Scam Fighters Answer Scam Questions From Twitter (ft. Trilogy Media) | Tech Support | WIRED
Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik of Trilogy Media answer the internet's burning questions about scams. How do you protect your parents from scams? How do scammers get our phone numbers? How do you know if an apartment listing is a scam? Why do people fall for scam sites so easily? Why are so many scam call centers in India? Ashton and Art answer all these question and much, much more!
Check out Art and Ashton's channel here (we promise this is a real link, and not a scam): / trilogymedia
Director: Justin Wolfson
Director of Photography: Corey Eisenstein
Editor: Shandor Garrison
Experts: Ashton Bingham & Art Kulik
Producer: Justin Wolfson
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Casting Producer or Talent Booker:
Camera Operator: Brittany Berger
Sound: Brett Van Deusen
Production Assistant: Patrick Sargent
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Ben Harowitz
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My dad is 62 and he loves scam calls. He leads them on, or tried to scam them back 😂 he says it keeps him sharp
Oh that's awesome! Glad he makes them waste their time as his hobby!
Scambaiting is a very honourable hobby. Every minute you make they waste is a minute in which someone is not being scammed.
Trying to scam the scammers is a good way to get scammed. Scam antiscam is a common scam.
😂😂😂
Boomers….
Thank you for having us! ❤ Looking forward to next time! 🎉
Thanks for doing what you do :) keep it up
I love you ashton and art. ❤️
Great job guys!
Great job!!!!!!
Godspeed
I got scammed by people pretending to be a fraud department for my bank. They almost stole 5000 but I felt something was wrong and noticed the funds missing right away, called the real fraud department and they were able to cancel the transfer. So so scary. When I spoke with the real fraud department, the terminology they used was so similar to the scammers, it freaked me out so badly, I felt like I couldn't trust anyone or anything. It was a happy ending, but it was so awful when it happened.
The key to all of these scams is urgency. Even if something is urgent, if anybody tells you to do stuff right now and that it will be too late in two hours, it's a scam, guaranteed.
Yeah sometimes the only way to know you're talking to the right people is to call out to the bank's fraud department yourself
Always ask to call them back. Then lookup your bank's phone numbers and call the number you looked up. I've had my bank call me on the phone and ask me to authorize myself, I tell them: No, you know who I am, you called me, you authorise yourself because I don't know who you are.
@@emilybjoerk you’re right. When we call our customers, we always say that you can call us back. Never let someone make you feel like you can’t call back. Like we always say, call the number on your debit card or on your bank statement.
When my bank called me, the person was astonished i wouldn't talk until i called back using bank's posted numbers. Just said i NEVER give out personal ID info to incoming calls.
I'm a cashier at a grocery store. This is a huge warning to everyone especially during the holidays: Be careful when purchasing gift cards! Check the back of each gift card you're purchasing and make sure the long barcode isn't exposed. Scammers will peel that barcode, take a pic of it and leave without buying. The next person who doesn't take note and buys the giftcard is screwed out of their hard earned money. The only one who should expose that barcode is the cashier selling it to you. Some gift cards have a long barcode exposed (Amazon) and those are fine. Make sure you keep the gift receipts you get with them.
Wait u can just steal gift cards? U don't have scan the card the register to activate it?
@@douggaudiosi14 you do, and when you pay for the gift card that the scammers know the code of, it's activated
The scammers wait until it's been purchased and activated before they use it.
🤣 wait, then how do they know when it's been purchased???
@@jessicaregina1956 They probably wait a couple of days and then try it. There’s no penalty for trying and odds are good a card near the front would get bought within a couple of days and odds are also good the buyer doesn’t use it within a couple of days either when it’s a gift, especially this time of year where it’s likely it’ll only be used on Christmas (writing this in December)
As an Indian I feel very sorry for all the people scammed by the scumbags in our country. Our Judicial system is flawed, the police and laws takes ages to take action. The only way to fight against scams is to spread awareness.
As an Indian I am very bother by this as well. I've had an upsurge in calls asking me to open bank accounts.
Yes it is.
Don’t worry though, as an American I don’t let the few people who are scamming outweigh all I know about how wonderful the vast majority of Indians are
"Flawed?" It's deeply corrupt.
Don't worry. Most of the people that believe the severe minority of people within a whole make up the majority of the whole are likely the ones falling for the tricks anyway.
we definitly need a Part 2 with "Jim Browning" or "Scammers Payback" or "Mark Rober" or all of them!
And Kitboga.
Jim is protecting his identity. He won't show up!
and Pierogi!
