It always sounds like there's a million people scamming in the background on these calls. I just can't imagine going to work everyday at a call center devoted to ripping people off.

That's because you have morals and they don't.

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It always sounds like there's a million people scamming in the background on these calls. I just can't imagine going to work everyday at a call center devoted to ripping people off.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Maybe I can do all the stuff they tell me to do but nothing is happening. When they finally say why isnt it working. I can say ooops I forgot to tell you Im running windows in VM mode under linux.
Would that line of BS work?

Well, what would have happened next were I to play along and pretend I didn't know anything about my computer is that they would have offered to fix it for a fee, and they would have proceeded to ask me for my credit card details so they can charge my card for their "service". If you say "nothing is happening", they simply would try to assist you in letting them remote into your machine so they can show you what's wrong (read: scam you into believing that perfectly normal errors in your Event Log are part of a larger problem). The scam would work the same whether you were using Windows in a vm under Linux or not. However, merely mentioned you use Linux or a Mac has been known to scare some of them away as their scam only works on the naivety of Windows users. Though I wouldn't be too surprised if scammers attempt to persuade you into believing even your Windows vm has issues as well if they think they can get away with it.

If you want them to stop calling, the best line to use is "I don't use Windows", "I own a Mac" or lie and say "I don't own a computer". If you want to keep them on the phone (remember: they're calling you on their dime, so every moment they're on the phone costs them money), you can try to play along as much as you want but be creative and be sure to avoid giving them any billing details or other personal information.

I prefer the second option of wasting their time and money. If I get another call, I'm definitely going to pretend I don't know a thing about computers and play along as long as I can. If you do a search on the internet, you can see this sort of thing has become a form of art to keep them on the phone and post the details for all to laugh at. :-)

I don't get these calls either, probably because I only have a cell.

The call happened on my cell phone. I normally don't answer calls I don't recognize, and this one came up "No caller ID", but on the off-chance that it was my company trying to contact me I went ahead and answered it.

Friends have told me that the likely reason is due to a controversial decision by Sprint to share records with their partners, which in turn means it could be shared with their partners, and their partners... until such a point you don't know who you're dealing with or who has your info.

I still get the notorious emails claiming there's some vast sum of money waiting for me in a special account somewhere.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I listen for 20 seconds then tell them that the police have put a trace on my line and that they will be receiving a visit from Interpol.

Click, brrrrrrrrr ......

:-)

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

Just the other day my wife got the second of the MS scam. The first time was about two months ago. He called her everyday for a week. She kept telling them
that. My husband does all the computer stuff call back when he gets up and before he goes to work.
He finaly calls when Im up. He tells me your computer has problems. I say Oh yeah what kind of problems. He tells me the same garbage he told you OzzFan. I did manage to keep him on the line for 15 minutes before I stated that he just wanted me to open up my computer so he could hack it. Then I said your just a scammer and hung up.
Now the day before yesterday a lady calls my wife with the same spiel. She tells her that she dosent do the computer stuff I do. So lets see hows this goes. I hope they do call back when Im up:)
Maybe I can do all the stuff they tell me to do but nothing is happening. When they finally say why isnt it working. I can say ooops I forgot to tell you Im running windows in VM mode under linux.
Would that line of BS work?

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[/quote]

Old James

They wouldn't keep doing it if people, even smart people, didn't keep falling for it.

Kind of like direct mail advertising. If 0.01% send money, you are a millionaire.

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I don't get these calls either, probably because I only have a cell. I do get other kinds of scam calls, but I don't answer when they come up private, unavailable, or a non-local (Chicago area) area code. If it's really important (and often when it's a scam) they'll leave a voice mail. If I get a lot from the same number, I put it on the auto-reject list in my phone.

A month or so ago, I got a cold call from an alternative energy company, offering to lower my Commonwealth Edison bill. I pointed out that I don't have ComEd, I get my power from the City of Naperville. He seemed surprised at that. I also mentioned being on the federal and state Do Not Call lists. They usually get apologetic about that, but sometimes they just hang up.

The local news has run stories several times recently about people claiming to be either the IRS or a utility company demanding that their victims immediately go buy a prepaid credit card and give them the number. They wouldn't keep doing it if people, even smart people, didn't keep falling for it.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I've had many, they were mostly PPI or accident claims which really do my head in. However, only had the one I.T scammer.

