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

(blog.smithsecurity.biz)
460 points wglb | 17 comments | 08 Aug 24 23:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.463s | source | bottom
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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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1. jsbisviewtiful ◴[09 Aug 24 13:27 UTC] No.41201617[source]▶
> These scammers are awful people and deserve to be attacked.

Some of them are being held prisoner and are being forced to run these scams under threat of torture. There was a Search Engine episode about this in the last year.

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2. ChrisMarshallNY ◴[09 Aug 24 13:38 UTC] No.41201700[source]▶
John Oliver did a great segment on it.

I won't link to it, because he seems to piss some of the folks, hereabouts, off.

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3. fsckboy ◴[09 Aug 24 14:15 UTC] No.41202054[source]▶
"19th century cotton growers were awful people"

"but the people growing the cotton were enslaved"

"the enslavers, generally known as cotton growers, were awful people"

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4. gosub100 ◴[09 Aug 24 15:23 UTC] No.41202755[source]▶
since he only pokes fun at one side, it's hard to tell what the truth is.
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5. Wistar ◴[09 Aug 24 15:24 UTC] No.41202757[source]▶
Related: on NPR yesterday, “How criminal syndicates traffic, torture and enslave people to send scam text messages”

“https://www.npr.org/2024/08/08/nx-s1-5058798/how-criminal-sy...

Audio and transcript.

6. ChrisMarshallNY ◴[09 Aug 24 15:29 UTC] No.41202815{3}[source]▶
This was 100% apolitical. A lot of his stuff is, and his team really does their homework.

The stuff he says before the main story, tends to be quite political, but the main story, itself, is often apolitical.

7. fragmede ◴[09 Aug 24 16:23 UTC] No.41203260[source]▶
Not sure why the chilling effect for linking to it, you have 26k karma, but here it is:

John Oliver: Pig butchering scam.

https://youtu.be/pLPpl2ISKTg

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8. lupire ◴[09 Aug 24 16:24 UTC] No.41203268[source]▶
Do you think the slaves would be happy if you set fire to the awful enslaver's cotton field while they were working?

Some might, but it's their choice to make, no yours.

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9. ChrisMarshallNY ◴[09 Aug 24 16:38 UTC] No.41203392{3}[source]▶
It's not a karma thing. It's a basic desire to play well in the community.

I'm quite aware that not everyone is on the same page, and this just helps to indicate a basic respect for others that may not like him.

As you can see, that didn't actually work, as just the mention of his name, got a ding.

10. Take8435 ◴[09 Aug 24 17:23 UTC] No.41203743{3}[source]▶
This is anecdotal and not at all representative. He points out issues on both sides. It's not his fault "one side" tends to warrant that kind of scrutiny so often lately.
11. CyberDildonics ◴[09 Aug 24 17:42 UTC] No.41203871{3}[source]▶
What is the 'other side' to people being scammed that you think he should have covered?
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12. legitster ◴[09 Aug 24 17:43 UTC] No.41203883[source]▶
The problem with John Oliver is that his stuff can be really good, or it can be incredibly one-sided and inaccurate, and the viewer can never tell because his over the top style just kind of relentlessly overwhelms you and is engineered to elicit strong emotions. It's good entertainment but as an informational source his show is very fraught.
13. tedunangst ◴[09 Aug 24 21:56 UTC] No.41205684{4}[source]▶
There's always the possibility that they weren't scammed.
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14. CyberDildonics ◴[09 Aug 24 22:19 UTC] No.41205817{5}[source]▶
They being all the people john oliver reported on?
15. bob_theslob646 ◴[11 Aug 24 10:50 UTC] No.41215304[source]▶
What are you trying to state? It sounds like you want empathy, but what about the victims? This is a dangerous argument.
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16. jsbisviewtiful ◴[11 Aug 24 19:13 UTC] No.41218612[source]▶
It’s not hard to empathize for both parties. It’s not a black and white situation, unless of course you don’t care about migrants being captured and tortured - which seems to be what you are implying.
17. fsckboy ◴[11 Aug 24 21:42 UTC] No.41219502{3}[source]▶
Jewish leaders wanted the concentration camps bombed, despite they were full of captive Jews, who, per your comment, could not make a choice, so it's not as simple as you make it out to be.

However, my comment was meant to teach about the parsing and use of language and antecedent references, not commentary on the semantics of the real world.