@@bhatkrishnakishor Jim will show up in a hood.
Thanks! :-)
"If you see them, shoot them." I started to laugh at the idea of the underpaid nerds at the call center risking their lives and freedom for the scam, but then I remembered, the bosses probably have some deep criminal ties. You don't become a millionaire criminal without having some very sketchy "protection".
Even where they are it's illegal, they pretend to be tech support even in India
They are often affiliated with India's underworld and those guys have a ridiculous amount of clout.
Heard that a lot of the bosses take the people calling's I.D.'s and passports and don't let them leave
Yeah no they definetly pay cops too
@@imacarguy4065 There's an Indian mob?
Scam victims are always victim blamed, especially on the internet. It's easy to make fun of people who are victims of crime until it happens to a loved one. I love that they emphasize that victims should not be ashamed that they were scammed
Well said
They should be blamed. There's already so many news online yet they gave in to greed, carelessness, etc. And they want banks to refund their money for their own mistakes, get the publicity they wanted but no criticism? The world ain't that soft for fools. They should keep up-to-date knowledge about scams before jumping in to whatever offer that seem too good to be true. If they're not shamed, how will they take it to heart and learnt not to make the same mistake next time?
@@damnnsupercalifragilistice3935...do you hear yourself? "People never learn unless they're shamed"?? Where did you learn that? Usually the people who fall for these things are *older and don't know better.* But sure! Shame your loved ones when they get scammed. And tell them it's so they'll learn for next time! I'm sure it'll go great. (Unless they're the ones who taught you that "teaching through shame" thing...yeesh.)
@damnnsupercalifragilistice3935 the fact that you think scams are only too good to be true offers or ones involving greed, plus your general arrogance, tells me you are a ripe mark for being scammed. You will be scammed and you will beg like a pauper to your bank to get your money back.
My favourite thing about these two is how much empathy they clearly have for scam victims. at 14:00 is a good example how he picks his words to not insult the victims: saying they prey on someones fear or hopes/dreams, rather than how others negatively say stupidity and greed.
Yes, they are very empathetic. I watch them a lot, in one video they were on a trip involving taking down a big scam place, while on the trip Art ran into a woman with her kids sleeping in a hotel on a lobby couch, after he had a lousy day he straight bought the mother and children a room for the night. They are so nice to people that its very common for them to do that.
Greed.... Man those slaves are so greedy, it's almost as if they want to go back to pre 1940s where a single man could support his entire family on a part time job but yeah... we're the ones that are greedy, the slave race. Oh yeah and you're not stupid, forgot that last joke.
They are saying the same thing, just nicer
@@CharinVZain ..... that's what the OP meant? 💀
Wow they don't call people stupid. How nice of them.
These scambaiters, trilogy, Jim browning, scammer payback, etc. Need to get government funding. They're the closest thing we have to super heroes and are actively combating a national security threat to the public on their own time and dollars. These guys are far more important than half the people in office.
Actually, they should not be under the government. That would limit their effectiveness.
Not really, they shouldn't be. As then they'd get saddled with who knows how much red tape, making them far less effective in getting the scammers like they do. And that's why they do it, because they don't have any of those government restrictions like whatever agencies do, and can fight the scammers far better in many cases than said government and/or law enforcement agencies. Not to say they aren't effective, but people power can be much more effective & is more effective in many cases, since that red tape doesn't saddle them down so much.
I love how autocorrect can change the meaning of things so much. National security threat -> national security treat 🤣
Not trilogy they are useless
Don't forget kitboga
Whenever a scammer would call my grandpa he’d talk like a little kid and say things like “my mommy’s not here right now” 😂 a man in his 60s/70s talking like a little kid definitely pissed off some scammers lol.
LMAOOOO
I was a telemarketer back in the day. My favorite thing to do now is to go straight into that pitch when a scammer calls me as soon as they tell me their name Im full throttle trying to sell them magazines 😂 it's glorious. They have no idea what's going on lol
I worked as a Western Union agent through an old retail job for a while, and I can safely say with confidence that it is merely a money transferring service and actively tries to educate to avoid its customers being scammed. During training I was taught signs to look for, questions to ask, things of the sort. If we are sure the customer was being scammed or otherwise money laundering, we have forms we can fill out that will flag WU to halt the transaction and investigate. Beyond that, they do also halt transactions they find suspicious anyways. Better to have more false flags and minorly inconvenience folk than have more folk scammed out of significant amounts of money, I'd say!
