GREENSBORO, N.C. — Scammers harass us with calls - and hack into accounts all the time. But now, some victims are turning the tables and hacking them back!
He goes by "Jim Browning" but won't disclose his real name for his own safety. He responds to robocalls from scammers, often in India. The scammers try to make him fall for a "computer repair scheme.
"They will typically use the phrase like 'We are a computer company going out of business. You paid us in the past and we're going to refund your money.'" says Jim.
He connects with con artists, plays the victim, and then waits for until they ask for access to his computer to give him the refund, and hacks into their computers.
He then spies on their operations and further worms into their systems. He takes the evidence and turns it into cyber police in places like India. It led to a bust in four cities and resulted in 68 arrests.
He sometimes even changes their robocall message to one that warns consumers that the call is a scam.