Fake Amazon and Microsoft call centers busted

Indian authorities, in collaboration with Amazon and Microsoft, conducted Operation Chakra-II to crackdown on 76 illegal call centers across at least 11 states in India. These call centers posed as tech support for Amazon and Microsoft customers and defrauded over 2,000 individuals. This marks the first time two major companies have collaborated to combat online and tech support fraud. The Central Bureau of Investigation of India (CBI) led the Chakra-II operation.

On the other hand, Amazon said this:

Country-level scam

Perhaps almost every user has seen the “Hello Your Computer Has Virus” meme or jokes about Indian men calling people and introducing themselves as Microsoft tech support. So, India is a fertile ground for a thriving network of scammers. The Hindu tech support scam can be considered a worthy competitor to the Nigerian Prince scam. Primarily, scammers run illegal operations from call centers masquerading as legitimate businesses.

According to the FBI, tech support call centers fraud victims lost more than $1 billion in the US last year, with scammers mainly targeting older people. Nearly half of the victims were over 60, and they accounted for 69%, or more than $724 million, of the losses. Many of these scams target customers of Amazon and Microsoft, two of the largest companies in the tech industry. Unsurprisingly, these companies have banded together for the first time to fight against these scams.

How did this scam work?

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently revealed that fraudsters have been pretending to be Amazon and Microsoft customer service agents. They have been contacting victims through online pop-up messages that appear to be real security alerts from these companies. The pop-up message claims that the user’s computer is experiencing technical issues and provides a toll-free number to contact customer support. However, the phone number actually belongs to the fraudsters’ electronic call centers. By the way, we have an article dedicated to breaking down this scam scheme.

Once the victim calls scammers, they, with some trickery, remotely access the victim’s computer and show them fake problems. They then charge the victim hundreds of dollars for fake solutions that were not needed in the first place. This fraudulent activity has allegedly been going on for the past five years. The fraudsters use various international payment gateways and channels to move the illegally obtained funds.

CBI exposes fake call centers

As part of five separate cases, a nationwide crackdown was conducted in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, which resulted in the confiscation of 32 mobile phones, 48 laptops/hard disks, 33 SIM cards, and pen drives. The operation also seized numerous bank accounts alongside 15 email accounts that were associated with the scammer network.

While the CBI did not disclose the number of arrests made during the operation, it was revealed that the illegal call centers had targeted more than 2,000 Amazon and Microsoft customers. The victims primarily reside in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, and the UK. Amazon also confirmed that it had removed over 20,000 phishing websites and 10,000 phone numbers from impersonation schemes in 2022. The company reported hundreds of attackers worldwide to authorities.

Is it the end of Amazon/Microsoft Tech Support scams?

Not really. Frauds like that are exceptionally profitable, so there will always be a temptation to restart it. Sure, current con actors are detained, but nature abhors a vacuum. Where one group of crooks is no more – another will pop up rather quickly.

Though, the impunity myth these guys were bearing on is now busted. Further scams will be either more concealed, distributed, and/or reliant on less traceable technologies. Will they be more effective with all these upgrades? This is what we are about to discover.

The post Fake Amazon and Microsoft Tech Support call centers busted appeared first on Gridinsoft Blog.

What is Spam Calls?

Spam calls are annoying phone calls that contain unacceptable content, obsessive advertising, etc. These can be made primarily by humans and sometimes by robots. But in phone frauds, rascals aim at a more successful outcome of their calls, making them more flexible. That’s why they prefer to call personally and convince users by deception on their adventures. As a result, they can force users to dictate their card number, password, insurance number, confidential information about their place of residence, and the like. If you still talk about robocalls, recorded calls often do not cause much harm. It is usually a reminder of the regular payment for utilities or a survey on the quality of service of the place where you recently visited (for example, in a bank or other institution).

Why am I getting so many Spam Calls?

Users who faced this problem probably wonder – why am I getting so many spam calls. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why users are exposed to spam. One such reason may be your subscription to a questionable website, where you also left your phone number. Then you are automatically exposed to a huge number of calls from unknown numbers and questionable offers. Because of that, we prepared some tips for you on how to stop spam calls.

What are Robocalls?