I can tell you were awesome at what you did, too. As someone who has been crippled by malicious acts, especially ones that include money, it really, really hurts and is terrifying. I hope you helped catch a ton!
Thanks for that perspective. I'm glad they recognize this and put at least some effort into mitigating it.
At 1:21, the scam emails intentionally have misspellings as an attempt to circumvent automated scam detection which looks at combinations and ratios of words present in the email. Randomly misspell a few words, and your mass email campaign is less visible to the filter.
Ironically this makes it stand out more to me when it manages to sneak through the filters, because part of what makes an official message, either through sms or email, is perfect spelling, if not necessarily grammar as well (though I've never encountered an official message with bad grammar). Biggest warning sign though, is that they don't know what my full name is, as in they only use an initial for my surname.
Its a game of ballance, the more mistakes the less likely it is that the filter tags it but more likely that people catch on
@@mnabad5704 I don’t know if this is intentional, but you spelled balance wrong…
@@rakuza_me i forgor 💀💀
Plausible, needs confirmation
As an Indian i feel bad and ashamed that these gutter level scammers are dragging the reputation of my nation down.
Is it racist if I assume an unknown Indian person on the phone is trying to scam me?
@@D.KlWA-aG you should be able to identify scams. If any unknown Indian person calls you that might not be scammer always. But I would not say this is racist because if I saw so many American scammers calling Indian people like this I would definitively not trust Americans.
@@D.KlWA-aG Not racist. Racist would probably be assuming any Indian person you actually meet or know in real life is a scammer or willing to do shady things and manipulate people. It would more or less be a bias in your case. If every single Christian you meet is a horrible person and every interaction with a Christian is negative, then it’s logical to assume that any Christian you just met is a bad person. Doesn’t make it accurate though.
Why is this in India though? Why not Vietnam? Or Morocco? Why does this occur mainly in India? I’ve never understood it.
@@Rokaize because unemployed people with knowledge of english & that's why most companies have official call support employees with cheapest rate. Same goes for the scammers too.
Why aren’t there larger corporations dedicated to working to stop these scammers? Seriously thank you for what you do, literally saving lives.
Because it's not profitable to do so
Scams primarily affect those who are in need of money or romance. Or who are vulnerable, like the elderly, and/or the lonely. These are not victims that are cared about. If they target big companies it'd be a different story.
There are, a lot of them in fact. Almost every law enforcement agency in the world (at the very least western countries) have dedicated teams in the cyber security departments working against these. Problem is (as with many other criminal activities too) that law enforcement always tends to lag behind the facts...
Big companies sell info to anyone, although the DMV does it with less hurdles.
Because it wouldn't benefit the corporations
My grandma is in her 70s. I always have her run calls, text, emails by me if they ask her for any personal information. Most of the time they're scams too. I'm glad she remembers to let me know before she does anything so I can make sure she doesn't get taken advantage of
I used to do this with my granny and now my mum too, she is selling some clothes and was nearly scammed over $600 (aus)!!
I can’t believe Trilogy Media is getting the recognition that they deserve
I am glad they are.
now pleasant green!
If they deserve it, what can't you believe it ?? - Translation : "I totally knew who they were before this video, now give me my status of cool and informed guy".
yeah finnaly
@@eugeniorenaldo chill it’s not that serious
For Craigslist apt scams, I do a reverse photo search to find if the apt photos are listed in different towns or realty sites.
Omg looking for rentals was such a nightmare
I live in Quebec, Canada. Most of Quebec province resident speak French, not English like the rest of Canada. So right of the bat, if someone calls me in English and cannot switch to French when asked to, it is a big red flag. The Canadian Government knows which language to use when contacting any citizen (English or French) and is obligated by law to offer services in both English and French.
Honestly might be why my tech backwards father has not been scammed, he's the kind of guy who downloads fake programs and forgets he even has them on his hard drive
Gotta say, please don't block all unknown numbers If you're anyone's emergency contact. There are multiple phones within even one hospital, and I've been noticing more difficulty calling patients + family over the past couple years as that mobile setting has become more common.
This is super important. Screen the calls, check to see if your provider has a 'tag' for a number being a scan, but don't automatically block all numbers that you don't recognize if you have to deal with any large organization for any reason.
how about don't hide your numbers. at least use a number that calls back to a company IVR type thing.
@@jnawk83 That is the target right there! DO NOT BE SNEAKY WITH YOUR PHONE NUMBER! If I don't know you or recognize the number, i will not answer... So if it is important, let me see a caller ID that is legit, and leave a message.
