these are the offices of a company called HHH e-commerce and they run a utility company impersonation scam there are five agents who receive the calls hazek Usama mustakim niga and Ahmed the other people in the room are either the cleaning staff or in the white shirt the boss so we're going to watch them and their computers to see exactly what they're up to since I have access to their CCTV let's have a look at the layout this is the boss's office complete with oversized desk and fake books he rarely comes out of this office but you will see him occasionally walk around the scamming floor he has to make sure that he's making enough money from innocent victims all over the USA and in evenings he can put his feet up and watch the latest series on Netflix two of the cameras cover the main floor this is where the phone calls are received and the main scamming is done you will see these scammers occasionally eat together there too the other cameras just show some different angles there are a couple of side offices and a reception desk which doesn't seem to be manned but to see what goes on here we're going to have to watch these scammers as they do their work so let's start with mustakim he's at the bottom of camera 4 but we can get a better view of him on his own webcam will'll also be looking at his computer screen as he's running the scam hello thank you so much for calling it's Michael here from customer support how can I help you uh yes Michael I was calling in regards to your service I'm trying to switch services but I don't know what is it that you all can offer me offer me mhm okay no problem momam I'm going to just providing you the best packages according to your area first of all you just providing me your address the lady who's calling wants to change her Broadband provider and unfortunately for her she's found most's number on the internet he will start by collecting some of her personal details and put these into Google just give me a moment and you just confirm me that thing or you want the internet services or the TV services that what put uh like you want the internet services or TV services the internet he now randomly Taps his keyboard as if he's doing something okay okay let me go to check it out m' the best package is ACC Gooding to your area okay just give me one more please and M what is your good name he know attempts to gather as much personal information about his victim as possible the credit and debit card number is is essential for this scam to work and even better if you can get the social security number as well okay m'am so right now I can see here the best package is going to your area the first package is going to be like we are providing you the 300 MB speed of internet so it cost to you every month $35 with taxes okay and I have a second option like 500 MB speed of internet it's cost you 45 as you can see he's just making these packages up off the top off's head anything will do just as long as it sounds competitive uh you know what uh I need to disconnect my service I I have service with T-Mobile right now I've been with them almost 24 years but recently I've been having a lot of problems with them so I I just thought i' switch you know I just problem for that what can I do what can I do uh you just create the profile from our side okay so then we just go the t-mob and just disconnect your services okay we're just going to transfer the services okay you don't need to do anything okay I don't have to do anything on my side his colleague Ahmad who normally sits in the center of these offices leaves a seat to join his colleague he listen in on the scam okay and then let me tell you one more thing I have I I had bought a a device from them and I just called them right now I still have a balance of 290 do how does that work and you have to pay P that 290 right yes uhuh yes cuz that's that's a price that's what I owe on on my device and this is of course really what he's been after all along as soon as she mentions that she's got an outstanding bill to pay he will be trying to get her credit card information and you have to just transfer your services what can you do uh you told me the total balance is $290 on the T-Mobile app okay but right now what can you do okay I'm going to just like you have to just only pay the team t- mobile $250 okay like we are going to just call them and if we just call the T-Mobile because we have the company okay the T-Mobile is also a company like I'm just going to go to the T-Mobile companies and just provide your situation your name your everything so they providing me the discount they going to be providing me the discounts company to company okay so you just have to pay 250 bucks to disconnect the services from T-Mobile okay and this is what they say to everyone who calls whether it's for an engineer visit a disconnection a new service a new package anything at all will require the victim to give a credit card even if the service like an engineer visit is normally free they will attempt to find out if there's any outstanding balance to be paid and insist that this is paid upfront to their own company before anything happens per waiting me the discounts okay because I'm the supervisor we have the authority to do that okay because it's company to company okay can you know about that so we just call them and they will providing me the discounts so you just have to pay to disconnect your services on T-Mobile $250 not $290 you just have to pay $250 okay and I'm going to create your profile from my side okay and providing you the services okay yeah but I don't I I won't be able to pay those 250 right now no problem you just confir me that thing how much you can easily pay right now we're going to help you out for that uh you know what I I don't know I'm probably just a $50 see I'm I'm ative I'm I'm retired and I only get one check a month so of course any amount even for someone on a fixed income will be good enough for this scammer and if you were thinking that this is yet another scam from India you'd be completely wrong this one is in Pakistan the offices are in the southwest of the city of Lao in Punjab the official address is different from the building with the CCTV so they've either moved offices or perhaps this is the building where they only do scams in fact HHH e-commerce have quite a large presence on social media this video for example appears on LinkedIn but I suspect once my video gets published all of their social media accounts will be taken down their description of what these services are is a little bit vague in fact in some places they even say that they're located in the USA their website doesn't seem to be functional anymore so you can only find out information on them when you look at Facebook and Linkedin but even if their social media is a bit vague the one thing that isn't is exactly what they do with the money that they steal this is the spreadsheet used by the people that you see on CCTV importantly you can get an idea of just what sorts of scams they run the the column entitled provider shows lots of different utilities including many energy companies Spectrum Broadband exfinity broadband and others the spreadsheet shows well over $10,000 per month loss by these utility companies and the other thing which is clear is that these scams are by no means a one-off for just this one company I've seen multiple organizations all over Pakistan running exactly the same type of scam this group called signups digital specialize in scamming exfinity customers I'm going to pull up your account information for that I have sent you a verification code on your cell phone number can you help me with that and they do so by