Axact degree mill scam TARGETS United States
Fazal says the scam mostly targeted students in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Gulf states.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“We mostly targeted US, UK, some of Europe”
Qualified triples from the transcripts. Origin, speaker, and evidence stay attached. These are not independently verified facts.
Axact degree mill scam TARGETS United States
Fazal says the scam mostly targeted students in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Gulf states.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“We mostly targeted US, UK, some of Europe”
Axact USES Money mule
Axact sometimes recruited scam victims to route web payments through their accounts while keeping a portion.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“set up a deal with that person to funnel the money through them”
Axact USES Google Ads
Axact’s marketing team spent heavily on Google Ads to attract prospective students.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“They would spend a lot of money on Google ads”
Axact USES social engineering
Axact employees used persuasive and deceptive interactions to sell fake degrees and additional services.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“We’d then research that person, look for their social media profiles, try to find out their goals and ambitions, get to know them, then e-mail or call them”
Shoaib Shaikh founded and controlled the Bol television network while running Axact.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“Shoaib not only started Axact but also started a TV network called Bol”
Bay Town University USES Canvas
Bay Town University’s online courses were set up using Canvas.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“They set up courses using Canvas”
Axact USES credential reuse
Axact employees tried users’ clear-text passwords on Facebook, LinkedIn, and email accounts to exploit password reuse.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“Axact employees could see the users’ passwords and try using those passwords on their social media accounts”
Axact USES Resume scraping
Axact’s marketing team collected resumes posted on Monster.com and Indeed.com to identify potential students.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“the marketing team would pick that resume up and look at it”
Axact USES Bay Town University
Axact used Bay Town University as one of its fake university operations.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“There was no real university. There was no learning, no classes, nothing.”
Axact USES Offshore money movement
Money was routed through different accounts and often ended up in companies in Cyprus or Latvia.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“The money would get funneled through different accounts and would often end up in the account of a company in Cyprus or Latvia.”
Axact USES Search-engine optimization
Axact used SEO campaigns to increase the visibility of its fake schools.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“running SEO campaigns to get their school ranked higher in the search results”
Axact USES User activity tracking
The fake school website tracked users’ interactions so agents could see clicking and hovering behavior.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“The website had some kind of tracker on the user”
Employees threatened victims with disclosure of photographs showing them with fake degrees.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“Pay me $8,000 or I’ll show this photo to your boss.”
default password AFFECTS CCTV system
The CCTV system remained protected by its default password, allowing access to the system.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jim Browning EP 143 Details
“For the particular CCTV system that he was using, I did a Google search of what is the default password for this system, and would you believe they were still using the default password”
Jim Browning ASSOCIATED_WITH Karl Rock
Jim describes Karl Rock as a partner in connection with drone footage and related activities.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Jim Browning EP 143 Details
“I’ve spoken with Karl Rock, sort of my partner-in-crime when it comes to all the drone footage and so on”
scam call center operation ATTRIBUTED_TO Amit Chauhan
The BBC investigation identified Amit Chauhan as the man behind the fraud operation.
Attributed Confidence 99% · Reporter EP 143 Details
“We’ve identified the man behind the fraud, Amit Chauhan”
scam call center operation COMPROMISES CCTV system
Jim’s access to the supervisor’s computer led to access to the call center’s CCTV system.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 143 Details
“from there was able to get into the CCTV system”
Jim Browning EXPLOITS default password
Jim gained access to the scam operation’s CCTV system by trying its unchanged default password.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jim Browning EP 143 Details
“they were still using the default password? I guess you could call that hacking, but I could see the IP address, the username, and I just tried the default password, and I was straight in”
scam call center operation INVOLVES malvertising
The scam operation was reached through a malvertising campaign presenting a malicious advertisement on a website.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 143 Details
“someone told Jim about a malvert. This is an ad on a website which has malware on it”
scam call center operation INVOLVES TeamViewer
The scam operation is described as using TeamViewer for remote access, although TeamViewer temporarily banned connections from India because of scam abuse.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jim Browning EP 143 Details
“if the scammers were using a bit of remote access software called TeamViewer”
scam call center operation INVOLVES CCTV system
The scam call center used a CCTV system that its supervisor could monitor and that Jim accessed.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Jack Rhysider EP 143 Details
“this scam call center had a lot of cameras”
scam call center operation INVOLVES malicious JavaScript
A malicious advertisement associated with the scam operation used JavaScript to create a fake computer-lock warning and lure victims into calling support.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 143 Details
“it had some malicious JavaScript in it which maximized the browser, showed this giant warning, played this audio on repeat”
refund scam USES gift-card laundering
In the described refund scam, the victim is pressured to return the supposedly excess refund using gift vouchers.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jim Browning EP 143 Details
“He spends the next few minutes explaining that he’s going to need $5,000 worth of Apple gift vouchers”
technical support scam USES remote access software
Technical-support scammers ask victims to provide control of their computers through remote-access software.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 143 Details
“they’ll ask for control of your computer to fix it”
Jim Browning USES social engineering
Jim says that much of his method for accessing scammers’ computers relies on social engineering rather than exploiting a zero-day vulnerability.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jim Browning EP 143 Details
“a lot of it is social engineering as opposed to some zero-day compromise of the remote access software that I’m using”