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USPS text scammers duped his wife, so he hacked their operation

(blog.smithsecurity.biz)
460 points wglb | 5 comments | 08 Aug 24 23:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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0xEF ◴[09 Aug 24 08:27 UTC] No.41199904[source]▶
I hate that it kicks off with "DISCLAIMER: This is not my work. I would never and don't condone illegal hacking of scammers"

You know what? I do. We all should. These scammers are awful people and deserve to be attacked. I am tired of toothless authorities like CISA and the alphabet agencies in the US doing next to nothing about it unless some YouTube scam baiter does the work for them. Scammers destroy people, not just financially, but emotionally as well, even driving some victims to suicide. As far as I am concerned, any wannabe hacker out there should be using these scammers for target practice.

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chii ◴[09 Aug 24 09:19 UTC] No.41200161[source]▶
vigilantism can spiral out of control. While it makes sense in this scenario, it's because the scammer is obviously breaking some law and is criminal. What happens if it wasn't so obvious?
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themaninthedark ◴[09 Aug 24 10:25 UTC] No.41200477[source]▶
If society doesn't want vigilantes than it must take an active role in pursuing and punishing criminals.
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1. _heimdall ◴[09 Aug 24 11:24 UTC] No.41200760[source]▶
At least here in the US, I can say one of the last things we need is more people in jail or prison.
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2. justin_oaks ◴[09 Aug 24 16:05 UTC] No.41203118[source]▶
The parent commenter said "pursue and punish", not "put in jail".

There are other forms of punishment besides jail time. But really I'm more concerned that the scam organization is shut down, even if the main scammer isn't put behind bars. If nothing else, it'll slow down and reduce the scams.

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3. capnsalty ◴[09 Aug 24 16:17 UTC] No.41203213[source]▶
We just need different people in jail. Release all the people who got caught with dime bags and lock up the people who steal money from seniors. Those are the actual monsters.
4. _heimdall ◴[09 Aug 24 17:31 UTC] No.41203804[source]▶
Fair enough. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but at least in the US you will almost certainly spend a bit of time in a jail when being charged, booked, and arraigned.

Given that we're talking about legal, rather than extra judicial, pursuit and punishment I would expect jail to be a part of that process.

5. thejazzman ◴[11 Aug 24 12:04 UTC] No.41215602[source]▶
This feels like a really weird take to me. Like all crime should just be permitted because being a criminal has become mainstream?

Innocent people in jail, or for controversial reasons, seems like its own issue entirely.

Like the way too common attitude on this site rbat because some people are smart/resourceful enough not to be victimized, that somehow makes victims deserving for not being so fortunate.

Why would anyone but a scammer/criminal want such a society to even exist. I'll go so far as to compare to to the holocaust, that somehow it's fine as long as they're not coming for you?

"First they came for the vulnerable..."