tricking people into reading out onetime passcodes 6 541 446 541 right yes L the information stay with me and of course once they've reset this password they can see exactly what the Xfinity account looks like and therefore are immediately more convincing to the people that they speak with and then they'll offer a discounted bill but only if the victim gives over their credit or debit card details and pays a different company if you'd like to see a bit more of signups digital do check out scam sandwich's Channel and give him a subscription while you're there I've left the link to it in the description and there's a link in the top right too but back to our friends in HHH here we have ahed trying to pay off a bill using another victim's credit card here the agent who works for spectrum is a little bit suspicious about what's happening so the thing is that I just want to make the payment make a payment okay we can pull up the account and we can get a payment made uh can I just get your first and last name please yes it's going to be Brian Ahad is Brian today thank you I appreciate that and then do you have the four-digit security code for the account no I don't remember it maybe it's going to be 11 one and 4 1114 yes uh it looks like for some reason that didn't work um I know it's usually on top of one of your bills I don't have it right now okay got you yeah I mean I do have a two numbers I can text it looks like none of them are the one you're calling from I mean do you have a different phone nearby not I don't have access to that phone number now okay I understand yes I mean yeah I'd love to i' love to take a payment for you it's just I know that we would I know that you know we have a new policy now to where uh in order to take a payment we would need to authenticate you via either the security code or the text message so um it looks like without sending a text or that security code I wouldn't be able to take a payment over for the phone for you I do know that why you can just verify me with my Social Security my number my address my name my date of birth you can just verify with me all of which were extracted from the victim yeah it looks like you we got you verified but we need to authenticate you with the text message or the security code in order to make a payment I don't have access to that phone number now the thing is that I told you before oh I understand I got you yeah so I mean it just looks like without it looks like Spectrum are recognizing this sort of Fraud and have introduced new security measures yeah look like just without that information i' I'd love to take a payment for you a different way it's just yeah that's just the the policy we'd have to go by is I'd have to send you the the text message or the security code I told you I don't have access to that phone number now oh I understand yeah it's just yeah yes just without any of that authentication methods it looks like I I wouldn't be able to take a payment for you over the phone but I know you can pay over the app or you know at one of the stores if if need be okay wait a moment wait just wait okay eventually Ahmed has to give up on this and this is good practice from Spectrum what they do is they verify that the person attempting to pay the bill is indeed the account holder by simply sending a text message obviously Ahmed can't receive this so therefore he can't pay the bill with someone else's credit card he has to give up and when he tries to reactivate a different Spectrum account he's met with another obstacle um this account we would not be able to reactivate it because our customer went in store with their ID and driver license and deactivated this account so we will not be able to reactivate it unless you go back in store with your driver license and ID what's my need you have to go in store with your driver license and ID to reactivate the account yes hello yes I'm here yes so I have to go to store in order to activate my account that is correct I just make the payment with my CH boort and they said I have to call you in order to activate my accounts so what was there yes yeah we were just inform that you will have to return back in store to reactivate once you show your driver license and ID for security purposes I have my pain I have my phone number I have my address I understand it was just there wasow why do you require I'm not able to go to the you have to activate that's no we cannot due to their security precautions and they do put on here to where you cannot call it activate you must go in store to activate your service by showing your ID or driver license they're going to need a copy of it okay driving license anything else here's a counting out his money because he will make a profit on every seal that he makes the seal is no such thing all of this is fraud and it's fraud on an industrial scale if you're a representative from any of these utility companies who have been affected by this sort of scam please get in touch with me I can give you a lot more information about this company and the others who are running similar scams so how come this group and others are getting so many calls from people who think they're speaking to a real utility company HHH Ecommerce pay a hefty sum for their phone number to be promoted in Google's search results just like any real business if you pay Google enough it will appear high up in these results and that's exactly what happens when people end up calling itch itch itch and it's well worthwhile for these companies to spend tens of thousands of dollars promoting their phone number on Google because they will make this three or four times back again just through these scams but it also tells you how you can avoid these scams just because the result is high up on a search engine doesn't mean that the phone number is genuine if you wish to speak to someone in a utility company on the phone look at your own bill to see is there a contact number there alternatively use the company's own app if you have this app on your phone you can be sure you're speaking to a genuine agent and of course if anyone ever asks you to read out a onetime code even if you think they're with the company they're purporting to be it is a scam and they are not from that company and if you if a friend or family member whose PC or Mac has been compromised by some scammers have a look at saraf secure this is a bit of software which has been run by Kid Boger and his team and it's absolutely free and I mean free because it's been developed by a scam Bing Community it will scan a computer and detect the remote access software tools which scammers Deploy on some of their victims and some of these tools are quite difficult to remove I'm thinking about screen connect but this one will remove it immediately this video isn't being sponsored in any way the basic version of the software is genuinely free there are of course paid for versions as well if you want additional functionality but if all you want to do is help out a relative this software will do it for nothing I've left a link to this in the description and finally if you would like to help me fight scammers there's a few ways you can do this firstly if you're already subscribed do hit that subscribe and Bell icon hitting the like button is your way of recommending these videos to other people on YouTube YouTube will often not monetize these sorts of videos so you can support me on patreon there's a link here and it's in the description alternatively coffee keeps me going so there's a link to get me a coffee if you so wish I'm on Twitter Tik Tok and Linkedin so you can follow me there too lastly thanks for all your support and see you on the next one