Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback
Why Hacker News recommends it
Offered as a satisfying example of fighting back against scam call centers.
What it is
Mark Rober and collaborators build glitter bomb traps and other pranks to fight phone scam call centers, and share evidence about the operations.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2022 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends fossuser · 2022-07 · on “What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?”
I thought this was pretty great: [this video] My favorite part is when the guy uses the scammers real name and she panics.
Recommends IG_Semmelweiss · 2023-09 · on “India's biggest tech centers named as cyber crime hotspots”
I think the definition of cyber crime is what is important here. I think there are huge buildings with call centers in India dedicated to cyber crime. Thousands of people. Nothing to do with tech skills. Here is Mark Rober basically bringing the war to their shores with incredible pranks: [this video]
Recommends jasonwatkinspdx · 2024-02 · on “FTC proposes new protections to combat AI impersonation of individuals”
> My second thought was the majority of this type of fraud is probably from foreign impersonation, not Americans. There's an industry for it in India, because they can source english call center workers there fairly easily. The youtuber Mark Rober ran into a couple of US mules for these sorts of scams while working on one of his prank videos, and decided to team up with some other youtubers to troll some of these companies in India. The video on it is worth watching: [this video]
Critical IG_Semmelweiss · 2023-09 · on “India's biggest tech centers named as cyber crime hotspots”
Anecdata of 4 call centers, yet no one in this video really seems like someone that being exhorted to do crime [this video]