Just leave a voicemail
But you can leave a voicemail and then the person can call you back right?
Blocking all unknown calls is the best thing I’ve ever done. I get up to 10 silent BS calls per day and they never leave more than a 2 second blank message. I sure miss all those car extended warranty opportunities 🤪
I did this too and it feels so good.
Lol
It gets rid of probably 90 percent of scam calls but "good" scammers know their way around this by spoofing a local number.
@@nmbr1slayer only time my phone rings is if the number is saved in my contacts or I called that number recently.
I block them too. Once in a while I'll answer and act like I'm interested before telling them to eff off.
A few years ago I had a coworker come into the office on his cell phone in a hurry. He came up to me and was like “I’m on the phone with Amazon and they say someone’s in my account and are making purchases.” Turns out they had directed him to do a screen share and helped him delete all his banking apps. After that they had him go to Walgreens to buy $500 worth of gift cards and, thankfully, that was what made him think to double check with me. All this time the gal was on the phone on speaker listening to me tell him she was a scammer. I told her goodbye and hung up. He gave me an Amazon gift card as a thank you. 😂
My dad had this something similar happened to him... Luckily I was there that day... When he recieved a call where something related to his office (he's retired) and they were asking him to download a software into his phone and I caught that... It was remote desktop app.. and I was, "why do you need a remote connection into this phone?" I ended up telling my dad about never sharing ANY info for any supposed "confirming you are in our accounts" scams... It was a level of social engg... that you almost get impressed by these scammers. Oh btw I am India. so yeah, we hate these people too...
Dumbass… should’ve just logged into his account and checked for himself
@@wolfetteplays8894 He’s older and panicked when he saw it. *sigh*
Please tell your grandparents or any elderly people about this! This is a great lesson to teach them so they would never get scammed
Your mothers must be really proud. They did a great job raising guys who help so many people.
The Scam Fighters seem to have very insightful inputs to share. They just seem so down-to-earth and intellectual.
their youtube contents are also top notch, check it out
They are great guys!!
I think you went a little overboard with the compliments. They seem like decent people, but this interview wasn't about them, it's about scammers.
I literally saw your comment on some other video lol
@@watertower1 B'coz that's a bot.
I love watching Zlatan Ibrahimovic educate us about scammers 💯
His head is like 1/3 the size of Zlatan's. Art Kulik has the smallest head I've ever seen on an adult.
😂 he does look like Zlatan Ibrahimovic!
Zlatan never gets scared and sends money to scammers. Scammers get scared and send money to Zlatan.
Hahahahahah I saw the thumbnail and thought the same thing
@@AaronTheBaron93 well someone hasn’t seen hasanabi’s head
As for the misspellings: that began with email around 2000. Email spam was a serious problem and a lot of attention was paid and money spent to fight it. The algorithms today that are used to fight junk mail didn’t exist back then. A company called Brightmail came up with a solution that worked really well… briefly. They set up thousands of email accounts that did nothing but collect spam. It would assign that spam an MD5 hash and log it into a database. Customers would use their software to connect their servers to the Brightmail system. If an inbound email was flagged as matching one of the MD5s it was discarded. This worked great for a few months until the spammers realized they could get around this just by misspellings and random characters.
Oh my god in my apartment search last year I talked to an owner who was renting his house while his family was out of the country. He was coherent and polite so I asked him about being able to tour the property, but he said that wouldn't be possible because they were already out of the country and took the key with them. He said to just refer to the photos, but of course, I'm not signing any lease sight unseen. He said "when you sign it we'll mail you the key", and if anyone has had experience with the US postal system you know it's garbage, so I wasn't about to rely on snail mail, especially when I'm not allowed in the place! He urged me to sign his background check form, but instead I thanked him for his time and blocked the number. It was fishy of course, but I had no idea that that's a regular scamming tactic. Makes a whole lot of sense now, so I'm glad my intuition didn't fail me.
Good thinking. Be sure to let the people you care about know about this scam.
Absolutely an amazing experience! We’re absolutely honored to be on this show! Till next time 😉👍 Cheers
Great job Art! Keep doing what you are doing.
