{"id":7173,"date":"2017-03-30T08:10:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T16:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/03\/30\/news-964\/"},"modified":"2017-03-30T08:10:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T16:10:42","slug":"news-964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/03\/30\/news-964\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech support scammers and their banking woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: William Tsing| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:00:54 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all know about tech support scams by this point. We know how they cold call, lie their way into your computer, and steal your money. Unfortunately for the scammers, banks know this as well, making it quite difficult at times to maintain an account to store the criminal\u2019s ill-gotten gains. So how does the enterprising criminal cash out with your money? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

High-risk payment processors<\/h3>\n

When a business owner is involved with a line of work that traditional payment processors don\u2019t want to be involved with\u2014typically pornography, pharma, and gambling\u2014they use high-risk processors. In exchange for the perceived higher risk of processing payments in industries known for fraudulent activity, the processor takes a higher fee. The traditional tech support scam model used to rely heavily on these companies, typically through an Indian intermediary to offer an extra layer of anonymity.<\/p>\n

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However, as the spotlight on tech support scams grew brighter and victims increasingly initiated chargebacks, high-risk processors have\u00a0increasingly dropped overseas tech support companies in order to protect their relationships with more legitimate businesses, as well as the credit card companies who monitor customer chargeback rates. The processors that haven\u2019t given up tech support yet tend to levy extra restrictions against overseas customers in their contractual agreements, as demonstrated in the example\u00a0contract below.<\/p>\n

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So barred from traditional banks and losing access to high-risk processors, tech support scammers have gotten a little creative. An increasingly common method we\u2019ve seen for payment is Apple or iTunes gift cards. The idea being the scammer gets a commodity that is easily laundered on the dark web and the victim sees Apple on their credit card statement, rather than FAKE COMPANY XYZ. This has the added benefit of making it extra tough for the victim to produce evidence that ties back to the scammer.<\/p>\n

Apple has some pretty good advice on the subject here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, legitimate tech support companies do not do this. Malwarebytes has observed tech support scammers using Apple\/iTunes gift cards, Amazon gift cards, Bitcoin, and even sending a FedEx guy to physically pick up a check. Non-standard payment methods like these are usually a pretty good signal that the tech support business in question has a hard time getting access to a credit card processor and you probably shouldn\u2019t do business with them.<\/p>\n

Lastly, scammers might collect payment using\u00a0direct bank transfers via Automated Clearing House (ACH). Criminals love this method because it only requires two pieces of information to work\u2014you account number and a routing number. Also, non-business victims only have 60 days to report losses in order to recover funds. More on ACH fraud here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re ever on the phone with a support company that is insistent that you pay with third party gift cards, ask the operator, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I use my credit card?\u201d You might get some very creative answers. But the best defense when encountering this is to simply hang up the phone. If you’ve allowed the scammer remote access to your computer, close the window as well, or just disconnect your internet. For more on how to stay safe from tech support scams or find out more on what to do if you’ve had a run-in with them, check out our post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The post Tech support scammers and their banking woes<\/a> appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: William Tsing| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:00:54 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We all know about tech support scams by this point. Unfortunately for the scammers, banks know this as well, making it quite difficult at times to maintain an account to store the criminal\u2019s ill-gotten gains. So how does the enterprising criminal cash out with your money? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

Categories: <\/p>\n