‘They’re coming up with devious ways to take your money’: the TV hackers taking on the scammers

‘They’re coming up with devious ways to take your money’: the TV hackers taking on the scammers

Scam calls are an industrial-sized nuisance. Aided by an ‘ethical hacker’, the BBC’s hit daytime breakout show Scam Interceptors is making must-see TV by turning the tables on the con artists

It’s Thursday morning in the Scam Hub – a darkened room at the BBC’s Pacific Quay studio in Glasgow full of glowing screens and people feverishly tapping away on laptops under the glare of TV cameras – and the atmosphere is tense. We’re eavesdropping on a call between a man in the UK and a scammer in Calcutta, India, who has managed to talk her way inside the unwitting scamee’s Amazon account.

Believing that he’s receiving a benevolent customer service call warning of rogue activity, the man has been conned into giving away a private passcode. Worse, the scammer has convinced him to download software to his phone granting remote access to his device, which could allow the harvesting of much more sensitive information including bank details.

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