How a podcaster managed to confront his tech support scammer, in person

Enlarge / This November 2015 photo appears to be a company photo of Accostings, which Reply All identified as an India-based tech support scam company. Kamal Verma is standing in a black shirt with a watch in the center of the photo. (credit: Kamal Verma)

The following post contains spoilers of Reply All episode #102: Long Distance, which was released on July 27, 2017. If you don't wish to know what happens in that episode, read no further.

Here at Ars, we are no strangers to online tech support scammers. For years now, we have played along with scammers, cajoled them, and called them out on their tricks. Such scams are notoriously difficult to shut down.

But we never even dreamed of doing what the podcast Reply All has done in an amazing episode that was released Thursday morning: doggedly pursue corporate records, find Facebook profiles of at least one company executive, and even manage to have extended conversations with one of them before trying to confront him. In person. In India.

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