GenERAL
She’s playing the part of a victim and will say and do things that a victim might do. In real life Rinoa is not overbearing, forgetful, argumentative, or angry. These are character parts where she can let her mischievous side out. And the scammers deserve it, for bullying and trying to steal from vulnerable victims.
No. There are similarities in the scripts passed from call center to call center, and many of the scammers are operating from a small sector in India where the centers are based. Just as there is no “generic” American accent,
there is no generic Indian accent. You may notice similarities in syntax and phrasing but that’s
purely because people are operating out of a specific region/call center using scripts that are circulated by the bosses of those centers. Some call center owners operate more than one set up.
Rinoa attempts to expose parts of the scam and draw the scammers out using improv skills. If she makes it sound effortless, it’s because she is very good at what she does. Try it yourself, it’s a lot harder than it looks.
Scams
There are more than 4 common scams, including
- Advance Fee Scams.
- Tech Support Scams.
- Phishing.
- Emergency Scams.
- IRS or Government Imposter Scams.
- Foreign Money Exchange Scams.
- Counterfeit Cashier’s Checks.
- Bogus Debts.
- See our Scam Guide for more information on scams.
You may have noticed that Rinoa handles a LOT of refund scams. The refund scam works by a company calling you up pretending to be an established company like Google, PayPal, or Amazon and saying they owe you a small sum of money. They ask you to partner up and share your computer screen with them, often using a keylogger to get your login and password details. They see how much money is in your account and how much they can realistically juggle from your savings to your checking account to make it appear as though the overpayment really happened. They mess with the HTML on your machine which makes you think you’ve come into cash.
They then appeal to your better nature to pay them back when they claim that instead of you typing in $499.00 you’ve put the decimal point in the wrong place and you’ve actually awarded yourself, say $49,900 – using pressure techniques to confuse you, and then turning on your camera to further destabilize your mood, while persuading you to go to the nearest store and buy multiple gift cards which they can exchange on the black market to ‘restore’ to them the overpayment. They will often tell you not to disclose to the store owner what the cards are for, claiming you will be charged tax if the store discover the cards are going to a business.
See our Scam Guide for more information on other types of scams.
TECHNICAL
She’s a twitch partner, and has to adhere to the terms and conditions of the platform, which means she can’t be performing illegal actions, condoning, or advising others to perform illegal actions. She sees your comments in the chat asking her to wreck their computers, but she can’t act on them.
Because they always answer that they are a refund department and can only handle small sums. When they ‘overpay’ by several thousand dollars, they insist that the money will have to be sent to them via another route, in cash in a brown box, or via black market gift cards.
It doesn’t waste enough time to ask them logical questions, and they sometimes cut their losses and hang up. We want to waste their time, so we keep playing along.
SYSKEY was removed on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 onwards, due to its use of cryptography considered insecure by modern standards, and its use as part of scams as a form of ransomware. In as much as they can’t Syskey victims using Windows 10, Rinoa can’t do that back. There may be back door ways of destroying their computers, but as a Twitch Partner, Rinoa is not allowed to show or be seen to be condoning illegal activities. She’s attempting to prevent illegal activities.
No, it’s a virtual machine, and you should never let anyone get into your computer or give away your passwords.
Text to Landline is a service that lets you send text messages to a phone that has a fixed wire connection (e.g., a home phone) rather than a mobile phone or tablet. The message is converted from a text message to a voice message.
She’s a twitch partner and can’t be seen to be doing illegal things.
OTHER
No, Rinoa doesn’t like Vegemite. Vegemite is a thick, dark brown Australian food spread made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives. It was developed by Cyril Callister in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1922 (Wikipedia)
It’s another term for en garde in fencing, or what is said by an attacker to caution the individual before an attempted strike.