❤
Art's enthusiasm is infectious. He obviously loves his job. I wish he got to speak a little more but it was entertaining to watch nonetheless
This was awesome ❤
Art!! Your amazing ❤
My mom is in her late 70’s and I remind her all the time to never give out her information. “Happy Mother’s Day Mom. Remember never give anyone your info! Merry Christmas, Mom! Don’t forget, never give out any information! “
Sadly, scammers are teaching their victims to completely ignore any warnings that people give them in person. My aunt actually had to call the police and get them to convince a victim that they were being lied to. It was so sad
In regards to “stopping the phone calls”, cussing them out, calling them back, etc can put you on a shared “do not call” list amongst scammers because they will know you are there to waste their time, and resources. It’s not garunteed but it thins it out
And its hilarious
"How do scammers get our phone numbers?" They're just numbers. Anybody can "get" a number. You just pick an area code and dial every combination of digits. They don't know it's *your* number. They just know that it's a number, so they call it and see what happens.
True, they do blind call, but often it's targeted. Once I got a scam text about buying my house and they had my name and address. There is so much information about us out there that you don't have to resort to brute force blind calling.
@@tboneforreal Right, cases where they know your name are targeted. But cases where, for example, they call about your "recent car accident" are just blind calling that feels targeted if you, randomly, have recently had a car accident.
@@tboneforreal I've gotten those many times. "We'll purchase your house outright, no agents needed, we'll make this quick and easy" We have no interest in selling the house, lol.
Doing that would be inefficient though, do they not just buy leaked database with owner age and phone number for better targeting.
They have much more information about you than you thought.
Any scam call related to my Bank activities, I just go, "Actually I'm about to enter my bank branch. I'll find out whatever the issue is, Thank you for letting me know".
Haha, yes
I wish my parents would listen to me. My mom has been scammed multiple times. They still think if you tell them to put you on a do not call list they have to oblige. I've tried telling them they're criminals but they just don't listen.
My parents do listen my mom just declined them and my dad knows scam calls so they haven't gotten scammed ur parents are dumb lol
As an Indian, I am extremely ashamed and sorry for the scam center in India, I do hope that ecosystems develop soon to remove this cancer...
Why should you be ashamed of someone else's wrongdoing? Every country has its good and bad sides.
I'm glad to hear an Indian person say that. Really goes to show how even people of the same ethnicity hate these monsters.
@@bruhmoment3644 probably bc some people would like to still take pride in where they live and the people there so when a group there does wrong they feel partially included and hurt that this community they live in has such people this is probably more true in places outside the usa where community is huge
Agreed...scammers are also homegrown. Ponzi schemes and snake oil are some of the oldest. They are in every country and many related to organized crime groups. Its NOT an Indian thing and only the smallest mind would believe this.
I was just recently scammed. Sextorted, specifically, in which the scammer blackmails you with whatever they might have (images, messages, videos) saying "pay up or I'll release this stuff" It's horrible. I'm young, reasonably knowledgeable about computers, and extremely paranoid (now even more so) and yet I still fell for it.
When i was in the Marines, a whole host of Marines at Camp Lejeune fell victim to this scam. I tell you this so you know you're not alone. No matter how careful or smart someone thinks they are, the scammers are just as smart. There will always be scams that anyone will fall for.
Yikes, that sounds horrible :(( I hope you're okay! >
bruh I've seen it 2 or 3 times 😞 it's honestly horrible
@@doom_dragon1794 it is...to fundamentally sabotage one's trust of people in such a way, sometimes to humiliate one using their own trust... I can't imagine what sort of web of lies these scammers must feed themselves to be able to sleep at night :/
@@margodphd especially wen the person has issues things in life etc they don't even care or realise that it causes suicide 😢
You know you finally made it when you get featured on a Wired video Grats you two! Keep on fighting the good fight
This reminds me, it's so annoying how some legit companies just refuse to leave voicemails these days.
That's terrifying to find out someone basically put out a hit on you in India.
Omg,so proud of y'all. Making it onto Wired is so cool
I feel like this video should genuinely be mandatory for everyone to watch no matter who, where you are. Its incredibly important information. Thanks guys
I have got a PhD in Economics and an IQ enough to join MENSA. I laughed at those misspelt e-mails and in general thought scammers can only successfully prey on the less-clever-and-knowledgeable-than-me. Then I got scammed big time. These guys are right - everybody is at risk.
Thats the major deal, is the thought you are immune. Everyone thinks it. Everyone thinks they are smart enough to catch it. And you get cocky and dont think cause "im smart and can avoid it". Ita being human, we all do it. Im sorry you were take advantage of, absolutely horrible
What happened
🤓
As annoying as it is for my mom to have me constantly asking questions, I still always take the time to explain things to her. I show her what to look for in emails and look over them, I tell her not to click on any links in messages, I tell her to only stay on secure legitimate websites, etc. I helped her get rid of one scammer who kept calling her by literally Rick rolling him the next time he called (and he never called back)
Scammers got me recently. Hook, line and sinker. I watch scam videos ALL THE TIME and still fell for it. I used to think of myself as reasonably intelligent. I'll never forgive myself for it.
you should definatly forgive yourself after all you did nothing to forgive they are the ones who did the bad thing here
How though? I feel like I could never get scammed and dodge them all the time so I’m curious what got you being you are an aware person.
