"Hello I'm from Windows" Scam?
Discussion
megaphone said:
Mum (old) told me she'd had a call from a foreign gent telling her she had a problem with her PC. He got her as far as switching it on and trying to enter some letters and numbers in the "bottom left hand of the screen".
Fortunately she was struggling to understand him and she doesn't think she did it correctly, eventually told him to call back as she needed to speak to me. They called again the following day but again she said she needed to speak to me.
I've now re-iterated to her (for the umpteenth time) she must not speak to any cold callers and must not let people into the house who knock on the door. I've checked the PC and run a scan with MS Security Essentials, should I be looking for anything else ? Does anyone know what they do when they do get into the PC?
There's hundres of videos on YouTube of folks string the scammers along.Fortunately she was struggling to understand him and she doesn't think she did it correctly, eventually told him to call back as she needed to speak to me. They called again the following day but again she said she needed to speak to me.
I've now re-iterated to her (for the umpteenth time) she must not speak to any cold callers and must not let people into the house who knock on the door. I've checked the PC and run a scan with MS Security Essentials, should I be looking for anything else ? Does anyone know what they do when they do get into the PC?
Basically, they ask to take control of your computer, show you lots of information which looks like you have viruses on your computer - actually its just an Events Log which details failed actions on Windows, nothing sinister - then try and get you to sign up to a Internet Protection Subscription for a couple of hundred pounds, which - unsurprisingly - doesn't exist.
They claim an engineer will log into your computer remotely, clean it up and install protection systems, whereas in reality they just take a Credit Card payment over the phone and then you never hear from them again.
It's rare that they actually infect or hold your computer to ransom, normally just convincing people to pay for a service they don't provide is enough.
DMN said:
I believe they put a virus on it, and then charge you to remove the virus (they don't).
Nope they show you a load of stuff that's running using the command line, normal stuff that windows runs they tell you its virus's, they just try to get your credit card details, loads of videos on youtube of people taking the piss outta them.shakotan said:
megaphone said:
Mum (old) told me she'd had a call from a foreign gent telling her she had a problem with her PC. He got her as far as switching it on and trying to enter some letters and numbers in the "bottom left hand of the screen".
Fortunately she was struggling to understand him and she doesn't think she did it correctly, eventually told him to call back as she needed to speak to me. They called again the following day but again she said she needed to speak to me.
I've now re-iterated to her (for the umpteenth time) she must not speak to any cold callers and must not let people into the house who knock on the door. I've checked the PC and run a scan with MS Security Essentials, should I be looking for anything else ? Does anyone know what they do when they do get into the PC?
There's hundres of videos on YouTube of folks string the scammers along.Fortunately she was struggling to understand him and she doesn't think she did it correctly, eventually told him to call back as she needed to speak to me. They called again the following day but again she said she needed to speak to me.
I've now re-iterated to her (for the umpteenth time) she must not speak to any cold callers and must not let people into the house who knock on the door. I've checked the PC and run a scan with MS Security Essentials, should I be looking for anything else ? Does anyone know what they do when they do get into the PC?
Basically, they ask to take control of your computer, show you lots of information which looks like you have viruses on your computer - actually its just an Events Log which details failed actions on Windows, nothing sinister - then try and get you to sign up to a Internet Protection Subscription for a couple of hundred pounds, which - unsurprisingly - doesn't exist.
They claim an engineer will log into your computer remotely, clean it up and install protection systems, whereas in reality they just take a Credit Card payment over the phone and then you never hear from them again.
It's rare that they actually infect or hold your computer to ransom, normally just convincing people to pay for a service they don't provide is enough.
So for sure they will download everything in our PC. Recently my sister in-laws PC said, it was infected and call this number, the guy wanted £300 to clean it up. She told him where to put it, took it to a friend, who cleaned it for free, scumbags. She obviously picked up a virus from a link somewhere.
I had one of these calls a few days ago.
I played along for about 5 minutes with the intention of keeping him busy for ages but I soon got bored so I put the phone down and played some music to him. Perfect 10 by The beautiful South.
He hung in there for around a minute. I could hear him periodically saying Hello...hello....' then he rung off.
He called me back a couple of minutes later and tried to continue the conversation so I played The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals to him.
He only lasted about 20 seconds before he f
ked off.
I'm sure they'll be back at some point.
