We partner with world-renowned scambusters to create our own fraud-fighting call centre

It tin often look arsenic if telephone and online scammers are beyond accountability. Often operating from abroad, wherever amerciable enactment is either tolerated oregon ignored, the organized transgression groups down the scams that annoy and frustrate truthful galore of us, person reaped billions successful stolen gains from immoderate of society's astir vulnerable.

But determination is simply a tiny service of bully guys warring back.

Three of the world's astir fashionable "scambusters" — who person a combined pursuing of much than 10 cardinal crossed their societal media platforms — joined forces with CBC's Marketplace to make a fraud-fighting centre, utilizing their unsocial skills to infiltrate transgression networks overseas, reroute 62 progressive scam telephone centres backmost to their cognition and intercept fraudulent calls to halt scammers from accessing wealth from Canadian victims. 

Jim Browning: The 'godfather' of scambusting

Jim Browning keeps his hood up and disguise connected — a indispensable information measurement fixed the threats helium faces pursuing dozens of palmy takedowns of worldwide scammer networks.

Browning is known arsenic the "godfather" of scambusting, he's been taking connected fraudsters since March 2014. A machine technologist by training, helium reverse engineers scams, meaning that erstwhile fraudsters effort to summation distant entree to his computer, helium accesses each of the accusation connected theirs — everything from their existent identities, locations and accusation connected their amerciable operations, including the scripts they usage for scamming and the details of their victims. 

This method of infiltration has gotten him wrong upwards of 3,000 scam telephone centres — and he's made thousands of "saves" by intercepting scammer calls and informing their victims portion they were connected the telephone with the fraudsters. He's besides worked with constabulary forces each implicit the satellite to find and unopen down scam operations. 

In 2024, Jim produced a video astir a scam taking spot successful Dubai, known arsenic "pig butchering," wherever fraudsters signifier a fake online relationship to summation the victim's spot and past transportation them to put successful cryptocurrency by promising speedy profits. 

After the merchandise of that video, Jim released an update connected his YouTube channel, sharing that 2,000 scam telephone centre workers were arrested successful the largest bust of scammers successful immoderate 1 determination successful the satellite — and his videos played a role, astatine slightest successful part, successful the takedown.

Pleasant Green: The Protector

Another scambaiter known by the online grip Pleasant Green attempts to recognize the science down the scammer — and tries to person them to interruption retired of scamming.

"I similar to look astatine scammers arsenic quality beings, and I deliberation that a batch of them bash what they bash due to the fact that they mightiness beryllium successful parts of the satellite wherever they can't find amended opportunities," helium said. "So if I tin person a scammer that there's a amended mode to marque a living, past I'm going to springiness them that opportunity."

While he's trying to transportation scammers to alteration their ways, helium besides inserts himself into assorted scams to assistance imaginable victims recognize however the scams enactment and reddish flags to ticker for.

He teaches courses online astir integer safety, including however to negociate passwords and privateness settings connected your smartphone, however to place phishing scams, specified arsenic substance messages that assertion you've received a deposit and you request to click connected a link. 

Inside the Marketplace anti-scam centre, helium alerts our squad to an intercepted telephone betwixt a scammer and a pistillate victim.

"This pistillate is terrified. She thinks that she's successful ineligible trouble. I person her telephone number, and I support trying to telephone her, but she won't reply my telephone due to the fact that the scammer is saying, 'Oh, that feline calling you, he's conscionable trying to bargain your money.'"

Pleasant Green is successful a contention against the scammers to support this pistillate from losing her money. He knows she's been directed to spell to her nearest slope branch. When helium can't scope her, helium calls her slope instead. 

"She's going to privation to retreat immoderate money," helium says. "But I judge she's a unfortunate of an net scam."

His squad besides calls the section police.

"We knew that her machine was being compromised and that she was being pressured to nonstop money."

He received confirmation that a constabulary serviceman warned the imaginable unfortunate earlier immoderate wealth was lost.

It's 1 of galore wins for the scambusters implicit a two-day play of fraud-fighting.

Kitboga: The crime-fighting comedian

YouTube prima Kitboga is 1 portion method wizard and different portion improv comedian — utilizing antithetic voices, specified arsenic "Old Man Richard," and AI to discarded scammers' clip by convincing them they are successfully defrauding someone. 

"I effort to usage humour to shed airy connected immoderate truly acheronian things. It's kinda similar a large wrong joke," helium tells his assemblage successful 1 of his caller videos. "We're capable to laughter due to the fact that the scammer thinks helium has the precocious hand. Really, we're the ones scamming him."

He started scambusting or scambaiting — wasting a scammer's clip truthful they're not calling unsuspecting victims — successful 2017 aft helium came crossed tech enactment scams helium knew his grandparents would person fallen unfortunate to.

"From the precise beginning, it was 'You cognize what, if I could walk 5 oregon 10 minutes connected the telephone with a scammer, that's 5 oregon 10 minutes that they're not talking to someone's grandma.' And I deliberation that inactive is successful the backmost of my mind."

So utilizing his bundle engineering background, helium has managed to necktie up immoderate scammers for days — adjacent weeks — successful encounters that are comically absurd. 

In 1 instance, Kitboga wastes astir 11 hours of a scammer's clip — implicit 4 days — promising to nonstop the scammer $500 worthy of Google Play cards, lone to ticker the scammer unravel arsenic they larn helium redeemed the funds instead.  

He's besides utilized his expertise to make a bundle institution called Seraph Secure, which offers escaped bundle designed to artifact fraudulent distant machine connections, preventing entree to scam websites and alerting users erstwhile a menace is detected connected their devices.

WATCH | The scambusters enactment with Marketplace journalists to face fraudsters: 

Financial transgression continues to beryllium a worsening occupation crossed Canada.

In 2024, full losses climbed to much than $630 million, accounting for each antithetic types of cybercrime, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre — an summation from $576 cardinal dollars successful 2023.  

The astir communal solicitation method utilized by fraudsters is calling their victims. Canadians mislaid much than $73 cardinal to telephone scams unsocial past year, much than treble the reported losses from 2020. 

Cybersecurity experts, instrumentality enforcement agencies and scambusters proceed to urge acquisition arsenic being the champion instrumentality successful the combat against scams.

Marketplace has helped bring immoderate of those scams to light, done travels to Mumbai, exposing wherever galore of the overseas transgression operations are based. The squad has besides taken hidden cameras wrong tech enactment scam centre operations to uncover what's happening and the victims scammers usually target. In 2022, the squad exposed immoderate of the Canadians with alleged fiscal connections to the overseas transgression operations moving scam telephone centres.