Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Slavery offer: Virtual Voice Technologies (VVT) Cruise campaign

Recently I got again a real slavery offer. As the company, which is offering it does not expect to pay something to the center they have even forgotten to add any earnings in their offer. Read first the offer and my explanations afterwards:

Hello,
Thank you for your interest in the Virtual Voice Technologies (VVT) Cruise campaign where you will have direct access to the cloud VVT system from the Clients servers in Florida, US, this campaign is only available to Pvt. Ltd companies that are registreded with the Minestry.
This is the system and man power requirements to get this campaign for 2 logins per agent, each agent will handle dual systems, minimum 10 agents. NO EXCEPTIONS and you will get 2 free agents login so please use them from day one so you have 12 agents working from start.
It’s important for you to start with all the required emplyees from day one, if not you will not be profitable and you will be terminated right away. we do not accept call center with bad working habits, all required conditions need to be meet from 1st day of dialing such as man power, working hours, working days.
  • 10-12 agents.
  • 20-24 PC’s
  • 20-24 Monitors,
  • 20-24 Mouse
  • 10-12 Split headset (Mobile headset)
  • Min 3Mps up/down
  • TeamViewer installed on 1 PC
  • 2 logins per agent (20-24 total)
  • Logins should be used 9 am – 9 pm Est Mon – Fri and 10 am – 5 pm Est on Saturday.
  • 200+ calls per agent each hour (2,400 in an 12 hour day)
  • Mandatory recordings must be played and the appropriate responses obtained from the customer prior to transferring the call
  • At least 1+ >60 transfers per agent/hour
  • You will need to provide the following items (per agent) on before we can start:  Video Skype, 2 computers (total 20), 2 monitors (total 20), Split Headset, 300k bandwidth (per agent) and Windows XP or newer operating system.

Agreements will be send from end client after there final approval.
Campaign Charges:

  • VoIP, weekly around $300- $375 weekly for unlimited VoIP dialing for 10 agents.
  • VVT Login for 10 agents, 10 x 2 X $10.00 = $250.00 weekly, deducted from commissions.

To get started please send me a copy of your company registartion and a full email signature with all your company information such as , full name, title, company email, web site.
If you have any questions to any of the information, please contact me right away for clarifications.
If you wish to proceed please let me know and I will set it up right away.

if you take a look at the world largest cruise ships at Wikipedia then you see that the average capacity of such a cruise ship is around 4000 passengers. 

Why this offer is a slavery offer?

  • Ship cruises are expensive. The last minute discounted prices around US$ 100/night/person. The promoter of such tours have the problem to sell the beds at a normal way. For this they are offering last minute tickets with discounts up to 75%. Think about how many cold calls you have to make

  • You see in their offer, that an agent has to handle two calls at the same time. That means they don't have already enough money to make a lead generation on a normal way.

  • The center has to rent their technology
    Sorry, but if someone likes that you use their technology, than they have to provide it for free and they have to pay for the time the agents get their training!

  • The center has to pay for the VoIP minutes
    Sorry, but for whom they agents are calling? This one, which likes to earn has to pay for the VoIP minutes!
    They even like to reduce their phone bill, because the transferred call will run on the call centers bill!!!

  • An agent has to make 200+ calls each hour
    That are 100 calls per line and hour. In average speaking time (sorry playback time - they like to use Avatar) is 36 seconds for each call. if I get such a call then I'll hang up immediately. With such a system is a sale not possible. In this case we can use speech recognition too and don't need agents for it. The caller cannot say more than Hello, yes and no in this time.

I would not buy or accept such leads. In such a case I can buy phone directory data too! They are even cheaper.

In summary is this offer more worse then a SCAM. The client likes even to earn from the call center!!!

 

Fraud with Windows Pop Up calls - euroanswerllc com

A business is only good if the risk is low and the earnings are high. In the following offer is it a good business only for the SCAMMER. The center owner has even the risk to end up in jail while the scammer is hiding himself.

