JimBrowning
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What I'm up to...
🕑 Added 2019-04-13 10:37:13 +0000 UTCI've been a little quiet this month, so I thought I'd let you know why...
Firstly, I've uncovered a major 'popup' scamming organisation in Delhi. I have a list of the people that they've scammed AND audio of every inbound call they this call centre has received in the past 30 days. All 18,000 calls / 14GB of mp3 files. Definitive proof that they are a scamming organisation. If you were in the police, this, together with the names of everyone who works in the call centre and the details of all the victims, must surely provide and open and shut case for prosecuting these scammers. If only the police would listen...
Secondly, I'm just about to name and shame some UK companies who try to get around "do not call" lists by paying and Indian company to make these cold calls from offshore. The screenshot above shows this Indian company calling people in the UK and they are clearly breaking EU General Data Protection (EU GDPR) rules. These rules state that:
- Personal data must be adequately protected. I have evidence that it's not protected.
- The caller must be clearly identifiable and the number that they present must be reachable. It's not. I've highlighted the number that they present at the bottom of this screenshot. If you google that number, you'll find all you need to know.
- The caller describes their call as a 'survey' call. It's nothing of the sort. It's a pure 'lead generation' call where this call centre get a commission for every lead they generate and, as you can imagine, they're not going to care much for the annoyance that they create if they're going to get a commission.
This practice has to stop and the only way to achieve this is to have the UK companies which commission this kind of cold call fined and for the call centre itself to be subject to the stringent regulations which EUGDPR imposes. These fines can be 4% of their entire turnover or up to 20 million euros.
So I'm trying the EU-GDPR route here. Let's see what comes of this.
Jim
Comments
Such good work with the GDPR angle Jim! I am on the UK "telephone preference service" list but I still get scam and marketing calls. I have never thought that list was effective as it is run by the direct marketing association, like telling the fox to guard the hen house. Your video will hopefully lead to hefty fines and deter any companies who think they can break the rules by outsourcing their crimes to India.
You are doing a great job, Jim. I just hope authorities will take action. I support your hard work.
HP recently staffed their india PC support call center hiring ONLY educated workers, which had the side benefit of them not sounding like most indian citizens. Like any society, there are educated or "upper class" dialects and "lower class" speech. Their participation in these scams calling every phone in the world has only ensured the uneducated indian citizens with PC skills can not be employed in any situation requiring phone skills. That backlash may follow in other countries - I can't imagine the image I'd form doing a phone screen on someone who sounded like the scammer that called me last night.
As everyone has said, you're a hero, man. Seriously, you are helping people. I hope you and this fight against these scammers get stronger and stronger. Good luck. If you'd like help in translating anything they're saying/typing please count me in.
what a hero.....saving them nearly 20 gs......Iβm sure as I have, worked hard for their money nest, only for someone to scam it away......job ππ½
Keep up the great work Jim! I know you're very careful about this but make sure nothing you post compromises future prosecutions
Saying that, we do like to hear from you. Hope your funding is going well,. Did you manage to upgrade your equipment etc and is it time for another βliveβ fb session again?
As RBMH said. Worried for a while not hearing from you. Us lot out here maybe expect too much and wonder how you are doing. If youβre ill or need some time-out, let us know. I mean it sounds like full time at this and I hope youβre getting decent appropriate and strong authoritative help with all of this - crickey - 13GB of recordings needs a bloomin team!
Rick Beethe
Jim, Thanks for what you do and the time you spend. Iβve watched a lot of YouTube videos of people wasting the time of scammers but I always come back to you for what I feel is honest content.
RBMH
I do get worried when you don't post, but so glad to know you are alright and taking scammers to task! Please keep us posted on the progress of the cases and look forward to your videos. πππ
Excellent work! Iβm learning so much from you. Thank you.
GamerForLifeDrakunia
Bloody hell you are a hero.
ROBERT CROMER
Nice work Jim, I hope all your time and effort pay off. Either way Im proud to know you and your work is something you should be proud of as myself and others are.
Jim Browning
I'm referring to the inaction by the Indian police. And it is absolutely corrupt. I'm told that during the December call centre raids, the first team of Delhi police went in and within minutes, a second police team arrived to prevent arrests. Read into that what you will.
Syd
Brilliant work, Jim. When you say, 'If only the police would listen', are you referring to India police or UK police? It is known for officials to intentionally turn a blind eye to offenses that are boosting a country's income e.g. average export declaration from China hugely undervalued. Despite India's show of creating a unit to combat this kind of crime, what is your view based on the responses from your data submissions?
I'm so proud of you.
Joshua Doades
Good luck! Would love to hear updates on this :D