I played along for about 5 minutes with the intention of keeping him busy for ages but I soon got bored so I put the phone down and played some music to him. Perfect 10 by The beautiful South.
He hung in there for around a minute. I could hear him periodically saying Hello...hello....' then he rung off.
He called me back a couple of minutes later and tried to continue the conversation so I played The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals to him.
He only lasted about 20 seconds before he f
ked off.I'm sure they'll be back at some point.
We've started getting these calls this week, they are persistent. My girlfriend has spoken to them twice, first to Anthony, today it was just Tony. She told him we didn't have a Windows PC and to stop calling us and he told her we'd keep getting calls until it was fixed.
If they call tomorrow I think I'll have to play along.
If they call tomorrow I think I'll have to play along.
Vipers said:
saaby93 said:
Munter said:
saaby93 said:
Anyone reported to Ofcom?
They can't do anything about international calls.Just hang up.
Vipers said:
shakotan said:
megaphone said:
Mum (old) told me she'd had a call from a foreign gent telling her she had a problem with her PC. He got her as far as switching it on and trying to enter some letters and numbers in the "bottom left hand of the screen".
Fortunately she was struggling to understand him and she doesn't think she did it correctly, eventually told him to call back as she needed to speak to me. They called again the following day but again she said she needed to speak to me.
I've now re-iterated to her (for the umpteenth time) she must not speak to any cold callers and must not let people into the house who knock on the door. I've checked the PC and run a scan with MS Security Essentials, should I be looking for anything else ? Does anyone know what they do when they do get into the PC?
There's hundres of videos on YouTube of folks string the scammers along.Fortunately she was struggling to understand him and she doesn't think she did it correctly, eventually told him to call back as she needed to speak to me. They called again the following day but again she said she needed to speak to me.
I've now re-iterated to her (for the umpteenth time) she must not speak to any cold callers and must not let people into the house who knock on the door. I've checked the PC and run a scan with MS Security Essentials, should I be looking for anything else ? Does anyone know what they do when they do get into the PC?
Basically, they ask to take control of your computer, show you lots of information which looks like you have viruses on your computer - actually its just an Events Log which details failed actions on Windows, nothing sinister - then try and get you to sign up to a Internet Protection Subscription for a couple of hundred pounds, which - unsurprisingly - doesn't exist.
They claim an engineer will log into your computer remotely, clean it up and install protection systems, whereas in reality they just take a Credit Card payment over the phone and then you never hear from them again.
It's rare that they actually infect or hold your computer to ransom, normally just convincing people to pay for a service they don't provide is enough.
So for sure they will download everything in our PC. Recently my sister in-laws PC said, it was infected and call this number, the guy wanted £300 to clean it up. She told him where to put it, took it to a friend, who cleaned it for free, scumbags. She obviously picked up a virus from a link somewhere.
Only when called out as a scammer have I seen them delete files or try to infect a machine.
This has to be one of the better ways to scam-the-scammer, certainly my favourite.
Tech crew set up a completely infected with everything VM - India call tech gets a bit worried as their servers come under attack from the VM
A long watch but brilliantly done! Imagine being a scammer in India and being confronted by this!
Tech crew set up a completely infected with everything VM - India call tech gets a bit worried as their servers come under attack from the VM
A long watch but brilliantly done! Imagine being a scammer in India and being confronted by this!
Edited by TheExcession on Thursday 16th June 14:11
Had another today, chatted for a bit, messed him about a bot "I cant find that button", told him its Linux pc and then said I know exactly what you are doing as does most of the population of the UK now so you are probably wasting your time, go and get a proper job and stop trying to scam people.
J4CKO said:
Had another today, chatted for a bit, messed him about a bot "I cant find that button", told him its Linux pc and then said I know exactly what you are doing as does most of the population of the UK now so you are probably wasting your time, go and get a proper job and stop trying to scam people.
I only ever had one of these and that was in 2003 I was surprised they still keep going, I did however have the "We have records you have had an car accident in the last 2.5 years" call today. I have not and asked him who he was calling and the reg number of which he was unable to answer.I suppose it is a job for them so cannot blame them really, the scams are created then tested then they employ folk somewhere to bombard people.
I do not keep them hanging on I just lay it down as a scam and let them move on and use their conscience to decide. They have a family and bills to pay so they are working as best they can in a s
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