Scam phonecalls about problem with your PC

[Halcyon]

I've just had a phone call where an asian guy started by asking who I was.
I asked who he was looking for. He then said "the owner of this telephone".
Hmmmm. Suspicious.

So.... He then goes to tell me he has been in contact with my ISP and that there are problems and viruses on my Windows PC.

I let him finish his rant and then proudly announce to him "1) I don't use Windows, 2) I dont have a PC, and 3) This is bull ****, Goodbye"

So be careful out there as if I had done what he said, I'd have most likely been asked to open a remote desktop session so they can take over your PC and install some hacking tools of some kind.

[JPAC]

I had this today at 12.40pm claiming to be from Microsoft tech support. I'm not listed in the phone book, calls that withhold their number are not supposed to get through and I am with TPS - Telephone preference service.

After wasting each others time for a while I suspected his intent and put the phone down. Is there a VM number to call so they can be banned?

[bw41101]

Originally Posted by JPAC

I had this today at 12.40pm claiming to be from Microsoft tech support. I'm not listed in the phone book, calls that withhold their number are not supposed to get through and I am with TPS - Telephone preference service.

After wasting each others time for a while I suspected his intent and put the phone down. Is there a VM number to call so they can be banned?

I've had this myself a couple of times - both allegedly from "Microsoft". All that you need to do is to say to the person at the other end "sorry am very busy at the moment, give me your number and I'll ring you back" and be very insistent - don't deviate - believe me they soon lose interest and hang up.

The other response is to say: "Oh really well that's very strange because I'm running LINUX" - then challenge them to tell you what "so called" viruses you have and how they managed to get this information. again be very insistent with your response.

Unfortunately these vultures tend to prey on the timid - so respond with confidence and be assertive otherwise they may play the old "let's rattle them" trick of ringing you back again.

Good luck and Si thee

[devilincarnate]

Just found this thread and I have to say that this is the best one yet? Me and my partner were visiting my partners Grandma ( who is 90 years old/ 91 this year ). They said that she had a problem and they were calling from Microsoft Tech support, There is only one problem she has never had a computer and is almost blind as well. My partner tied explaining this to them and they were adamant that this was the case.
I said to my partner to give me the phone and I said that I worked for Microsoft Tech and they soon hung up ( I had read about this scam from somewhere )

So just say you work for Microsoft and they soon hang up.

[Uncle Peter]

Unwanted/Scam callers?

One of these usually does the trick

air-horn.jpg

[spankysmagicpian]

Pah! Lightweights all of you

I had this call about 6 weeks ago, I was in work and my daughter took it, said I would be back later. Then they called back when my wife was in and same again, said I would be back later. Anyway, they phoned back when I was at home and the fun started...

'Hello, I am from Microsoft and we have reports that you laptop is infected with a virus'
<me> Really? Oh thank God you called. Can you help?'
'Don't worry sir, we can fix for you'
<me> Please do, I am so glad you called'

Anyway, they asked me to start my laptop up so I wandered into the back room and started it up. Carried on chatting and it booted.

'OK Sir, can you click on Start'
<me> I don't have a start'
'The button on the bottom left'
<me> sorry, I don't have anything on the bottom left called Start'

I was running Ubuntu on the lappy so hence no Start button! Carried on with this for while and they convinced me to open a web browser which I did but obviously ActiveX doesn't run on Linux so no auto install of LogMeIn which they wanted. The guy then said he would pass me onto the Senior Engineer.

Same thing again but with several reboots. Half an hour had whizzed by now.

I eventually told them I was running Linux and the guy said 'Dont worry Sir, Microsoft wrote Linux so I would still be OK' WHAAAAAT

All in all, I had kept them on for just under an hour, which by my reckoning, had probably saved at least 4 people from getting scammed.

All in all, a great evening

[berkut]

Originally Posted by spankysmagicpian

Pah! Lightweights all of you

I had this call about 6 weeks ago, I was in work and my daughter took it, said I would be back later. Then they called back when my wife was in and same again, said I would be back later. Anyway, they phoned back when I was at home and the fun started...

Quality... I have been dying to do this for ages but I never seem to get one of these calls

[Kymmy]

Closest I ever got was someone ringing me from VM telling me that my server was sending out 20,000 emails... Turns out it wasn't a scam and they were right (all thanks to a number of security holes in the version of Zencart I had installed)