In a recent series of videos on his YouTube channel aiming to popularize cyber-security, Micode looked into one of the most lucrative scams of the internet. The investigation brought him on the other side of the world in Mauritus for 3 episodes, of which the first have almost reached 1 million views. The 3 episodes have recently been subtitled in English for an international audience to understand how this very popular scam works.
It starts with a sketchy pop-up of a false Windows or Microsoft alert, encouraging the credulous user to contact a call center in order to fix a problem on their computer.
Watch the first episode here : https://www.youtube.com/
The idea was to uncover what kind of businesses are hidden behind these famous pop-ups and how they’re operating to extort thousands of dollars to the most novice users every day.
While at first the aim was only to understand the operation, it soon began to be about trying to comprehend its extent — how big is it ?
Micode’s research quickly taught him that a big call center, based in Mauritius, was operating this scam, and that five other companies in the cyber-security or digital fields (that seemed to be owned by the same people) might also be involved in it.
In order to get as much information as possible, Micode successfully reached out to the man who presents himself online as the head of this group and applied to work in one of the call centers (in Mauritius). Quickly, his application was accepted and Micode flew to Mauritius to start training, face to face with the trainer of the center, whom he would later find out was teaching him the ropes on how to make sure victims pay as much as possible, as fast as possible.
This investigation was very interesting and had quite a big impact in France, as it’s one of the biggest scams used in that country. However, it is still relevant to those outside of France, as it was found these scammers are operating worldwide.
