Scam Call Center's Own CCTV Gets Breached

A call center scammed 40,000 people over the last 14 months, bringing in $8 million. But within four months their own computer system had been remotely breached by "online vigilante" Jim Browning, according to the BBC. He secretly tapped into the call center's own closed-circuit TV cameras, and eventually tipped off the police, leading to a raid on the call center this week.
Browning also shared the footage with the BBC program Panorama -- along with recordings of 70,000 phone calls -- so you can watch some of that footage online. "I really do want the whole world to see what this looks like," Browning says in the BBC's report.
Slashdot reader newcastlejon shared the link. At one point Browning even dialed in to that call center from the U.K. -- and then watched as the scammers in India took his call while claiming to be in San Jose, California. "Can you name me one restaurant in San Jose?" Browning asks -- and as the scammer pulls up Google, Browning adds "I bet you're looking at Google right now..."

But Browning does take issue with the BBC's terminology. "I'm not a 'vigilante'," he complained on Twitter this week. "I report the scams to the proper authorities. Most of the time the reports are ignored and it seems to take a documentary before something actually happens."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.