An nameless reader writes: Movies collected by 404 Media over months give a peek into the world of spoofing numbers, automated name scripts, and a particular vendor of the telephones. From the report: “Alright lads,” a person sitting within the passenger seat of a shifting automobile says in a heavy British accent. In his left hand he holds a particular cellphone he’s displaying off to his purchasers, whereas with the opposite he movies his demonstration which was later uploaded to Telegram. “I am solely going to say it as soon as, yeah. You swipe, and it is gone,” he continues, demonstrating one app put in that may immediately destroy knowledge saved on the machine. The cellphone in query is one from “Russiancoms,” an underground outfit that sells the gadgets for slightly below $2,000 every. For that worth, clients get a laundry listing of options: the power to spoof cellphone numbers, play maintain music, and have a computerized voice learn pre-determined scripts. Whereas Russiancoms doesn’t acknowledge in its Telegram channel what the telephones would possibly actually be for, these are options properly suited to committing fraud.
The Russiancoms Telegram channel periodically deletes its movies and different messages, however 404 Media has been archiving a lot of them for months. They supply perception into a bit identified trade of fraud telephones, ones that make it straightforward for anybody to enter the world of robocalling or different scams. Whereas a lot of the underground cellphone trade has been centered on offering safe communications to criminals — corporations like Phantom Safe, Encrochat, and Sky for instance — Russiancoms and related corporations seem to cater to a special use case: enabling folks to make calls that fraudulently seem to return from another person. A standard instrument within the underground can be so-called Russian SIMs, which might spoof numbers in some circumstances. Russiancoms’ telephones, nonetheless, are extra totally featured.
