I worked for a computer support company that defrauded people out of thousands of dollars - AMA

shadow_priest_x said:
I really don't know. What surprised me was how openly the company operated: They didn't really hide what they were doing and even had a decent grade with the Better Business Bureau for a little while. Like, they didn't conduct themselves as if they were conducting an illegal enterprise and it was eventually business failings and not the legal system that brought them down.

But you're right, they were scamming people. The sales guys would say anything: You have hackers on your computer, you have viruses and your system is about the shut down permanently, your Windows is corrupted and must be fixed or you'll lose all your data. . . They didn't give a fuck.

The sales office was in India, but I always pictured something that was kind of like the movie Boiler Room.
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That's really messed up.

What kind of career in film are you hoping to get?
 
GrizzlyTitan said:
That's really messed up.

What kind of career in film are you hoping to get?
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I want to direct. Any director has to have a solid competency in writing, editing and cinematography as well, so that's part of it, but I don't want to be a full-time technical crew member. The end game is definitely to be the guy behind the camera making the creative decisions, rather than one of the button pushers whose job it is bring those decisions to fruition.

I just recently finished my first short (18 minutes) documentary, and I've also got a first draft of a screenplay finished that I'd like to produce. But the problem with producing the screenplay is that it would cost money that I don't have to make it.

Eventually I'd like to raise some money and make a feature.
 
that happened to my grandma once, she got a virus that said she needed to call apple, so she called the number and gave them remote control access to her computer
 
Pied Piper said:
that happened to my grandma once, she got a virus that said she needed to call apple, so she called the number and gave them remote control access to her computer
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That scenario plays out literally hundreds of times a day.
 
Pied Piper said:
I told her to shut it down. what are they essentially looking for? banking info?
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Not the company I worked for, and I don't think most companies are looking for anything like that.

Usually what they'll do is connect to the computer and then start pointing out things that appear to be problems.

For instance, they'll run the NETSTAT command and it will list a bunch of IP addresses and they'll say, "You see all these foreign IP addresses? These are hackers that are in your computer!" Or they'll open up the Windows services and say, "You see all these services that are turned off? Your Windows installation is corrupted!"

And then once they have the customer scared enough they'll pitch them on some kind of support package and try to make a sale.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Sorry, I meant prawn.

You know how everyone likes to look up information about these tasty critters:

220px-Penaeus_monodon.jpg
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I wacked it to prawns this morning.
 
I thought only poor call center workers in India did this shit.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
I want to direct. Any director has to have a solid competency in writing, editing and cinematography as well, so that's part of it, but I don't want to be a full-time technical crew member. The end game is definitely to be the guy behind the camera making the creative decisions, rather than one of the button pushers whose job it is bring those decisions to fruition.

I just recently finished my first short (18 minutes) documentary, and I've also got a first draft of a screenplay finished that I'd like to produce. But the problem with producing the screenplay is that it would cost money that I don't have to make it.

Eventually I'd like to raise some money and make a feature.
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That sounds really cool. Any way to view this documentary, or is it not released yet?

What's your screenplay about? And how much money would you need to completely finish it?
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Not the company I worked for, and I don't think most companies are looking for anything like that.

Usually what they'll do is connect to the computer and then start pointing out things that appear to be problems.

For instance, they'll run the NETSTAT command and it will list a bunch of IP addresses and they'll say, "You see all these foreign IP addresses? These are hackers that are in your computer!" Or they'll open up the Windows services and say, "You see all these services that are turned off? Your Windows installation is corrupted!"

And then once they have the customer scared enough they'll pitch them on some kind of support package and try to make a sale.
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on the security issue, i use HitmanPro, i think its legit for clearing bad shit out of my rig, what do you use?
 
I work in a government department so nothing ive ever done was shady.
 
GrizzlyTitan said:
That sounds really cool. Any way to view this documentary, or is it not released yet?
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I'll PM you.

GrizzlyTitan said:
What's your screenplay about? And how much money would you need to completely finish it?
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Kind of hard to describe, but it's a bit action-y and that's what really jacks up the price. Certain vehicles would have to be secured, costumes, prop guns, locations, etc.

I also would like to have an experienced cinematographer and sound guy on board, so the cost would also depend on whether or not I could get someone to help out just because they want the credit.

I'd need a few thousand I imagine, though.
 
JaegerIT said:
on the security issue, i use HitmanPro, i think its legit for clearing bad shit out of my rig, what do you use?
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We actually used to use HitmanPro at that company when doing clean-ups on people's computers. It's a good program, though I'm more of a Malwarebytes kind of guy myself.

Webroot is also a good general-purpose security program.
 
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