How Two YouTubers Shut Down a Phone Fraud Center in Delhi

Tech support scams are still out there, preying on users at the first sign of trouble. But the so-called fake online technical support centers are facing more and more enemies, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, where they tend to concentrate their efforts. The latest case brings us back to Jim Browning's channel, the ultimate hunter of fake call centers, who joined forces with Karl Rock, a YouTuber specializing in India. Both focused their efforts on a call center in Delhi that reportedly moved half a million dollars in three years….

The story is (more or less) the same as always: a user gets bombarded with false alerts about malware and security failures. Their computer partially freezes, and they're given a phone number to contact 'technical support'. The call is redirected by a legitimate company to a call center, where a group of miserable scammers begin the slow process of separating that user from their money. Multiply this by thousands of users a year... the 'business' is obvious.

India is the world capital of fake support centers, and YouTuber Jim Browning is especially skilled at ruining their operations. In early May, he shared a unique glimpse inside one of those centers located in Calcutta, but this time he aimed his guns at a call center operating under the alias Renewed Technology, located in the Rohini district of Delhi. His first contact was with a certain 'Steve Smith' (how much confidence can someone with an Indian accent using that name inspire?), who basically followed a classic route: the computer has a virus, and needs another 'security solution'.

The Takedown

Thanks to a combination of RAT software, keyloggers, and the collaboration of Karl Rock, Jim managed to physically track down those responsible for Renewed Technology (just one of several fictional names, like Renown Computer, WebInfoTech LLC, and TechPhilosophers LLC), and obtain some of their files, including a spreadsheet full of the names of their victims, and the profits from the last three months... almost $90,000. Among the payments, gift cards from eBay, GameStop, and the Xbox store stand out.

Jim published the complete structure of the call center, with names, involved companies, and payment processors. In fact, the operation had some redundancy in case one of its sites went down. The first step toward destroying that call center was flooding its phone numbers. For that, he used the Scammer Blaster service, which essentially occupies all the call center's lines with garbage. This not only prevents new victims from contacting the scammers, but also makes them lose money, because the VoIP services they use are not free.

Jim also alerted the number provider and payment processor Authorize.net. There, he was able to confirm that the total payments exceeded half a million dollars in less than three years. The third phase of his attack consisted of contacting the entire list of victims, warning them about the scam and recommending they request a refund. Finally... he confronted the owners of Renewed Technology and WebInfoTech LLC with all the accumulated evidence. The result? They deleted their data, their web presence, and closed the call center, for now..