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

(blog.smithsecurity.biz)
460 points wglb | 2 comments | 08 Aug 24 23:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.003s | 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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newsclues ◴[09 Aug 24 09:55 UTC] No.41200327[source]▶
I’m fine with a war on scammers getting out of control to the point where bombs are being dropped on scammers call centres.

They are the modern Hostis humani generis

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cutemonster ◴[09 Aug 24 10:21 UTC] No.41200461[source]▶
Seems you didn't know that lots of people in scam call centers aren't there voluntarily. Trafficking and threats

> ... lured to countries through fake job adverts but are instead forced to work in scam call centers, pushing cryptocurrency investments, as well as work-from-home, lottery, romance, and online gambling scams. All this, while being subject to "abject abuse."

> A report from Interpol from earlier this year said victims are also subjected to extortion via debt bondage, beatings, sexual exploitation ...

https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/human_trafficking_for...

and:

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousand...

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ben_w ◴[09 Aug 24 10:28 UTC] No.41200483[source]▶
Mm.

For what it's worth, I can get them to hang up immediately if I recommend they join a trade union.

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mnw21cam ◴[09 Aug 24 11:57 UTC] No.41200979[source]▶
People who are the victims in a controlling relationship will usually say things that the controller wants them to say, even when the controller is not there. Ask me how I know.
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1. cutemonster ◴[10 Aug 24 15:50 UTC] No.41210301{3}[source]▶
Can I ask, how did you manage to get away from the controlling relationship? And I wonder if others saw what was going on, or if they didn't understand (when apparently you said what the abusive person wanted)

I'm glad you broke free eventually :-)

> even when the controller is not there

That's good to know, don't think I knew about that

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2. mnw21cam ◴[12 Aug 24 08:44 UTC] No.41222431[source]▶
The controller did something so incredibly bizarre and outrageous that I finally saw what they were doing, and I could never un-see it. Others had spoken truth to me a few times over the years, but recognised that they couldn't change my mind for me, so they didn't press the issue. The controller was trying to isolate me from all those others anyway, so if they had pressed the issue the danger would have been that my controller might have then been able to say "See, they hate me and they're trying to break us up" and got me to further cut contact with them. (In fact, this had already happened a few times.) As it was, when I realised what was happening and asked these others for help, they had been waiting ready for me to ask, and sprung into action immediately. One drove all the way across the country to help me out.

So yes, if you know someone who is a victim in a controlling relationship, then gently speak truth to them, don't push too hard, but be ready to give them meaningful help as soon as they come to their senses and ask for it.