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Phone Scammers Accidentally Call A Programmer, Regret It Immediately
Phone scams may be getting more and more clever by the day, but one office full of phony IRS agents made a decidedly dumb move when they called a computer programmer who happens to specialize in scam prevention.
The programmer and Redditor, who goes by the username YesItWasDataMined, but operates an anti-scam operation called Project Mayhem, received a voicemail from someone claiming to be an IRS employee. When he called them back and was asked to pay a massive fine for unclear reasons, he knew immediately that he was being had – and came up with a genius way to pull the plug on them. He wrote a script that called each of their phones 28 times per second with an automated message, tying up their lines and making it impossible to reach other potential victims.
The actual IRS recently published a report declaring these kinds of schemes a “major threat to taxpayers,” and estimates that over 10 thousand victims have been affected since 2013, collectively being defrauded of more than 54 million dollars.
Project Mayhem’s official YouTube channel now proudly features a hilarious 10-minute sample of the havoc wreaked upon the unfortunate scammers, which has already gained over 1 million views. Watch it below, and always remember to protect yourself against any suspicious requests for your private information.
More info: Project Mayhem
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Watch the full video to see how this hilarious story unfolds:
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What do you think ?
William Smith 8 years ago
What I really appreciate is that you google their new phone number and hunt them down.
Aman Kp 8 years ago
At 8:25, he said "he's calling us from 10 to 15 numbers at the same time, the [call] waiting list is full of his numbers, he must be one of those guys with tattoos, yeah, that place is full of guys with tattoos (wtf??)" Hindi is not my native language, so this translation might not be accurate, but I tried to get as close as I can. :)
Maria Saint Clair 8 years ago
dude, you the man. need to set up a page where people can share the numbers of the scammers and people like you can flood them. ive had so many calls about tech support for my windows, i love to wind em up and then i tell them i have linux !!
Larry BobJoe 8 years ago
dude I called a scammer back once just to do that. Also, I may have sent a .bat file that spammed them to death
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Margie Lazou 8 years ago
Oh man how many likes can I possibly give... consider yourself bucketed over with likes and a marriage proposal <3
Ankur Sharma 8 years ago
Brilliant! I am from India, and when the last such scam was revealed a few months ago I was shocked to know this used to happen from the same city I live in. I was happy that it was finally unearthed and these good-for-nothing scamsters were finally being caught. Sad to know, it's still on. But what you did is just brilliant. More power to you! :)
Rashesh Sanghvi 8 years ago
Yeah, it is seriously disheartening to know the amount of Scamming being done from India.
Load More Replies...
M O'Connell 8 years ago
He is a computer programmer... We don't really know that he /doesn't/ wear a cape... They can be an odd bunch.
Load More Replies...
Margaret Port 8 years ago
Genius! Thanks for your work. Maybe you saved masses of people masses of money.
Eva Bryson 8 years ago
Thanks for doing this. We need more people like you who take their talents to a greater level - thanks again!
William Smith 8 years ago
What I really appreciate is that you google their new phone number and hunt them down.
Aman Kp 8 years ago
At 8:25, he said "he's calling us from 10 to 15 numbers at the same time, the [call] waiting list is full of his numbers, he must be one of those guys with tattoos, yeah, that place is full of guys with tattoos (wtf??)" Hindi is not my native language, so this translation might not be accurate, but I tried to get as close as I can. :)
Maria Saint Clair 8 years ago
dude, you the man. need to set up a page where people can share the numbers of the scammers and people like you can flood them. ive had so many calls about tech support for my windows, i love to wind em up and then i tell them i have linux !!
Larry BobJoe 8 years ago
dude I called a scammer back once just to do that. Also, I may have sent a .bat file that spammed them to death
Load More Replies... Margie Lazou 8 years ago
Oh man how many likes can I possibly give... consider yourself bucketed over with likes and a marriage proposal <3
Ankur Sharma 8 years ago
Brilliant! I am from India, and when the last such scam was revealed a few months ago I was shocked to know this used to happen from the same city I live in. I was happy that it was finally unearthed and these good-for-nothing scamsters were finally being caught. Sad to know, it's still on. But what you did is just brilliant. More power to you! :)
Rashesh Sanghvi 8 years ago
Yeah, it is seriously disheartening to know the amount of Scamming being done from India.
Load More Replies... M O'Connell 8 years ago
He is a computer programmer... We don't really know that he /doesn't/ wear a cape... They can be an odd bunch.
Load More Replies... Margaret Port 8 years ago
Genius! Thanks for your work. Maybe you saved masses of people masses of money.
Eva Bryson 8 years ago
Thanks for doing this. We need more people like you who take their talents to a greater level - thanks again!
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