Claimed to be from Microsoft, so asked him to tell me my MS Partner No...

...sadly he hung up :-)

Hahahahaha :)

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

These idiots called my parents' home line a week ago. I was on my phone with an AT&T Tech about an upcoming appointment about our pixelation issues; when my mom tells me Microsoft is on her line saying we have computer problems... I just shook my head. I heard her tell the idiots that I am a computer technician... They hung up.

LOL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

These irritating people have called my mom's house a lot, and I just tell them they're going to jail, and hang up.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Not excactly tech support but got a robo call from IRS Internal Revenus Services - note plural - saying they had been trying to reach me and they were suing me and gave a international call back number. The caller ID which they displayed isn't in the state where my tax return goes and didn't match the callback number. I wonder if that international number is one of those $100/min scam numbers in addition to getting you to give them name, address, phone, social security and bank information to "pay" the phony bill.

Probably phony, I think the real IRS would not call, I think they'd mail something to you, they might return a call you made to the IRS, but call you first? I doubt it. Sounds suspicious to Me.

Oh Vic

What?

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IRS Reiterates Warning of Pervasive Telephone Scam

IR-2014-53, April 14, 2014

WASHINGTON — As the 2014 filing season nears an end, the Internal Revenue Service today issued another strong warning for consumers to guard against sophisticated and aggressive phone scams targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, as reported incidents of this crime continue to rise nationwide. These scams won’t likely end with the filing season so the IRS urges everyone to remain on guard.

The IRS will always send taxpayers a written notification of any tax due via the U.S. mail. The IRS never asks for credit card, debit card or prepaid card information over the telephone. For more information or to report a scam, go to www.irs.gov and type "scam" in the search box.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Reiterates-Warning-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam

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Not excactly tech support but got a robo call from IRS Internal Revenus Services - note plural - saying they had been trying to reach me and they were suing me and gave a international call back number. The caller ID which they displayed isn't in the state where my tax return goes and didn't match the callback number. I wonder if that international number is one of those $100/min scam numbers in addition to getting you to give them name, address, phone, social security and bank information to "pay" the phony bill.

Probably phony, I think the real IRS would not call, I think they'd mail something to you, they might return a call you made to the IRS, but call you first? I doubt it. Sounds suspicious to Me.

Oh Vic

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Not excactly tech support but got a robo call from IRS Internal Revenus Services - note plural - saying they had been trying to reach me and they were suing me and gave a international call back number. The caller ID which they displayed isn't in the state where my tax return goes and didn't match the callback number. I wonder if that international number is one of those $100/min scam numbers in addition to getting you to give them name, address, phone, social security and bank information to "pay" the phony bill.

Probably phony, I think the real IRS would not call, I think they'd mail something to you, they might return a call you made to the IRS, but call you first? I doubt it. Sounds suspicious to Me.

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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

Not excactly tech support but got a robo call from IRS Internal Revenus Services - note plural - saying they had been trying to reach me and they were suing me and gave a international call back number. The caller ID which they displayed isn't in the state where my tax return goes and didn't match the callback number. I wonder if that international number is one of those $100/min scam numbers in addition to getting you to give them name, address, phone, social security and bank information to "pay" the phony bill.

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We've been getting those calls over here for a few years now. :-(

They started by claiming they were from Microsoft, but now they're also saying that they're from our local telco's now.

But they do still catch a few gullible people out.

Cheers.

We get quite a few of these, now some of them are coming from what at first appearance seems to be a UK phone number, but isn't, so it doesn't seem to be ignorable! We also have a very good friend that for various reasons has his phone permanently on withhold

I had one that I strung along for a bit like Ozzfan did, and when I got fed up I pointed out that, being MSDN registered and having worked with computers for over 35 years I knew more that he did. The guy on the other end, then got angry and accused ME of wasting HIS time! He rang off after I pointed out the he called me... LOL

I was really quite surprised how long he stayed on the call. More recently they are getting smarter and hanging up after too many awkward questions.

These can be good fun if you're not busy. :-)

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Happy Crunching,

Graham

I never pick up a private number on my phone, saves a lot of trouble...

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