A friend forwarded me the following offer and asked me about my opinion:

Hello!
We outsource US Inbound Technical Support Campaign! from more than 3 years and complete genuine in terms of accounts & calls. We operate from Mumbai, India. We do not charge any Royalty, consulting fees & security deposit.
We keep transparency in our Business.

The following are the details of the process:-
Agents required: 10 or more
Technician: 1 or more
US Toll Free Number
Payment Gateway
Dialer
Lease line with minimum speed of 2 MBPS
Website (Optional)
Computer's with good configuration.(Windows 7 preferred)

Pricing for Windows, Pop u calls: (Prepaid System)
1. Price for 10-50 calls  - Rs. 850/- per call
2. Price for 51-100 calls - Rs. 800/- per call
3. Price for 101-200 calls - Rs. 750/- per call
4. Price for 201-350 calls - Rs. 700/- per call
Note: 30 paid test calls per day will be provided only for 3 days at start, 30 calls for 3 days.

The following are the details of the US Inbound Tech Support Campaign:-
1. Campaign will be running for minimum 10 calls only.
2. The payment for the campaign will be in advance. Minimum 48 working hours ago (Wire Transfer). No Credit is given on any grounds.
3. Calls will be received from US / Canada customers only.
4. Timings for the campaign to start are 10:00 pm to 5:00 am IST (Monday - Friday).
5. Call recording to be provided, if required.
6. Center should have a US / Canada Toll Free Number only.
7. Minimum 10 - 12 calls will be routed per slot.
8. Daily MIS report for the calls is to be shared at EOD compulsorily for verification. If not shared, the report provided from contractor will be final and undebatable..
9. If any issue or problem occurs, campaign will be paused and will be active once it is approved by the Contractor itself.
10. Any called missed or abandoned due to lack of technology or late communication will be counted as paid call to the client.
11. Calls Category – Webmail calls, Pop up calls, Antivirus calls, Tablet calls, PC running slow, MAC calls, Printer calls, Antivirus not downloading or running etc..
12. We are no where concerned whether the center makes sale's out of the Inbound calls or not.
As we provide the best calls and there is also some effort shown from the center to up-sell the customers.
13. No replacement for calls will be given on any grounds.

PS: No free or test calls provided. Only Serious Call Centers / BPO contact me and please don't waste mine as well as your time.

Thanks & Regards,
Mr. Priyesh Rao
Cell - +91 9820557973
Skype - priyesharao
Website - www.euroanswerllc.com
Reference Center in Begumpet, Hyderabad
How is the scam working? Let us take a closer look:
  • The center has to provide a payment gateway. That means the center is billing to the customer directly. Each credit card payment can get rejected after the credit card holder receives his monthly statement. So the center has the risk for the transaction.

  • The center has to provide Toll Free numbers for US and/or Canada. That means the call center is paying for the incoming calls and the phone number is registered to the centers. A hidden registration is not possible for phone numbers. In the case of a fraud the owner of the phone number is responsible.

  • How the Toll Free number, which is previous not known, arrives in the Pop Up that the customer can call it?
    The legal way is to show a number on a website or in advertisements. In all other cases it will come from only from a malware. Remember, the number is not known previous.
    It need to be only a toll free number because the customer shall call it instead of consulting a friend or a computer repair center located near to his place.
    For all other purposes like a call by using a software on a computer, tablet or smartphone you even don't need a phone number. Such calls can get routed directly over the Internet.

  • The center has to pay for the Pop Up calls, This is the way how the scammer is making his money.

  • The owner of the domain euroanswerllc.com are hiding themselves behind a proxy service at the domain registry

If we put now the facts together, then we see that the center is not working for a client. In this case the center acts as a reseller because the center need to buy the calls and makes the billing with the caller directly. The center is responsible in front of law for the product. The center cannot hide themselves in anonymity like the SCAMMER do, because the center is taking the money and the phone number is registered to the center. If one customer goes in front of the law court than the center owner will end up in jail. He has make the fraud and not the real scammer

In any case the center owner has a high risk to end up in front of the court, because Ignorance is no protection against prosecution.