Details??? Let others know please
Nah man, you just took one for the team. Nothing to be ashamed about. Just share your story and be the hero we all need
I've never been scammed, but have come close on two occasions. Once where a person played off my compassion in a chat room and tried to get me to wire them money. He was so convincing that I'm still not 100% sure he was a scammer (only about 90% sure). And another time I almost fell for the scam that's going around where they hacked into my Facebook friend's account, then got them to send me a message about a cool video they saw with me in it. But to see the video, you have to type in your Facebook login info into a site that looks just like Facebook, but is really a scam site where they steal your login info.
What *I* don't understand is why the scammers are so willing to vulture people in the first place. It's one thing to be in desperate straits, but making a living out of manipulating people takes intent and dedication.
It’s a matter of luck, most of the time
You don't understand because you don't know poverty. Be happy with your first world life. Scammers do it out of necessacity to leave. Instead of stabbing and looting like you have in the UK and US they rob through their phones. And honestly I'd rather face a call scammer than a stabber.
Its alot easier to dehumanize someone when you are talking over the phone. Id imagine alot of them just actually are evil. But quite alot of them probably just take the job out of desperation and slowly become numb to the fact that they are ruining peoples lives, They dont see the aftermath where that person now cant retire. They just see it as "i spend all day on the phone with some random person and made 5k."
Sociopaths. Scamming and vulturing did not start with India or modern scams; they're just making the most of technology. It just wasn't as easy in the past. And that's just the stuff that is 100% a scam. There's plenty of other things that are a scam in practice, even though they're not 100% fraud: pyramid schemes, cheap insurance that is deliberately incredibly difficult to cancel or get a claim paid, shoddy used cars, etc.
I DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE for numbers not in my contact list. This is the new etiquette. Anyone who has a problem with this is not someone I ever want to talk to.
If it's important they will leave a voicemail, saying what company it is, and you can then use the company's website to call back at a legitimate number.
About a year ago when I very nearly got dox-scammed, I would have asked if there was a legally sound way to make the scammers outright suffer. Now, I think it's good enough to just deny them the chance to get to you in the first place.
Finally Trilogy Media is getting the recognition they should have!
YESSS!!!
For real though, not only exposing these scams and getting revenge but even reforming some past scammers; huge W’s all around
My mom worked for a bank for 49y yrs (started out as one bank, eventually became wells Fargo). The number one reason she didn't stick around to get to 50yrs was dealing with scams. Every day, multiple times a day, even in our small city, trying to convince people what they were doing was part of a scam, and then getting yelled out by people who can't do things because of scam prevention. It got very old.
I have seen data being passed around first hand. Working for a UK company I visited a call centre in Bangalore that had contracts with a number of different UK/US/Euro companies. They made a big deal about their office security and showed me that people who worked on different contracts could only access certain parts of the building, that sort of thing. Meanwhile at lunchtime in the canteen (accessible to everyone) people openly passed around CDs containing copies of their customer databases because everyone has an uncle/cousin/brother involved in some kind of scam. Given that they worked for a number of big utility companies the chances are that my data was being passed around too.
Awareness for the older generation is so important! At my retail job we had a lady trying to buy gift cards and I so happened see that she was on the phone with a scam likely so I tried to inform her with my manager but she insisted it was her family member so we couldn’t stop her 😓
My mom is no dumb, however she has been scammed and almost scammed several times. It has been so expensive. She has a financial planner now. It helps a lot. I hate that my sweet mom gets taken advantage of sometimes.
I read "no" as "so" and thought that was harsh. Just gotta switch no to not
Anyone can be scammed under the right circumstances, keeping that in mind will keep you more protected
For the Venmo scam at 4:35 the original transfers can also get reversed if they were fraudulent, leaving your account with -$60 balance. Then you'll have to try to contest the payments you made which can be difficult.
Frank Abagnale, Jr. did with with paper paychecks and traveler's check back in the 60s. It's an old scam
What should one do if this happens, if you get $60 sent for "burritos"? Contact Venmo?
@@L.SpencerI would honestly just ignore it and not worry about it, just leave the money there as is. If scammers used someone's account, Venmo will likely eventually get a claim and figure things out before taking corrective action to reverse things. Don't engage.
