Originally Written December 06, 2023
Published July 20, 2026
Article No. 01
Article Series No. 01
Scam Series No. 01

(UPDATE: July 20, 2026: Please note; while the writing of the article below dates it, all information within are still very much relevent upon publication.)

Scams: A Technical Look for the Layman

Part 1: A Proper Introduction

INTRODUCTION AND TYPES OF SCAMS

How many different types of scams are there? Many! There are as many scams as there are ways to lie. Even if I could list them all here, a hundred more will appear overnight.

IRS scams, PayPal and Amazon refund scams, antivirus scams; they all operate the same way and are run by the same people. The primary focus of this article will revolve around these specific scams. A large majority of them are run by call centers owned by scam bosses in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. These call centers are the ones that incessantly push out the ‘robocalls’ that you may receive non-stop. Following the Covid-19 shutdowns some scammer employees transitioned to remote work, similar to many other businesses. Entire call centers occasionally relocate across the country to evade local authorities and escape detection. However, it's noteworthy that a significant majority of these operations are still concentrated in West Bengal. Scam bosses generally have amicable business relations and share anything from stolen victim information to victims themselves.

By contrast, most other scams aren’t nearly as organized. Normally it’s only one person behind a scam like romance or investment scams. Small groups can also be behind scams such as the Taylor Swift ticket resell scam groups recently found on Facebook. Investment and stock market scams, reseller scams, car wrap scams, and many others operating through social media tend to follow a ‘snatch-and-grab’ style; as soon as the victim sends money to the scammer, the scammer disappears with no way for the victim to find them, only to pop up again with a new identity to target someone else.

On the other hand, romance scammers keep their victims close and draw out the scam for as long as possible, sometimes for decades. They target lonely people and lovebomb them; all the while, convincing the victim to send money and personal information. Some romance scammers (the ones that typically target teenage boys) will push their victims to send provocative pictures of themselves only to immediately blackmail them with those same pictures.

I plan to delve into pyramid schemes and investment scams more extensively in subsequent articles. These scams operate differently but are equally intriguing to explore. Unlike the simpler scams mentioned earlier, they, like scam call centers, involve numerous moving parts. When comparing the organization of scam call centers to other prevalent scams, one might loosely liken their operation to a Multi-Level Marketing scheme.

WHO WOULD FALL FOR A SCAM?

Anyone. Yes, even you. You might think yourself immune, but scammers are skilled in the art of social engineering; that is manipulation based on the victims' assumed reactions. The scams they craft tap into our emotions, exploiting our desires and vulnerabilities. It's not about intelligence; it's about expectation and situational awareness.

Say you get an email from a Nigerian prince offering his enormous wealth to you, honorable individual, if you could do one little thing for the royal; wire a measly 500 dollars to him to cover the bank fees and taxes. Of course, we all now know how ridiculous that sounds. It has become the staple of internet scams everywhere since the 90s and has been around offline even longer. Ask yourself why it’s so outlandish. The email relies on a few things;

limited knowledge of Nigeria,
excitement at the prospect of receiving money,
awe of interacting with such a high authority and potentially famous figure,
desire to make a positive impression,
and not taking the time to ask questions like, ‘If this rich guy has so much money why does he need me to pay?’, or ‘what does my bank think about this?’.

Another one is the infamous contest-winner scam. So, you won a contest you don’t remember entering? Well, to claim your prize winnings just deposit 1,000 dollars into this overseas personal bank account for shipping and handling. Ignore the fact that if any extra fees were required they’d simply take it out of the prize money itself. Hurry! The prize expires in 5 minutes! Where does it go if you aren’t fast enough? Who knows!

Scammers are rarely picky, but their ideal targets are people who are mentally vulnerable, too trusting, desperate, or ill-informed --typically non-tech-savvy senior citizens without a support system. However, under the right circumstance anyone can be caught within those parameters. In many cases, once someone falls for one scam, scammers try to turn them into perpetual victims. This involves selling and re-selling the victim’s information to other scammers, as well as creating accounts using the victim’s personal information and money. Once these scammers hook their teeth into someone, they exploit their victim relentlessly. The only way to break free from this cycle is to first realize you are being scammed, report directly to your bank and authorities, cut connection with the scammer, and learn from the situation.

HOW DO SCAMS WORK?

The most dangerous and commonly run scams are from scammer-operated call centers that pretend to be technical support. They claim to work for big-name companies like PayPal, Amazon, McAfee, or Norton offering their victim nonexistent services or refunds. They will then inform the victim that they “need to connect to a secure server” or use a similarly technical-sounding pretext. In actuality, they’re tricking the victim into downloading remote access software like UltraViewer or AnyDesk. Such software allows the scammer full access to the victim’s device. With remote access, the scammer can see and control the affected device just as the device user can. They can even gain more control over the device than the user. They use it like spyware, and occasionally like ransomware, especially if the victim never deletes the program in question. As long as the remote access software is on the device, the scammer will continue to spy on the victim for years at a time.