Domain Name: EUROANSWERLLC.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1866035335_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: [link removed] Date: 2014-07-08T17:35:08Z
Creation Date: 2014-07-08T17:35:08Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-07-08T17:35:08Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.480-624-2505
Reseller: Google Inc.
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited [link removed] Status: clientUpdateProhibited [link removed] Status: clientRenewProhibited [link removed] Status: clientDeleteProhibited [link removed] Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Registrant City: Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province: Arizona
Registrant Postal Code: 85260
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.4806242598
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Registration Private
Admin Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Admin Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Admin Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Admin City: Scottsdale
Admin State/Province: Arizona
Admin Postal Code: 85260
Admin Country: United States
Admin Phone: +1.4806242599
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +1.4806242598
Admin Fax Ext:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Registration Private
Tech Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Tech Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Tech Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Tech City: Scottsdale
Tech State/Province: Arizona
Tech Postal Code: 85260
Tech Country: United States
Tech Phone: +1.4806242599
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: +1.4806242598
Tech Fax Ext:
Name Server: NS45.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS46.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

 

Tor Browser 4.0.4 Released

The Tor software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked.

The Tor Browser lets you use Tor on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux without needing to install any software. It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect your anonymity, and is self-contained.

 

Want Tor to really work?

You need to change some of your habits, as some things won't work exactly as you are used to.

  • Use the Tor Browser
    Tor does not protect all of your computer's Internet traffic when you run it. Tor only protects your applications that are properly configured to send their Internet traffic through Tor. To avoid problems with Tor configuration, we strongly recommend you use the Tor Browser. It is pre-configured to protect your privacy and anonymity on the web as long as you're browsing with the Tor Browser itself. Almost any other web browser configuration is likely to be unsafe to use with Tor.

  • Don't torrent over Tor
    Torrent file-sharing applications have been observed to ignore proxy settings and make direct connections even when they are told to use Tor. Even if your torrent application connects only through Tor, you will often send out your real IP address in the tracker GET request, because that's how torrents work. Not only do you deanonymize your torrent traffic and your other simultaneous Tor web traffic this way, you also slow down the entire Tor network for everyone else.

  • Don't enable or install browser plugins
    The Tor Browser will block browser plugins such as Flash, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and others: they can be manipulated into revealing your IP address. Similarly, we do not recommend installing additional addons or plugins into the Tor Browser, as these may bypass Tor or otherwise harm your anonymity and privacy.

  • span style="font-weight: bold;">Use HTTPS versions of websites
    Tor will encrypt your traffic to and within the Tor network, but the encryption of your traffic to the final destination website depends upon on that website. To help ensure private encryption to websites, the Tor Browser includes HTTPS Everywhere to force the use of HTTPS encryption with major websites that support it. However, you should still watch the browser URL bar to ensure that websites you provide sensitive information to display a blue or green URL bar button, include https:// in the URL, and display the proper expected name for the website. Also see EFF's interactive page explaining how Tor and HTTPS relate.

  • Don't open documents downloaded through Tor while online
    The Tor Browser will warn you before automatically opening documents that are handled by external applications. DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING. You should be very careful when downloading documents via Tor (especially DOC and PDF files) as these documents can contain Internet resources that will be downloaded outside of Tor by the application that opens them. This will reveal your non-Tor IP address. If you must work with DOC and/or PDF files, we strongly recommend either using a disconnected computer, downloading the free VirtualBox and using it with a virtual machine image with networking disabled, or using Tails. Under no circumstances is it safe to use BitTorrent and Tor together, however.

  • Use bridges and/or find company
    Tor tries to prevent attackers from learning what destination websites you connect to. However, by default, it does not prevent somebody watching your Internet traffic from learning that you're using Tor. If this matters to you, you can reduce this risk by configuring Tor to use a Tor bridge relay rather than connecting directly to the public Tor network. Ultimately the best protection is a social approach: the more Tor users there are near you and the more diverse their interests, the less dangerous it will be that you are one of them. Convince other people to use Tor, too!

Be smart and learn more. Understand what Tor does and does not offer. This list of pitfalls isn't complete, and TOR need your help identifying and documenting all the issues.

