Deeveeaar is a Youtube channel of dedicated scambaiters, focused mainly on exposing Indian scammers and call centres, and they take their job very seriously. Their aim is to “prank scammers, bait them, make them hate their job and demoralize illegitimate call centers,” making the internet a safer place for us all.
The page is run by a guy in his late 20’s known as DVR, who, inspired by other scam baiters and frustrated with the lack of action taken against online scammers, decided to take action himself. “I started off with some pranks and scambaits, but quickly I started seeing weaknesses in scammers scripts,” DVR told Bored Panda. “I got a lot of very sad stories from victims, which made me really determined to do more. I got together a team of very skilled people, and we decided to fight back in more ways than just wasting their time. We started call flooding and accessing their computers so we could uncover more evidence, getting their personal information so we could report them, and figure out more of what they do.
Much of DVR’s energy is directed towards Indian scammers because, as DVR says, most tech support happen to be based in India. His team have a website with a live stream of them in action, shutting down scams as they arise. “We do call a lot of American scammers on my stream as well,” he told us. “Call flooding is also being done. I love to bait the car insurance and free cruise scams!”
Lack of cyber-policing to bring scammers to justice is what makes DVR and his team realize that they really are needed, and while the US government pressures Indian authorities only for big IRS scams, lately a few smaller tech support scammers have started getting arrested too. “We send all the information we obtain from the scammer’s computers to many authorities, locally as well as internationally,” he explained. “We do know that most of the time it doesn’t do much. But it’s the right thing to do.”
“Because we know there likely won’t be action taken, we do take justice in our own hands a little. We mess with their computers and place their photos online, we want to make scammers feel afraid. I want to make them feel vulnerable, and send a clear message that “you can scam, but you can’t hide.””
The latest scam bait was a masterpiece of patience and clever acting. Posing as a sweet and naïve grandma, the scambaiter set the trap before delivering the fatal blow at the end. “The grandma voice is actually my girlfriend!” DVR told us with a chuckle. “The funny thing is, I was sitting next to her while a team member on the other side of the world controlled the computer. We told her what to say through sign language, and text instructions in a chat application. Scammers prey on the elderly, so she is the perfect bait to get them to lower their guard.”
It worked a treat! The video is 18 minutes long and fairly technical so if time is of the essence you can start from around 12 minutes in, to get the moment when revenge is delivered and the hapless scammer gets his comeuppance. Scroll down below to check it out, and let us know what you think in the comments!
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This scammer thought everything was going well when he managed to get an 83-year-old ‘grandma’ to give him access to her PC
What he didn’t know was that ‘granny’ was actually a hacker from internet vigilante group Deeveeaar, who specialize in scam baiting
Watch how the scammer got played without even realizing it in this video
Here’s how people reacted
