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Busted a scammer ring :D
So as I've mentioned before, I work a LOT for a little industry that's typically rife with scammers and whatnot. Obviously, its in my best interest to keep a weather eye out for these folk, because a scammed client is a broke client, and therefore not a client.
Well, recently I joined up with a hacker/blackhat-friendly forum to keep an eye out there, because it's most typically the place where people selling pirated copies of my stuff originate. Thankfully, my presence there has let them realize I'm generally a super nice and cool person, so the pirating has dropped drastically. Literally, several of the bigger pirates have stepped forward and apologized to me for their actions, explaining that they hadn't really considered how much they were hurting another person.
So anyways, as I'm browsing new threads on the forum, I notice that someone has posted up a thread detailing all the exploits and cheats that you could use on a bunch of websites. Websites belonging to that industry I mentioned earlier. AKA, my clients.
Not only does it explain cheats, but they also oh-so-handily listed a set of stolen virtual credit card numbers they obtained.
Oh, fun time now!
I took the link and promptly posted it to an announcement to all the clients I have contacts with, and also copied over several bits that in all likelyhood, will be edited out as soon as the dude realizes the jig is up.
Oh, but it gets BETTER.
Upon watching the thread, post after post appeared with people excitedly claiming how they were using it now, and thanking the OP. Almost every single one of these people posted their own referral links to various websites.
That's right. Referral links that track down to their specific account.
AKA, they are now in the crosshairs of some very angry site owners, LMAO.
To put extra frosting on the cake, the original guide writer posted HIS referral link, stating he wanted people to sign up under him so he could "make money off the guide".
Yeah well, hope he enjoys the fact I forwarded his little thread to the site owners, and helpfully noted that as he's posting stolen CC numbers, it might behoove them to file a report with the FBI as well.
Not the most epic scammer ring I've busted, but definitely oh-so-satisfying. Stupid, stupid scammers.
Well, recently I joined up with a hacker/blackhat-friendly forum to keep an eye out there, because it's most typically the place where people selling pirated copies of my stuff originate. Thankfully, my presence there has let them realize I'm generally a super nice and cool person, so the pirating has dropped drastically. Literally, several of the bigger pirates have stepped forward and apologized to me for their actions, explaining that they hadn't really considered how much they were hurting another person.
So anyways, as I'm browsing new threads on the forum, I notice that someone has posted up a thread detailing all the exploits and cheats that you could use on a bunch of websites. Websites belonging to that industry I mentioned earlier. AKA, my clients.
Not only does it explain cheats, but they also oh-so-handily listed a set of stolen virtual credit card numbers they obtained.
Oh, fun time now!
I took the link and promptly posted it to an announcement to all the clients I have contacts with, and also copied over several bits that in all likelyhood, will be edited out as soon as the dude realizes the jig is up.
Oh, but it gets BETTER.
Upon watching the thread, post after post appeared with people excitedly claiming how they were using it now, and thanking the OP. Almost every single one of these people posted their own referral links to various websites.
That's right. Referral links that track down to their specific account.
AKA, they are now in the crosshairs of some very angry site owners, LMAO.
To put extra frosting on the cake, the original guide writer posted HIS referral link, stating he wanted people to sign up under him so he could "make money off the guide".
Yeah well, hope he enjoys the fact I forwarded his little thread to the site owners, and helpfully noted that as he's posting stolen CC numbers, it might behoove them to file a report with the FBI as well.
Not the most epic scammer ring I've busted, but definitely oh-so-satisfying. Stupid, stupid scammers.
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