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A vigilante hacker calls out alleged “fake antivirus company” Waredot for scamming users.
A scam-fighting hacker has breached the internal network of a fake call centre and sent out emails in the company’s name warning victims they’ve been scammed.
“Hello, everyone! If you are seeing this email then you have been targeted by a fake antivirus company known as ‘Waredot,’” the hacker wrote in an email seen by 404 Media.
“Please feel free to issue a chargeback as this trash software isn’t worth anywhere NEAR $300-$400 per month, and these trash idiots don’t deserve your money!”
The email was titled “A confession from the waredot team” and sent from a Waredot no-reply address.
The call centre itself – Minds Insider Private Limited – was raided by police in Delhi in March 2024, and amazingly, the incident was caught on camera. Another scam-fighting hacker by the name of NanoBaiter had managed to get into the call centre’s CCTV network, where he observed scam calls in action, as well as workers at the centre packing up PCs, possibly in an attempt to hide evidence.
According to “OfclyGoodenough”, a leader and “scambaiter” at Scammer.info – an open-source scam intelligence community – workers at the call centre posed as Microsoft support staff, taking calls from users concerned over issues on their PC. The call centre workers would then push the victim to purchase an expensive antivirus solution – Waredot.
“Stay protected with advance threat sheild [sic], multi-layer ransomware protection, drivers update, PC performance booster and unlimited Waredot Rescueit with Waredot Ultimate,” the company promised on its website.
Waredot also lists several popular consumer technology websites, such as Gizmodo and Engadget, implying that its products have been rated well on them; however, a search of those sites reveals no content relating to Waredot and its products at all.
The unnamed hacker who took it upon themselves to warn the call centre’s victims also claimed to have downloaded Waredot’s source code and was not impressed.
“The source code for the antivirus is entirely underwhelming and will piss off any reasonable person who reads it then thinks about how it was sold for $400,” the hacker told 404 Media.
The Waredot site appears to be owned by Minds Insider Limited and is registered to an address in Bulgaria. Minds Insider itself sells a range of IT products, from data recovery to cloud storage and even claims to work in game development, though the only “game” listed on its site is a free online chess game.
On Minds Insider’s about page, the company claims that “technology assistance is beyond our imagination”.
“In Minds Insider, we explore the inspiring tech-savvy lives of a new generation. We make every effort to transform ideas into helpful products successfully,” it said.
A thread on the Microsoft Community support site sheds more light on how Waredot and its apparent owners operate, with multiple people claiming that Waredot representatives presented the software and company as being endorsed by Microsoft or even licensed Microsoft agents – which a Microsoft spokesperson denied was the case.
The complaints date back to December 2023.
Cyber Daily has reached out to Minds Insider for further comment.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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