Scambaiter calls Rite Aid to warn manager a scam victim is coming to buy gift cards

Well, that’s plausible. I wonder if that is actually what is happening, or whether there is some kind of clearinghouse/fence who can buy the cards from scammers, then somehow transform them back into currency without selling them on eBay or wherever as cards. The one scam operation depicted seems to be functioning at the level of tens of thousands of dollars in transactions per pay period; if all such scammers are operating at the same level, that’s a lot of cards to be selling.

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I’m sure for apple, Google, retail, they’re pooling cards to buy high ticket items. I can’t imagine that physical goods drive that activity on Steam, but what do I know?

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True story:

Wife answers phone: “Hell– Oh… Yes. Yes?” [she comes into the room where I am, grinning madly] “Oh no. A virus? That sounds bad. Let me just put you onto my husband. He knows how the technology works.”
I take the phone. “Hello?”
A strong Indian accent. “Hello, yes, my name is Stephen and I am calling you because Microsoft has detected an internet problem with your computer.”
“Oh dear, that does sound serious. What sort of problem?”
“Yes, sir, your computer has a virus and is sharing your details on the internet and this is a very big problem so I am calling you to help you correct this problem sir. Now, can you please access your computer?”
“I’m sitting at my computer now. Well, one of them. We have several in the house.”
“Now, sir, I will need you to type control, alt, and delete at the same time.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Oh, that’s OK, then I will need you to click on the Start button.”
“Oh, you mean a Windows computer! Sorry. Is it a Windows computer that’s got this virus?”
“Um… yes, sir, you will need to be at your Windows computer, and we can—”
“It’s just that I think it’s in the garage. I haven’t turned it on in a few years.”
“I …”
“All the computers are Linux around here. I haven’t needed to use Windows for a long time, given that I’m a Unix System Administrator at a Universi”[click] “Hello? Hello? Oh dear he hung up.”

Only slightly better was when my grandmother got a Tech Support call telling her that her Microsoft computer had a virus. Which was news to her, given that she had never had a computer in her house since she built it in 1947.

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Not sure if your point is the same as mine (I too was confused, super confused), but reading the footnote before watching the vid gave a quick rundown wtf this all is: I clicked on the headline having never heard of Scambaiter or Rite Aid.

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I was wondering how some of these scambaiting YouTubers have so much access to their computer systems.

The remote software they tend to use is two way, lol.

I thought a combination of actual hacking and fake content but even when it comes to actual malicious actors I guess incompetence still can’t be ruled out.

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They’ll probably have all bought your number off the same seller. Jim Browning did a great in-depth video on Youtube about how scammers sell each other numbers in bulk

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Indeed! It’s been a while, but I used to get a lot of the, “you won a free trip,” scams then they’d waste a bunch of time before asking for a cc# for the “deposit” or something. When I’d rattle off a fake number they’d immediately turn threatening, “ma’am, I really hope you aren’t giving me a false number…! A VISA card has to have xyz in the blah.”

Don’t need no excuse. Just time.

For a while I answered suspected scam calls by just screaming, “What?!?” A la Bill Murray in “Where the Buffalo Roam.” Seemed pretty effective, but I got a sore throat.

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A whistle - an actual whistle, not whistling - is very useful, and yr throat will stay happy.

ETA: That said, some folks sure can give out w/an earsplitting whistle all on their own.

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Sheer brilliance, that scene. Thank you tophat-biggrin

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