@@jayschafer1760 I don't even remember why I wrote that anymore 😊
The most audacious one I encountered was my sister's mother in law who was involved in a romance scam with a "local" millionaire on an oil rig in the North Sea. He told her they were attacked by pirates and the U.S. Navy had to rescue them. The navy wanted paid, of course, in Steam gift cards.
I saw you guys in the Mark Wrober video and got scared when they ordered to kill you! Made me realize just how much money was involved in the scamming business. Here I was thinking that scammers were just some small-time crooks, but it turns out that they are a huge mafia!
I'd love to see a segment on mail scams. Like we just encountered one that seemed so legit my mother in law almost fell for it until we started researching for her. (It was Medicare related.)
When I was like 20 something I applied for a dog walking job . In my own town! They sent me a check for like $400 or $4000 to "cover" the expenses for the dog and food etc . Nope I could tell it was a scam .
Never would I have expected Ibrahimovic to teach me how to not get scammed.
Zlathan is #1 so he can do all he wants to
Didn't know Zlatan Ibrahimovic was an anti scam activist
Just wanted you to know this made me laugh so hard the drink I was having came out of my nose
keep fighting the good fight Ashton and Art! You guys are really one of the best when it comes to informing us people about scams.
dude my friends and i got scammed while trying to rent a house, i kinda saw a few red flags but didnt want to rain on our happiness because we all desperately needed to move out and we found a decently sized house for a good price. we where talking with some guy who kept saying he just wanted to rent it out because he was gonna be gone for a few years but didnt want to sell and kept making excuses on why he couldnt give us the keys. and it wasnt till finally when we where out getting dinner when we realized we where in the area that we could go drive past the house and look at it then we saw that there was a car parked in the driveway and lights on inside. this house was supposed to be empty and the owner was supposed to be in washington or something and thats when we put 2 and 2 together. luckily we never sent any money but he had us fill out these dodgy forums and kept rushing us on this that and the other. i feel bad for not saying something sooner
I've been watching Trilogy when they were just a small channel and now they're on WIRED! So happy for them!
I do wanna say that sometimes the data “opt-in” isn’t always optional. There are pages or apps where it’s mandatory. Either that or nothing loads properly. So it’s not like it can be skipped all the time. I strongly recommend we get compensated for sharing our data.
I am disappointed in the KZhead algorithm for never exposing these guys to me! I watch these Wired videos, so I’m lucky they made it on. But this is right up my alley, c’mon KZhead! 😂
There last video they did was crazy
I would guess scammers also intentionally misspell things in texts/emails/etc. to try and avoid text filters. If services have things set up to detect certain phrases, a way to get around it would be to introduce variables.
My mom got scammed on one of those hiring sites. They told her she was a candidate for the job and they'd pay for her training and laptop. All she would need to do was provide banking for them to deposit the check. 😞 Sadly she fell for it, and went through with it before she mentioned it to me. By the time I got wind of it, she'd already handed over her info.
Dang that’s elaborate I’m broke af
I'm so glad my parents aren't your typical senior citizens. My father, a former tax lawyer, would laugh at someone telling him he was going to be arrested by the IRS, and my mother would just scream his name demanding he come look at the text or talk to the person on the phone. That is, if she didn't also just laugh at them and hang up.
Good point on suggesting people talk about getting scammed instead of being shy about it. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Edit: Way too funny about the aliens in the basement.
I hate scammers so much. These guys are my heroes
So glad to see this duo here! They've been trying really hard for so long to raise awareness about this problem and so glad they get to speak out here and help people know how to fight scams.
11:00 the method I heard is if you intentionally waste their time, they will blacklist you so no more scam calls :)
I have to fight a war every day for my mom not to believe she “won a $500 gift card” 😭😭 I’m built like a spartan at this point
They also called me on a number only very few people have. Apparently my answer was "too nice", so someone else called again. Second time apparently the same because I got another call. The third time I went straight to insulting them. I did not get another call since then. If they repeatedly call, try insulting them. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but in my case it felt like it helped.
They kept calling because u answered, insulting them didnt do anything to get them to stop. More then likely theyll just wait awhile and have a different person call u with a different scam. Just dont answer them, if they cant get ahold of u at all theyll eventually give up. Every time u answer ur basically letting them know they just have to find the right scam.
