One of my favorite aspects about doing my morning reads is I often find some random item I would never otherwise discover. Case in point: Reply All by Gimlet Media.
Reply All tells tech-related narrative stories, hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman (they launched the show in 2014).
I clocked on a recent story and got pulled into this wonderful crazy world of Indian tech support scams. What follows is delightful and surprising:
“The episode features audio of that recording, which was an authoritative robotic British male voice saying: “We seriously recommend you to call us on one eight double-four double-eight five double oh double-one. We request you do not use your computer or other Mac devices before speaking to our certified technicians.”
“I was having a hard day of tracking, and so I thought ‘why don’t I blow off some steam?'” Goldman told Ars recently. “The person was like: ‘we’re calling from Apple, and your Apple has been compromised, and your account has been accessed from Germany and Jordan.'”
Goldman saw through the ruse right away, but he decided to dive into the rabbit hole to see where it led. So he called the 800 number…
It’s a very cool story — check it out:
Reply All #102 Long Distance, part 1
Source: Gimlet
Reply All #103: Long Distance, part 2
Source: Gimlet
Here is some additional reporting on this:
• How a podcaster managed to confront his tech support scammer, in person. (Ars Technica, 7/27/2017)
• Reply All’s Latest Episode Tackles Phone Scammers (Wired, 07.27.17)
• Reply All’ Scam Baits an Indian Tech Protection Racket (Jul 31, 2017).
