A man from Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, identified as Manish Kumar, has been accused of running a 'classic tech support scam' from his apartment and duping thousands of innocent people. The allegations emerged after a user on X claimed to have hacked into Kymar's laptop, capturing his reaction via webcam. The X user, who tracks down scammers, alleged he infiltrated Kumar's operation while countering a scam attempt.
"When I hacked into his laptop and switched on the live webcam feed, he instantly panicked and blocked the camera view with his hand!" wrote X user NanoBaiter.
Kumar's modus operandi involved posing as Anti-Virus Guard (AVG) support and pushing fake Google ads to lure the victims. Afterwards, he would request remote access from victims and make up fake problems to charge for useless "support".
"I played along with his script until he tried to remote into my computer. He thought he was in control, but I was about to flip the scam on him...exploiting one of the biggest weaknesses in cybersecurity: The human vulnerability," NanoBaiter explained.
After gaining access to his laptop's IP address, the OP started pulling files, watching his screen in real time and also managed to open the live webcam feed.
"When I opened the live webcam feed he immediately knew that he messed up big time and he immediately put his hand over the camera, but it was already too late."
NanoBaiter then claimed to have outsmarted the scammer by identifying his name, the apartment complex he lived in Ghaziabad, whilst downloading his Aadhar card, PAN card and passport.
"I matched the photos from his PC with the face I saw on the webcam feed. No question this was Manish Kumar, running tech support scams straight out of his bedroom," said NanoBaiter, who also tagged the Ghaziabad and Uttar Pradesh Police to take action against Kumar.
See the viral post here:
'Supersleuth'
As the post went viral, social media users lauded NanoBaiter for his work to call out the scammers who prey upon innocents.
"This apartment is actually in front of my house. Never knew a scammer lived there. @Uppolice @ghaziabadpolice, time to hunt him down," said one user while another added: "You are doing an amazing job exposing these criminals and it doesn't look like you are ever going to get off their necks lol keep up the great work."
A third commented: "You're doing work that needs to be done. Government is not going to do this for us. And your skill sets are those that one needs to have to get this work done. We are so appreciative!"
A fourth said: "You have no idea how much I enjoy these threads of victory. Carry on, supersleuth."
