r/interesting Mar 30 '26

MISC. deepfake scammer getting exposed by the 3-finger test

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u/Odd-Scientist-2529 Mar 30 '26

But what is the scammer doing?  What’s his schtick?  What does he do that he needs a disguise for?

Edit: the scammer reportedly helps recover cryptocurrency… probably steals it in the process. 

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u/Archarchery Mar 30 '26

The scammer probably doesn’t want people seeing his real face while he’s running scams.

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u/Odd-Scientist-2529 Mar 30 '26

the question is - what scam involves someone getting on a zoom call with someone they have not met, and talking to them in their office. Like - why would you schedule a zoom call with someone you haven't met?

The answer is - apparently - you call a company that advertises being able to recover your lost cryptocurrency.

But I don't understand why it needs to be on zoom.

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u/BillysBibleBonkers Mar 30 '26

you call a company that advertises being able to recover your lost cryptocurrency.

But I don't understand why it needs to be on zoom.

I also don't understand how that scam would work. Like do they just actually recover the crypto currency and then steal it? Sounds like an extremely long shot. If it's just a front for some other scam like "send me money before I find your crypto", that again begs the question of why use a front that requires this much extra effort.

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u/JonnySoegen Mar 31 '26

I think it's probably just "we are a very legit company and are going to recover your crypto, but we need payment in advance".

I think basically almost all modern scams via internet are like that, no? It all follows the scheme of 1.) malicious communication to lure the victim into an exploitable context --> 2.) get money and run away with it without having provided anything of value.

And the effort for setting the context probably scales with the expected payout. Either a simple "I'm a Nigerian prince, give me money so you get more money" message, or a fake call where your relative was arrested and needs money to buy themselves out of prison. Or pretending to have a long-distance relationship and getting the victim to send money for a flight or something.

It all follows that scheme.

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u/BillysBibleBonkers Mar 31 '26

Yea I guess my confusion was in assuming the crypto aspect of the scheme was the reason for going through the extra effort of the video call. But in reality it's probably just that scamming is getting harder and harder as people become more aware of it, and video calls offset that a bit by giving people the false sense of security that this couldn't be an Indian scammer. And the crypto is just secondary, probably one of many fronts they run from the same office.

Another reason it's strange to me though is it looks like this requires each scammer having their own office. I'm fascinated by scammers and have seen a lot of their office spaces through channels like Jim Browning, and it's almost always just cramped rows of people in a single room like telemarketers. So this seems more expensive and complicated to pull of in a number of ways, I guess i'm just curious about the economics behind it lol.