Threatening their lives gives you a 3 month grace period.
make sure to also insult them using their native language insults to make it hit harder, there are plenty of indian insults you can use and try to pronounce properly, though otherwise the scammer may laugh at you for failing to pronounce it properly
They're dialling randomised number combinations and you responded..🤦. Well, you can block the callers.
Just don't answer any unknown calls. I barely get any calls now. Once, when I was expecting a call, I answered, then hung up when I realized it was a sales pitch. I started getting more calls again. Once I started ignoring calls again, the number started going down. Answering lets them know that the number is connected and good, so it gets added to a list for more people to call. They aren't even worth the breath it takes to cuss and yell.
3:17 it’s so rare to find kids these days who take proper care of their parents that this made my heart warm!!!
Not me thinking it's Ibrahimovic
6:59 - I hope you mean Jim is the godfather of scambaiting, not scamming 😄
This duo is awesome! Very insightful but also charismatic. Hilarious but serious and passionate when needed. So proud of them!
every time i get a scam call i try to keep them on the phone as much as possible. the more time they're talking to me, the less time they have to scam other ppl, thank u for inspiring me!
Love you guys! Thanks for all you do to protect us! You truly are super heroes!
Never expected this but love watching Trilogy's confrontations so this is great
Awesome video, just found these guys recently so awesome to see them on WIRED!
I worked in facilities. The scam caller called our emergency lift phone. This was used only for if the lift breaks down to call for assistance. It had never been used for anything else.
Kind of funny story about my grandma and scammers: she answered the call, fell for the scan but couldn't understand what the scammers wanted her to do. They kept transferring her to other scammers until they finally gave up. 😂 In all seriousness, this was a very insightful video. Thanks!
reminds me of the atomic shrimp 'where am I supposed to get steamed apples' bit. love it.
Yes, they’re big on insulting mothers! I had a lot of fun listening to a man meltdown, and I was like “this is what you’re doing with your life?”
every time you sign up for an account on a website, they get your email address, which is then sold to cybermarketers. some require a phone number, which then gets sold to telemarketers. and sometimes, these legit firms sell their contact lists to scammers.
I remember the guy on the left did a video a few years ago, taunting the scammers. It was funny! He’s good! Glad to see it’s become his mission!
The fact that scammers were wanting to shoot these guys just is a reminder that these scammers are criminals
If you have Telus, they have a feature for this - called Call Control. You can 'pre-approve' phone numbers, and anyone else calling has to enter a number to get put through (once they do it the first time they don't have to do it again). In the 3 years since I turned it on I've never gotten a robocall!
Doesn't that make it impossible to get random calls you DO want? For example you applied for a job and they call you for the first time
I love Jim Browning he's amazing. I had no idea he got scammed himself.
He made a whole video on it, he didn't try to keep it secret. It's so easy to shame people for falling for scams but all it takes is for you to be having a bad day, or maybe you are just tried.
3:15: Yes, yes, yes! My grandmother almost fell for one of these things because the scammer pretended to be my brother, saying he'd been arrested, and he needed bail money. The only thing that tipped her off that it was a scam was that the scammer called her "Grandma", but my brother and I always called her "Nonna," and even then she still called my father in tears to make sure it was fake; they knew his name and school, and apparently they sounded like him! I fell for one of these as a kid, too, but fortunately, being a good child, I called my mother on the emergency cell phone in the middle of the call (left the scammer hanging on the landline) to tell her about it and she told me it was a scam and to hang up the phone. I didn't give them any info or money, so no harm, no foul.
These guys bring so much value to our lives. Thank you!!!
Awesome to see these guys here! Keep fighting the good fight, boys
They're a fun duo, I like them.
the guy in the blue suit kinda looks funny
I see them like skipper and Kowalski lol
These guys are awsome! One of the best "tech support series" video.
I’m 72 years old and have been scambaiting for 10 plus years now. I do it week in and week out. The best tactic I have found, especially with the calls I get multiple times a day, is to make sure the scammer is listening set you phone down on a hard surface and then put a metal pot ( which I keep handy) over the top of the phone then beat on it vigorously with a heavy metal spoon. This tactic works every time and it sure makes me much less frustrated when I get those annoying calls!!!
Banning numbers that aren't in your contact list is a good idea! Google Pixel phones have an automatic screening service that picks up for you and generates a transcript in real-time, too. Usually when they hear it start they hang up
Sending numbers?
I wish that call screening becomes an Android standard.
Charming, super knowledgeable, and extremely helpful dudes! Love it, thank you :)
These 2 are incredible, their videos are extremely well made, definitely recommend if you’ve never seen them
This was great! You two are so fun together and I learned a lot.