to
19:19not run it
19:20through your text messages
19:21there are ways
19:22that hackers
19:23can still utilize
19:24getting around 2FA
19:25through your text messages
19:26so there are
19:27authenticator apps to use
19:28and they actually have codes
19:29that once you download them
19:30and connect them
19:31to your accounts
19:32you literally have to have
19:33the physical phone
19:34with these codes on there
19:35in order to get in
19:36so I highly recommend
19:37using authenticator apps
19:38with all of your
19:39social media accounts
19:40if they were on
19:41one of your devices
19:42and you were logged into it
19:43and you didn't know
19:44that that device
19:45has somebody on it
19:46if they have access
19:47to your email address
19:48they'll send a password request
19:49to that email
19:50that they have access to
19:51and then they got your account
19:52at Alwin
19:53underscore GC says
19:54online security tips
19:55I should know
19:56is public wifi safe
19:57is VPN good
19:58it's actually
19:59probably not faster
20:00these days
20:01than just using
20:02your cell phone
20:03so grab your cell phone
20:04and just tether off of it
20:05it's a much safer option
20:06than logging into
20:07and probably giving away
20:08your data
20:09to all these companies
20:10just to use
20:11their public wifi
20:12also
20:13never use
20:14wifi at the airport
20:15you are around
20:16thousands and thousands
20:17of people at an airport
20:18not to say
20:19there's just hackers
20:20running around
20:21everywhere at the airport
20:22but just be proactive
20:23about your own security
20:24VPNs are great
20:25for protecting
20:26you can turn them on
20:27whenever you want to feel
20:28more protected
20:29but don't use
20:30these public wifi's
20:31there are hackers galore
20:32if they wanted to create
20:33fake wifi spaces
20:34you log into it
20:35and they say
20:36hey we need your Gmail
20:37you just gave someone
20:38your Gmail
20:39and they've owned
20:40your account
20:41at the ES Markin
20:42says
20:43at Scammer Payback
20:44how do you get access
20:45to Scammer's machines
20:46we have various methods
20:47the first one is
20:48just a reversal
20:49they want to remote
20:50into my virtual machine
20:51so the first thing
20:52is allowing the Scammer
20:53to get access
20:54to your computer
20:55from there
20:56I will send a request
20:57to their machine
20:58from there
20:59we can run a few files
21:00without them seeing hopefully
21:01and then we have
21:02permanent access
21:03to their system
21:04to do whatever we want
21:05we have other methods
21:06of getting access
21:07to Scammer systems
21:08I can't share all of them
21:09because I don't want
21:10to give away
21:11all of our secrets
21:12but we've also
21:13sent in operatives
21:14into call centers
21:15and they will then
21:16give us the access
21:17there are people
21:18that have been
21:19ex-scammers
21:20that are pretty much
21:21fed up with the
21:22scam industry
21:23and they want to do good
21:24if you can get me
21:25back home
21:26and he did that
21:27we helped him
21:28we want to form
21:29these relationships
21:30in the area
21:31people who are fed up
21:32there are so many
21:33folks in India
21:34that are sick
21:35and tired of this
21:36and they want to
21:37fight back
21:38at techie guy
21:39nearby asks
21:40how come there
21:41are so many
21:42illegal call centers
21:43operating in and
21:44around Kolkata
21:45and police and
21:46administration
21:47they're not aware
21:48of it
21:49such shameless
21:50activities
21:51sabotage the
21:52efforts of genuine
21:54there's outsourcing
21:55that happens
21:56in India
21:57there are a lot of
21:58brilliant, smart,
21:59wonderful people
22:00in Kolkata
22:01especially
22:02and you look at
22:03some of these
22:04big bosses
22:05that made off
22:06with a lot of money
22:07the reason why
22:08they were able to
22:09was because
22:10they had police
22:11connections
22:12they were essentially
22:13paying per computer
22:14every seat in a call
22:15center
22:16they had given
22:17money to the police
22:18so in case there
22:19was a raid
22:20it was pretty much
22:21a fake raid
22:22and if they did
22:23if they got raided
22:24they'll be back
22:25in a month or so
22:26but we've been fighting
22:27back for many years
22:28I've been doing this
22:29for five years now
22:30and it's forcing them
22:31and pressuring them
22:32to stop doing what
22:33they're doing
22:34or move somewhere else
22:35so Kolkata
22:36the police
22:37and the administration
22:38they've done a lot
22:39better of a job
22:40of shutting down
22:41these big call centers
22:42so you're starting
22:43to see a lot of
22:44the scammers
22:45scatter from Kolkata
22:46so I do want to
22:47give credit to them
22:48for that
22:49here's a question
22:50from Quora
22:52when he's in another
22:53country
22:54and the India
22:55police cannot
22:56I won't go into
22:57all the specifics
22:58but if they've got
22:59an internet connection
23:00we can typically find
23:01exactly where they are
23:02within like 10 meters
23:03one of the locations
23:04I found
23:05it made me laugh
23:06because you just
23:07look on Google Maps
23:08and there's like
23:09a square of a building
23:10and his dot is like
23:11smack dab in the middle
23:12of it
23:13you know he is
23:14right in there
