No one calls My house, but then I think that might be cause I have a flip cell phone... If I don't like a direction a call is going, I can snap the phone shut, ending any call.

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My Amazon Wishlist
The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Scammer, calls my house often. Played along for a bit.
He then asks for money to fix windows. Did a reverse phone number,
many people complained.

He calls back, time and again. After wanting to talk with my husband, told him to F. off. Still get calls :((((((

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It's even more fun when they call someone who's entire computer network is running Unix, or IBM S36 or AS400....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Yay! I was starting to feel left out. :( I've seen so many stories about these tech support scammers cold calling people to tell them their computer is broken, and I finally received a call just a few minutes ago. I can't help but feel I should have tried to waste more of their time, after all, the more time spent trying to convince me that my computer is broken is less opportunity for them to scam some other mark.

They are very insistent in Calcutta.
Still trying to convince me that I have some problem with my computer.
About 20 calls to me and 10 calls to my girlfriend.
My girlfriend use to say to them that she doesn't have a computer.
Even so they call her up again...

Yay! I was starting to feel left out. :( I've seen so many stories about these tech support scammers cold calling people to tell them their computer is broken, and I finally received a call just a few minutes ago. I can't help but feel I should have tried to waste more of their time, after all, the more time spent trying to convince me that my computer is broken is less opportunity for them to scam some other mark.

For those that enjoy such conversations, here's a rough excerpt from the call:

Me: "Hello?"

[thick Indian accent] "Hello, sir, I am calling you today about your computer. It is not receiving the updates and we're here to help you."

Me: "What update?"

Scammer: "The windows and application update."

Me: "Why would I want your update?"

Scammer: "It will fix windows and application performance issues...."

Me: "My computer is running just fine."

Scammer: "Sir, it may be running fine now, but you will eventually have problem."

Scammer: "Are you at your computer now?"

Me: "Yes."

Scammer: "Can you turn it on please?"

Me: "It was already on. If you were monitoring my computer, you'd have known that."

Scammer: "OK, can you find the Windows key on the lower left of your keyboard. Do you see it? It has four boxes."

Me: "Yes."

Scammer: "OK, press that and the R button."

Me: "OK, the 'run' box came up."

Scammer: "OK, now type in MSCONFIG [uses phonetic spelling to assist me]"

Me: "OK, MSCONFIG came up after I press enter. [even before she told me to press enter]"

Scammer: "Now I want you to click on the Services tab. Do you see a lot of them as "Stopped" in the status column?"

Me: "Yes."

Scammer: "Do you see the one for Windows installer? Is it stopped?"

Me: "Yes. It is supposed to be stopped because I'm not installing anything."

Scammer [ignoring my last comment]: "Ok, now I want you to press Win+R again, and this time type in E-V-E-N-T-V-W-R. [uses phonetic spelling again]"

Me: "Ok, the event viewer came up."

Scammer: "Can you see where it says Windows Logs?"

Me: "Yes."

Scammer: "Can you tell me how many events you have under application?"

Me: "I have 22,205."

Scammer: "Sir, see, you have many errors in your application and you are infected with a virus..."

Me: "How would you know that?"

Scammer: "Sir, that many events indicates you have something wrong with your computer. We are a service to help you..."

Me: "You're not helping me. All you've done was to point me to services that are stopped when they should be, and you've pointed me to my Event Viewer to tell me that what is perfectly normal errors and warning events are indicative of a virus."

Scammer: "Sir, we are trying to help you with the performance of your windows and applications..."

Me: "No you're not. You guys are scamming people. This is a well-known scam that has been happening for years now and you guys should really cease cold-calling people trying to convince them their computer is broken." [yeah, I know trying to reason with someone whom has no morality or may not even know what they're doing is wrong because they're following a script is pure folly... I thought I'd try anyway]

Scammer: "Sir, do you have an anti-virus on your computer?"

Me: "Yes, I do."

Scammer: "So you have an anti-virus?"

Me: "Yes. If you were monitoring my computer you'd know that."

Scammer: "Ok, so your computer is running fine then..."

Me: "Of course it is. But please, stop cold-calling people because what you're doing is..."

<click>


Me: LOL!


<sigh> Probably came across too tough. I should have started up my Windows 7 virtual machine and used it as a honey pot for them to remote into (because I know that was the next step of the scam) and let them "fix" my vm. I could have then run a netstat to determine which IP they were coming from and tracert it back to their location to turn the tables on them.

Oh well. I tried and blew it. I doubt I'll get a second chance to pull it off. I do hope, at least, that this post acts as a PSA to the less tech savvy out there. This scam is still going on, and the are still trying to convince people that they are there to help you out of the blue, and will eventually offer to "fix" your computer for a fee. If your computer is broken, please take it to someone you trust.

It was kinda fun though.... :-D