Source and download: https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html

 

NSA Planted Stuxnet-Type Malware Deep Within Hard Drive Firmware

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) may be hiding highly-sophisticated hacking payloads in the firmware of consumer hard drives over the last 15 to 20 years in a campaign, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on thousands of targets’ computers, according to an analysis by Kaspersky labs and subsequent reports.

 

'EQUATION GROUP' BEHIND THE MALWARE

The team of malicious actors is dubbed the the "Equation Group" by researchers from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, and describes them as "probably one of the most sophisticated cyber attack groups in the world," and "the most advanced threat actor we have seen."

The security researchers have documented 500 infections by Equation Group and believes that the actual number of victims likely reaches into the tens of thousands because of a self-destruct mechanism built into the malware.

 

TOP MANUFACTURERS' HARD DRIVES ARE INFECTED

Russian security experts reportedly uncovered state-created spyware hidden in the hard drive firmware of more than dozen of the largest manufacturers brands in the industry, including Samsung, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Toshiba and Hitachi.

These infected hard drives would have given the cyber criminals persistence on victims' computers and allowed them to set up secret data stores on the machines, which is only accessible to the malicious hackers.

 

UNABLE TO REMOVE THE INFECTION

One of the most sophisticated features of these notorious piece of hacking tools is the ability to infect not just the files stored on a hard drive, but also the firmware controlling the hard drive itself. The malware is hidden deep within hard drives in such a way that it is difficult to detect or remove it.

If present, once the victim insert that infected storage (such as a CD or USB drive) into an internet-connected PC, the malicious code allows hackers to snoop victims' data and map their networks that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Because the malware isn't sitting in regular storage, so it is almost impossible for a victim to get rid of it or even detect it. Such an exploit could survive a complete hard drive wipe, or the re-installation of an operating system, and "exceeds anything we have ever seen before," the company's researchers wrote in a report.

 

MORE ADVANCED TECHNIQUES USED BY EQUATION GROUP

The firm recovered two modules belonging to Equation group, dubbed EquationDrug and GrayFish. Both were used to reprogram hard drives to give the malicious hackers ability to persistently control over a target machine.

GrayFish can install itself into computer's boot record — a software code that loads before the operating system itself — and stores all of its data inside a portion of the operating system known as the registry, where configuration data is normally stored.

 GrayFish architecture - Kaspersky Labs

EquationDrug, on the other hand, was designed to be used on older versions of Windows operating systems, and "some of the plugins were designed originally for use on Windows 95/98/ME" - very old versions of Windows OS that they offer a good indication of the Equation Group's age.

 

TARGETED COUNTRIES AND ORGANISATIONS

The campaign infected tens of thousands of personal computers with one or more of the spying programs in more than 30 countries, with most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria.

The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication providers, banks and financial institutions, energy companies, nuclear researchers, mass media organisations, and Islamic activists among others.

Equation Group Victims Map - Kaspersky Labs 

'ANCESTOR' OF STUXNET & FLAME

Security researchers are calling the malware as the "ancestor" of Stuxnet and Flame, the most sophisticated and powerful threats that were specially designed to spy and sabotage ICS and SCADA systems.

 

LINKS TO NSA

Kaspersky declined to publicly name the country or agency behind the spying campaign, but said it was closely linked to Stuxnet — the NSA-led cyberweapon that was used to sabotage the Iran's uranium enrichment facility.

Also, the similarities when combined with previously published NSA hard drive exploits have led many to speculate that the campaign may be part of the NSA program. NSA is the agency responsible for global surveillance program uncovered by Whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Another reason is that most of the infections discovered by the Moscow-based security firm have occurred in countries that are frequently US spying targets, such as China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported sources formerly working with the NSA confirmed the agency was responsible for the attacks and developed espionage techniques on this level.

 

NSA INVOLVEMENT COULD BE RISKY

In case, if NSA found to be involved, the malicious program would have given the NSA unprecedented access to the world's computers, even when the computers are disconnected from the outer web. Computer viruses typically get activated as soon as a device is plugged in, with no further action required, and this because the viruses are stored on a hard drive's firmware.

