Jim Browning (YouTuber)
Jim Browning is the Internet alias of a software engineer and YouTuber from Northern Ireland whose content focuses on scam baiting and exposing scam call centres. Scambaiting. A software engineer, Browning began researching scam operations after his relative lost money to a technical support scam. He started his YouTube channel to upload footage to send to authorities as evidence against scammers. He has since carried out various investigative scam baits, in which he infiltrates computer networks run by scammers who claim to be technical support experts or pose as US IRS agents and use remote desktop software  or social engineering. Such scams have involved unsolicited calls offering computer services, or websites posing to be reputable companies such as Dell or Microsoft. BBC "Panorama" investigation. Browning was featured in a March 2020 episode of British documentary series "Panorama", in which a large-scale technical support scamming operation was infiltrated and extensively documented by Browning and fellow YouTuber Karl Rock. The duo recorded drone and CCTV footage of the facility in Gurugram, Haryana, and gathered incriminating evidence linking alleged scammer Amit Chauhan, who also operated a fraudulent travel agency called "Faremart Travels<nowiki>"</nowiki>, to a series of  scams targeting computer-illiterate and elderly people in the United Kingdom and United States. During a private meeting with his associates, Chauhan was quoted as stating, "We don't give a shit about our customers". Some of his call centre agents were recorded scamming and laughing at a British man who admitted to being depressed. They were also recorded conning a blind woman with diabetes. Although Chauhan denied the allegations in a phone interview with the BBC, he was arrested along with his accountant Sumit Kumar in a raid. Money-mule catching. In March 2021, Browning and Mark Rober collaborated  to spray an automatic, machine-powered glitter bomb on money launderers who were receiving their money through delivery trucks such as FedEx. Section::::"New York Times" interview. Browning was covered in a 2021 article by Indian-American journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee of "The New York Times", documenting their confrontation of a small-scale refund scam operation based in Kolkata. Bhattacharjee, a native of Kolkata who moved to the United States, described a December 2019 scam-baiting operation by Browning, during which Browning intercepted a refund scam involving an elderly woman. Suspicious, the woman told the scammer that she would cease contact with  him, only for the scammer to lock her computer; Browning was able to contact the woman and help her unlock the computer. Bhattacharjee later flew to India to try to confront the scammer. AARP report. The April 2021 issue of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Bulletin contains an 11-page article by the director of AARP's Washington state office, centring on Browning's work fighting cyber scams. Temporary channel deletion. On July 26, 2021, Browning was targeted by scammers who pretended to be YouTube support staff and misled him into deleting his own channel. His channel was  reinstated four days later. He explained in a video that the scammer used Google Chat to send a phishing email from the "google.com" domain and convinced Browning to delete his channel under the pretense of moving it to a new YouTube brand account.