Automated calling software can make robocalls to millions of people. If someone answers their phone, and it’s not a live person, they listen to a robocall. While some automated calls provide helpful information, such as flight cancellations or reminder messages, most are trying to make money from their recipients. Some of them can even be scams.

How to Stop Robocalls?

To minimize the likelihood of being scammed, heed these tips:

• Immediately put a hang up on any robocalls. Avoid responding to a call or engaging the person on the line. If the other person tries to start a conversation or interact with you, it’s marked as a live call and you may receive more.
• Saying “yes” is to be avoided if possible. People sometimes answer robocalls without realizing that the caller started with a question like "Hello, can you hear me?" It uses recordings of the "yes" response to commit fraud. So, when answering calls, avoid saying "Yes" if possible.
• Report spam calls. The FTC can be contacted via donotcall.gov to report spammers’ robocalls. Reporting the number displayed on a caller’s ID helps the FTC track down scammers. The FTC collects each registered phone number and releases it to the public every business day. Reports help law enforcement identify the individuals behind illegal calls and phone providers working on call-blocking solutions. These reports also help other partners work on call blockers.

How to Stop Getting Spam Calls?

We’ll guide you on how to avoid falling victim to unwanted calls. Get rid of this; you will be able no matter what phone type of operating system you use. So, let’s review how to stop getting spam calls on different devices:

How to Stop Spam Calls on iPhone?

1. Go to the App Store and download the app to detect and block phone spam. You can download and install several programs with this feature from different developers.
2. Go to Settings > Phone.
3. Touch lock call and call ID
4. Enable or disable the desired application to allow these applications to block unwanted calls and provide the subscriber ID section. You can change the order of transfers according to the priority. To do this, click "Edit" and drag the programs to display them in order.

How to Stop Spam Calls on Android ?

1. On the device, open the application "Phone."
2. Tap on the icon "More" than "settings" then Spam and Call Filter.
3. Enable or disable Show subscriber ID and spam.
4. If you want to block spam calls on your phone, turn on the "Filter" spam calls "function". You will not receive any missed calls or voicemails, but filtered calls will appear in the call log, and you will be able to check your voicemail.

Spam Phone Calls Revenge

People who receive spam calls threatening them usually ask, “How to you block spam calls and get revenge for this attack?”. There are many ways to punish scammers already available to the public. To combat fraud and run effectively, you need software specifically designed for this purpose.

When a fraudster attempts to sell something, this software typically provides you with a temporary credit card number. That’s a fake credit card number generator so the fraudster can enter its data. Subsequently, the fraudulent sales attempt is rejected by the credit card issuer; however, this information provides you with evidence against whom you can sue.

Receiving spam can cost you money and damage your reputation. As soon as you realize this, it would help if you began taking measures to avoid receiving them in the future. However, it would help if you always were looking for telltale signs that someone is planning to defraud you. Avoid blocking phone-ups that originate from numbers with unclear or unrecognizable numbers. This prevents you from receiving similar phone-ups in the future.

Reminder: Your personal information is protected by laws that no one can break. Therefore, remember to report spam calls and any unauthorized attempts to access your data. Adding an extra app to your phone helps keep unwelcome guests at bay. Therefore, don’t restrict fraudsters’ actions.

How to Prevent Spam Calls ?

After all the mentioned information, you need to know some tips on how to get rid of spam calls and save your privacy and security. The FCC recommends avoiding specific actions to reduce robocalls:

• Don’t answer phone ups from numbers that are blocked or unfamiliar.
• Ignore phone-ups from numbers you don’t recognize.
• Just because a seemingly local phone number appears on the screen doesn’t mean it’s from that area
• Find the company’s phone number on the website or via a personal call from someone claiming to be a company representative. Then, call the number yourself and hang up when someone claiming to be with XYZ company phones you back.
• Do not press a number before speaking to a live representative who shares this same significance.

The post How to Stop Spam Calls & Block Unwanted Calls Immediately appeared first on Gridinsoft Blog.

You’ve probably heard the word ‘phishing‘. Today not only specialists from the cybersecurity field are actively talking about it but also ordinary users often are looking on the internet how to know if the email they received the other day could be a phishing attempt.

But before you jump right into research you should know exactly what type of online fraud you’ve encountered.

