The malicious hackers and scammers have always thought of complex and innovative techniques to take control of users' devices and gain access to their personal and sensitive data. Such a method includes tech support scams that target unsuspecting users, pretending to fix problems that never existed.
Something like this was the case that Australian users faced as a fake tech support company allowed scammers to have full control over unsuspecting citizens' computers, to secretly record video through their web cam and upload them to Youtube without their permission.
The fake website tricked dozens of people into thinking they had visited the real Adobe website. Geoff Sussman, one of the victims, said he did some online research for services that could help him download and install an Adobe program, but instead ended up contacting a fake one called “Support for Adobe Australia.”
After dialing the number that appeared on the page, he fell victim to a tech support scam called Macpatchers. The person who spoke with Sussman said he identified a virus on the computer and that in order to remove it, the installation of another program would first need to be performed, which was malicious.
Later, Macpatchers asked Sussman to verbally state how satisfied he was with his experience with the technician who served him. However, what he himself did not know was that his system was infected, and that his video camera recorded what he said. The hackers would use that video as a testimonial on YouTube to deceive other users. Later it was found that the total number of victims amounts to 68.
It's not the first time that tech scammers deceive people and distribute malicious software, but the technique used by the Macpatchers has never been done before.