Back in July, independent security researchers discovered a similar exploit targeting USB firmware — dubbed BadUSB — however there was no indication of the bugs being developed and deployed by Equation Group at this scale.

The issue once again raises the questions about the device manufacturers' complicity in the program. They should take extensive and sustained reverse engineering in order to successfully rewrite a hard drive's firmware.

For its part, the NSA declined to comment on the report.

 

A translation of a promoted call center campaign at LinkedIn

Recently I found a call center campaign at LinkedIn, which has been looking good at the first view:

LOOKING FOR CENTERS FROM (INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND PHILIPPINES)

5 year old Tech Support Company based in Texas looking for "experienced" call centers to outsource our outbound tech support sales. We have centers in India working for us from more then 4 years and generating good profits.

Pay-out from $50 to $185 for per sale.

 

Analyzing the product:

The product is not really a bad idea. As the company is based in in a small city, with a population of around 40000 people, called Hurst in Texas, the local possibility for offering a computer service has not really a big chance. Remote service and support can be a possible income.

Negative aspects:

  • A remote service works only if the computer is still running and has a connection to the internet

  • It can be only a software service for optimization of the performance, virus removal (as long the virus is not blocking the Internet connection), spyware scan and malware removal.

  • The service is limited to Windows and Office

  • The offered service "Setup a new system" cannot get done from remote. A transport of the computer can result that the computer does not work when it arrives back to the customer. The reason is very simple: From the vibrations during the transport a card or a plug can lose the correct contact. For this is it better for the customer to visit a computer repair center locally.

  • The company exists already nearly 5 years. They are offering 4 different plans for home users and 2 different plans for business use. The monthly rate is with $15.95 the same for all plans. The initial price for home users varies from $195.95 until $349.95 only the contract time is different. At the website is no reason written why someone should make a contract for 3 years for $349.95 initial with additional $15.95 per month instead of a contract for 6 months for $109.95 + $15.95 monthly. The only difference is the initial price. What the benefits of the higher price and the longer contract time are is missing. Maybe they don't know it by themselves. In this case the telemarketer has no arguments to sell a higher priced plan.

  • Compare at Amazon the price of a new computer in the USA with the maintenance plan what the telemarketer should sell: a complete computer set including monitor, keyboard, mouse and Windows 7 is actually at Amazon for $160 (Dell) available. The setup can get done with the help of the Dell Hotline. An argument for the price is in this case really missing.

In sum is the product not really a runner. In the USA is it normally that the monthly price is coming less as longer as the contract is running.

 

I try now to translate this advertisement for you:

You need to know that the average call center agent in the USA gets $27000/year ($2250/month or $15/hour)..I have simple divided the yearly salary by 12 and the monthly salary by 150 hours like it is in Europe usable. This company is located in Texas, There is the average income for a call center agent even lower. It is there $26000/year, which makes a hourly rate of $14.45

The offered pay out from $50 - $150 per sale is looking at the first view good, but only on the first view.

Let's take the lowest offered commission per sale, which is $50. A one is not really realistic, because for this the arguments for selling it are already missing.

The company would be positive in labor costs if she would sell each 3 hours and 33 minutes one product per agent by having own telemarketers. The company itself does not believe in their own sales possibilities at such a rate. For this they try to find a call center from a low wage country, which even takes the risk of the product. Maybe the call center should even provide the data for the sales.

My opinion is that very good and very experienced agents will be able to sell in average one product per day as long as the marketing of the product will not get improved. If the marketing will reduce the sales price, the pay out per sale will go down too or the company will not be able to survive and pay you.

So centers think about how long can you work for $50. Maybe you sell one product per 10 hours per agent in average. Are you able to survive with this income?

The sentence "We have centers in India working for us from more than 4 years and generating good profits" is only promotion and for this I can say only: "Never trust a statistic which you did not fake by yourself"

 

Source offer: LinkedIn offer

Source product: www.fixmycomputerdude.com