Because apart from phishing there are also smishing and vishing; what those are and how they different we’ll explain below.

What Is Smishing

Smishing is similar to the phishing technique of online fraud but instead of exploiting email fraud possibilities explores those of texts ( mainly via various message apps or SMS).

For example, user may receive a notification in WhatsApp messenger saying that they need to reschedule their package delivery.

To do this they need to follow the link given below. But what happens when the notification comes from fraudsters is that user can have some malware installed via that link.

Another example is when thousands of people around United Kingdom received fraudulent text messages saying that the payment is needed to be made in order for a package to be delivered.

Those who received these fake text messages were instructed to click on an attached link that will lead them to a fraudulent website where criminals would collect victims’ personal or financial information.

What Is Vishing

Unlike phishing and smishing where fraudsters use text as a medium of malicious action in the case of vishing it is voice. Criminals may pretend to call you from your bank or another trusted company and try to obtain from you your passwords, addresses, login credentials, etc. They will try very persuasively to make targeted person answer their calls’ questions. In such a case victim can feel like they have no other option than to answer the questions.

Sometimes to reinforce the successful fraud criminals will accompany their calls with emails asking person urgently to call them by the given phone number. The third vishing tactic by which fraudsters also go to leave threatening in tone voicemails like warning that the recipient should call immediately explaining that in other case they risk being arrested, have their bank account blocked or some worse things may happen.

What’s The Difference Between Vishing And Smishing

Both terms mean specifically designed social engineering attack where criminals pretend to be someone to exploit a victim’s trust in such a way. It’s because more than 96% of social engineering attacks happen via emails the term ‘Phishing’ is exclusively used only when speaking about email based fraud. But, of course, social engineering attacks also include other mediums of social engineering attacks like social media phishing, vishing and smishing.

Regardless of how the fraudulent message is delivered it appears to come from trusted sender and may ask a recipient to do the next:

• To do some explicitly stated action. Criminals may ask victim to buy vouchers or transfer because of some important matter different sums of funds;
• Give a reply to the message. Fraudsters may want you to reply to their message with some sensitive or personal kind of information;
• Click on a link. You will be asked either to download a file or submit via attached link your personal information.

How To Identify Vishing Attack

Vishing attacks in some way resemble smishing but there is one exceptional way we can identify that it’s specifically is vishing. Vishing fraudsters can pretend to be the next persons to defraud you:

• Tech support. You may receive a phone call from a person saying they are IT support and thus they notify you over virus infection that happened to your computer. Usually you will be asked to buy a ‘needed’ software ( which can be some malware or spyware) or give attacker a remote control over your computer to fix the issue;
• Government institutions. These fraudulent phone calls usually is accompanied with legal threat action if a recipient won’t respond. You may be notified that you are owed tax refund or you need to pay some fine;
• Banks. These bank phone frauds try to give an effect of some alarm like something’s happening with your bank account; possibly someone took an unauthorized control over it and the bank support noticed it and now they offer you their ‘urgent help’;
• Charities or businesses. Fraudsters inform you via phone that you have won some exclusive prize, offer you ‘lucrative’ business investment or ask you to make donations to some charity.

How To Identify Smishing Attack

Smishing attacks are similar to phishing emails but in a case of a smishing fraudsters need to rely on much less text space to get their victim hooked.

But nevertheless smishing fraudsters have also developed their own unique approuches to how create authentic looking catch text message. The sighns for smishing you should be looking for are the next:

• An urgent request. You received a message with an urgent call for action to verify your personal information, for example, that should be completed via attached link or automated phone number;
• Text message from your bank or other institution you are familiar with. A victim of smishing may receive text message that appear to have been sent from companies or organizations victim may be familiar with;
• Congratulations on winning some contest. It can be message that congratulates you on having won in some contest wnd as a result notifiyng you that now the winner can claim the prize;
• Money help. Someone asking you for help via text message should definitely be a red flag for smishing. Most likely you don’t know who the person is and out of nowhere they ask you for money;
• Unexpected links and downloads. Sometimes messages with some downloads and links can be accompanied by text but on the whole the task is to make you click on it.

The post Smishing And Vishing: Differences To Know About Phishing Attacks appeared first on Gridinsoft Blog.

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