23:15we take this information
23:16we give it to
23:17US law enforcement
23:18but also India
23:19whenever they want
23:21serious question
23:22why do scammers
23:23almost immediately
23:24want me to go to
23:25WhatsApp
23:26or Google Hangout
23:27what am I missing
23:28when a scammer
23:29talks with you
23:30on Facebook let's say
23:31it's a romance scammer
23:32if you're on the platform
23:33and you're talking
23:34to Brad Pitt
23:35for instance
23:36and you click
23:37on his picture
23:38and you look at
23:39his followers
23:40and he's got
23:41137 followers
23:42you might start
23:43questioning
23:44is this really Brad Pitt
23:45the scammer
23:46has to start
23:47making up excuses
23:48why he's got
23:49137 followers
23:50on the platform
23:51they're just a
23:52number
23:53or they're just
23:54a fake email
23:55that you're responding
23:56to versus
23:57a whole profile
23:58kind of a more
23:59private secure
24:00space for them
24:01that they can manipulate
24:02at Shredberg says
24:03who in the world
24:04names their child
24:05scam likely
24:06that's like a
24:07statement and a
24:08question right there
24:09I like it
24:10the phone providers
24:11are doing a better
24:12job with protecting
24:13people so you'll
24:14see the scam likely
24:15that's popping up
24:16these scammers
24:17are buying up
24:18the internet says
24:19does anyone know
24:20how you can find out
24:21if a site is fake
24:22or not convince
24:23the address I've ordered
24:24for formal is from
24:25a fraud site the
24:26internet has done
24:27a pretty good job
24:28with regards to
24:29stopping these types
24:30of fraud sites
24:31scammers are moving
24:32towards things like
24:33Facebook marketplace
24:34Craigslist things like
24:35that if you're on
24:36Facebook marketplace
24:37and you're trying to
24:38buy a couch don't
24:39give deposits that's
24:40one of the first
24:41things they'll do is
24:42you need to pay for
24:43shipping oh you need
24:44to pay for this oh you
24:45need to pay half of it
24:46and then all of a sudden
24:47you paid you know a
24:48couple thousand bucks
24:49to somebody ain't got
24:50the couch don't pay
24:51anything until you
24:52receive the product or
24:53at least meet with the
24:54person first and have
24:55the money with you I
24:56don't know I don't buy
24:57stuff on Facebook
24:58marketplace I just
24:59don't believe it like
25:00if you start buying
25:01stuff off Craigslist
25:02you know a cat with
25:03one leg it's probably
25:04not a cat okay I'm
25:05sorry I'm sorry okay I
25:07bought a cat off a
25:08Craigslist one time
25:09okay and it wasn't
25:10what they said it was
25:11I bought it for a
25:12hundred bucks it was
25:13a cat but it wasn't
25:14the cat that I thought
25:15it was so I guess I
25:16got scammed okay she
25:17peed everywhere you
25:18know I'm trying to
25:19bring some personal
25:20insight so you know
25:21yeah next question
25:22please I'm done at
25:23Aileen Chang 58 says
25:24just watching do any
25:25of these scammers ever
25:26get caught we're always
25:27being warned about
25:28scams but never hear of
25:29any being caught or
25:30convicted I understand
25:31the pain there because
25:32we all want the bad
25:33guys to go to jail and
25:34get in trouble really
25:35it's about jurisdiction
25:36you can't force another
25:37country to go arrest
25:38somebody because
25:39they're stealing money
25:40from citizens you just
25:41can't do it we've
25:42gotten a lot of people
25:43arrested we've gotten
25:44a lot of people arrested
25:45here in the states money
25:46mules that are working
25:47with these scammers
25:48overseas I can't speak
25:49to all the specifics
25:50because these are some
25:51pretty gnarly crime
25:52groups but there have
25:53been people getting
25:54caught and getting
25:55arrested here in the
25:56US at Mike Stricker
25:57says scammer payback I
25:58watch a ton of your
25:59videos last night
26:00someone hacked my
26:01PayPal account and I
26:02actually got the phone
26:03number that they added
26:04when doing the password
26:05reset attempt how do I
26:06get this to the
26:07authorities without
26:08calling 9-1-1 like in a
26:09formal way scammers are
26:10really good about
26:11hiding behind burn
26:12numbers and they're
26:13really good at
26:14hiding behind burn
26:15numbers if you get this
26:16one shut down I'll just
26:17go to another one and
26:18it's the same for
26:19emails and phone
26:20numbers take back your
26:21PayPal account is
26:22probably the best thing
26:23to do just take it back
26:24and change your password
26:25and make sure nobody
26:26gets into your account
26:27again but there's not
26:28much you can do about
26:29the random phone
26:30numbers at mayhem
26:31ville hey Google how
26:32do you get money back
26:33from a scammer you
26:34really can't get your
26:35money back that's the
26:36hard part these scammers
26:37are very good they might
26:38not be able to spell
26:39correctly sometimes but
26:40they're really good about
26:41moving money very fast
26:42if you have given your
26:43money to a scammer it's
26:44probably not coming back
26:45sorry those are all the
26:46questions for today and
26:47on behalf of my team
26:48here at scammer payback
26:49thank you for watching
26:50scambait support and
26:51always remember don't
26:52get scammed