
Tech-Support Scams Prompt Google to Act - petethomas
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-support-scams-on-google-trigger-crackdown-1535755023
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r3bl
I was wondering for quite some time how these scammers find their way to less
experienced users.

Turns out I've been using adblocker for so long that it didn't even occur to
me that the scammers were purchasing Google ads.

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ashleyn
I didn't use adblock on my phone until recently because until Brave came out,
it was such a pain in the ass (root, vpn, etc). But eventually I couldn't take
it anymore. I got regular reminders of how badly ads have ruined the modern
web. Any small to midsize blog had a 1-in-4 chance of crashing the browser
with fake "YOUR PHONE HAS A VIRUS" ads that pull you right out of what you
were reading. Extremely irritating and it's no shock to me why Brave was
conceptualised.

~~~
Iolaum
Ehm? You can just install firefox from the playstore and then ublock origin.
(Privacy Badger is also recommended).

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jhoh
Did just that for a long time but recently switched to brave. Chromium just
feels way more snappier on Android and I prefer its UI much more over Firefox
which does many things that annoy me (e.g. ignoring theme-color tags).

~~~
philipov
What options are available for iphone?

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scarface74
iOS has a built in “content blocking” framework. Third party Ad blockers
basically submit blocking rules to iOS in JSON format and the ad blockers work
both in Safari and in apps that use the newest WebView.

The advantage is that the third party ad blockers aren’t able to intercept
your web browsing directly and can’t invade your privacy.

I use 1Blocker.

~~~
Rjevski
1+ for 1Blocker, although I also run Adblock Plus in parallel.

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paulgb
Direct link to Google's announcement:
[https://www.blog.google/products/ads/restricting-ads-
third-p...](https://www.blog.google/products/ads/restricting-ads-third-party-
tech-support-services/)

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neonate
[http://archive.is/S4aXl](http://archive.is/S4aXl)

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gregmac
I just listened to an interesting podcast about these scams [1], but in this
case they were mainly making outbound calls. The podcasters actually travel to
India to track them down, and it's kind of crazy the way they run their
operation.

What I thought was really funny was the scammers literally type "Zeus troan
found" into the console (typo included) and people are falling for this and
giving them money. Crazy just to let someone remote into your desktop though..

[1] [https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/102-long-distance-
part...](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/102-long-distance-
parts-1-2#episode-player)

~~~
e40
_Crazy just to let someone remote into your desktop though.._

A lot of times it's the old and infirm. A friend's father is going through the
beginning stages of dementia and he got taken by the "MS support" scam.

Remember: 1) they wouldn't do it if it wasn't profitable, and 2) it only takes
a small percentage of folks to fall for it to make it profitable.

It disturbs me that our system of government and commerce does give a shit
about this problem. The people who are caught doing this are given a slap on
the wrist. I talked with a lawyer in TX once (googled a case, called him) and
in the 00's a company was caught and convicted of terrible scams. They paid
the fine and kept doing it, just in a slightly different way that was harder
to get caught.

~~~
toomuchtodo
There are people who fight back:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzedMdx6QG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzedMdx6QG4)
[1] (warning: nsfw audio, use headphones)

With that said, when your loved ones are facing mental health challenges that
make them susceptible to fraud, someone needs to step in to assume a
guardianship role. That's not to say the government has no role; they should
be prosecuting these cases harder, but there is no magic bullet. Everyone
could be doing a better job.

[1] Code that drives it:
[https://pastebin.com/r4L2ufkp](https://pastebin.com/r4L2ufkp)

