Guy gains access to scam call center in India and records the operation using their webcams

[UberTiger]

This guy managed to gain access to the systems of the guys in this call center and monitors them for months to unveil how the operations works. Really interesting footage.

He also managed to locate them pretty accurately because they use a wireless network.

These guys are a particularly nasty group from Kolkata in India. They run a refund scam and this video shows what their call center looks like, how they operate, who and where they are. I've sent a link to the unblurred version of this video to the Kolkata Cyber Police (for all the good that it will do).

View an unblurred version hosted off YouTube here or the YouTube version below.

 

[UberTiger]

Replacing the outgoing call audio with a warning to the people being called was genius

 

[UberTiger]

This guy?

 

[UberTiger]

Didn't the guy who found the ransomware exploit do some illegal hacking on US government systems (possibly the pentagon). I recall reading some interview of his where he said he used to be immature and do stupid things like that but was now putting his skills to good use.

Yeah, Marcus Hutchins.

He was arrested after leaving the Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences in Vegas in August 2017.

He originally had 10 charges stacked against him and accepted a plea deal just a few weeks ago for two charges of malware development.

"I’ve pleaded guilty to two charges related to writing malware in the years prior to my career in security," he said in a statement.



"I regret these actions and accept full responsibility for my mistakes. Having grown up, I’ve since been using the same skills that I misused several years ago for constructive purposes. I will continue to devote my time to keeping people safe from malware attacks."

Each of the two counts carries a maximum penalty of five years behind bars, a $250,000 fine, and a year of probation. As with most plea deals, he's likely to get less than that, though he may still spend some time in an American cooler.

While being held in jail after his arrest, Hutchins apparently admittedcreating the software nasty. According to the Feds, the Brit at one point told an unnamed associate over a recorded telephone line: "I used to write malware, they picked me up on some old ****," later adding: "I wrote code for a guy a while back who then incorporated it into a banking malware."

If anyone is interested in the US legal system and how they go about trying cases and stacking charges like this to try and get a plea agreement there's a good podcast called 'Serial'. Season 3, which you can jump straight into, covers a number of cases in the US legal system, it's really well done. Turns out over 90% of cases in the US end up settling in a plea agreement for lesser charges and to settle the case quickly, instead of going to trial.

(Season 1 is awesome, about a high school muder, HBO did a seperate documentary recently on the same murder)

 

[UberTiger]

Interesting, sounds like he inadvertently dobbed himself in when under arrest and through the prison telephone line, I didn't realise that.

Hutchins appears to have dug himself a hole by confusing the American Miranda rights statement ("You have the right to remain silent; anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law") with the British criminal caution ("You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in Court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence").

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/14/marcus_hutchins_evidence/

Because the UK has no legal right of silence when under state interrogation, Hutchins believed his best tactic was to answer the FBI agents' questions in full in the belief they'd let him go, instead of shutting up and getting a lawyer.

As previously reported, while talking to an unnamed associate over a recorded prison telephone line, Hutchins appeared to admit to creating software nasties, at one point saying: "I used to write malware, they picked me up on some old ****," later adding: "I wrote code for a guy a while back who then incorporated it into a banking malware."

Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/14/marcus_hutchins_evidence/

Remember folks, you ever get arrested in America. STFU until you get a lawyer no matter what and watch what you say on federal lines

 

[UberTiger]

It's not so much the cost, but the risk of getting a sentence much longer than expected as you could have a free public defender as your laywer. In the majority of the cases they'll originally be arrested with one primary charge in mind, which they may or may not want to defend depending on their innocence and the evidence against them, but then the prosecution will stack additional charges against them in an attempt to convice them it's too risky to go to trial to defend all the charges.

Some judges could also be seen to be more punative in their verdict if you take a case to trial claiming your not guilty and they think it's wasting the courts time to try the case instead of agreeing to a plea deal.

Various techniques are used to convince the defendant that the evidence against him or her is overwhelming. “Charge stacking” is a process by which police and prosecutors create a case with numerous charges or numerous instances of the same charge to convince the defendant that the risk of not pleading guilty is intolerable. The defendant may be convinced to plead guilty to a few of the charges in return for not being prosecuted for the remaining charges.