After downloading the remote access software and connecting their devices, the scammer eventually convinces the victim to log in to their bank account. The scammer, using the remote access program, can easily see the victim's login credentials and bank account information. In the case of refund scams, after logging in, the scammer will manipulate the HTML code on the bank web page to trick the victim into thinking too much money was refunded. They insist that the victim immediately withdraw the extra money and return it to the scammer. Of course, there is no extra money because the scammer never sent any money at all. The money the victim would actually be sending is their own. If the victim refreshes the page, calls their bank, or checks their account on an unaffected device they would hopefully realize this before it’s too late.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

Scammers have many ways to launder money. They often try to convince the victim to buy gift cards and read the code to the scammer. Once the scammer has the code, they’ll either immediately deposit it into their account or list it on websites that allow you to exchange gift cards. Lately, they’ve been tricking their victims into depositing the cash directly into their crypto-wallet. Investment scammers are known for this particular trick. If the scammers can access the victim’s bank account, they’ll sometimes use CashApp, Zelle, or wire transfers because it’s instantaneous.

If the scammer can’t do any of the above or the amount of money is too high, they’ll use ‘money mules’. Money mules or ‘cash mules’, like ‘drug mules’, are paid a commission to receive the item and send it to a destination. The scammer will instruct the victim to withdraw money and package it in a very specific way. Next, the victim will mail the package and a money mule will receive it. The scammer and the money mule communicate through middlemen on services such as WhatsApp and Telegram. These communication services offer the scammer a degree of privacy and the ability to instantly delete any incriminating conversations. Sometimes the money mule will be instructed to send the money to another money mule and so on until the money reaches its destination; the scammer’s pocket. Scammers will sometimes use longtime victims as money mules as well, but most mules seem aware of the illegality of their ‘job’.

WHY SCAM?

Money, obviously. Why else? Most people who scam for a living are in dense high-poverty areas where honest ways of making money are hard to come by. Scam call centers prey on these people just as much as they prey on their victims. These are the people who call and talk to victims on the phone. Many apply to these call centers with the geniune belief they're legitimate only to then be trapped in the job, feeling unable to quit. Others are trafficked like slaves. Often, they and their families' lives are even threatened by their bosses.

This isn’t to say all who scam are in this position. Some are simply driven by pure greed, much like the aforementioned bosses. These scam bosses have little fear of repercussions. They fill their social media pages with showy pictures of expensive cars and jewelry, if they aren’t outright waving around wads of cash. Stolen cash, mind you. These are the head honchos who should be sought after.

CLOSING AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Unfortunately, not much can be done besides spreading awareness to as many people as possible and limiting scammers’ access to vulnerable people. Some have found more proactive ways of doing so. Vigilantes known as scam-baiters have taken it upon themselves to pretend to be victims. In doing so, they occupy a scammer’s time and take the place of at least one real victim. The goal is to keep the scammer on the phone with the scambaiter for as long as possible, sometimes for hours. This is to keep the scammer from talking to someone who might actually believe their spiel. Others have invested time into reverse hacking the scammers using their own methods against them. Their goal is to gain enough access and information to directly help a victim and find out the identity of the scammers themselves.

For the average person, tools like the antivirus programs Aura and Guard.io serve as shields against these digital predators. The Aura antivirus software actively requests data brokers remove personal information on your behalf and routinely checks for data breaches. Meanwhile, the Guard.io web browser extension directly blocks websites commonly used by scammers, hackers, and malware distributors. Registering your phone number onto a National Do-Not-Call list and downloading a tried-and-true application like Robo-Shield (which blocks known spam numbers) will go a long way. You can try Robokiller as well, which has a fun extra feature; a built-in scambaiting A.I.! You can help others out by reporting scams you encounter on websites like reportfraud.ftc.gov. Simply talking about it on social media will also help extensively since that is where most people are.

Ultimately, the most effective defense against scams is relying on your common sense. Remember to be cautious when downloading any applications (such as files ending with .exe or .apk) or sharing personal information with people you haven't met in-person before. Don't hesitate to ask questions or research if you find yourself in an unfamiliar situation. Try to stay composed and never hesitate to discuss it with unrelated officials (such as the bank tellers of your local bank) or a trusted third person you know (such as a family member or unrelated friend). NEVER trust people that rush you into decisions! If you ever feel pressured; take a moment to step back, analyze the situation, and trust your gut. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Stay vigilant.