"Hello I'm from Windows" Scam?

[J4CKO]

Allanv said:

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 st job.

Dont have much sympathy, they are in a job that involves being accessory to fraud,

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/malwarebytes

It is unpleasant and causes people a lot of stress, what if they do it to your older relatives, loss of trust, cost, stress, fk them I say, I will take every opportunity to tell them what I think and waste their time.

[davek_964]

J4CKO said:

Allanv said:

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 st job.

Dont have much sympathy, they are in a job that involves being accessory to fraud,

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/malwarebytes

It is unpleasant and causes people a lot of stress, what if they do it to your older relatives, loss of trust, cost, stress, fk them I say, I will take every opportunity to tell them what I think and waste their time.

+1.

I imagine your average burglar has a family to support as well - that hardly makes it OK.

[Allanv]

davek_964 said:

J4CKO said:

Allanv said:

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 st job.

Dont have much sympathy, they are in a job that involves being accessory to fraud,

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/malwarebytes

It is unpleasant and causes people a lot of stress, what if they do it to your older relatives, loss of trust, cost, stress, fk them I say, I will take every opportunity to tell them what I think and waste their time.

+1.

I imagine your average burglar has a family to support as well - that hardly makes it OK.

Understood from both.

[boxst]

I had one today -- spent a good 10 minutes with them trying to discover that my Mac keyboard doesn't have a 'four square' key. I was going to load up an XP virtual machine and let them play but my computer was busy doing something else.

[The Mad Monk]

chris285 said:

No landline here so no calls, well i have a landline but no phone connected to it as it is only there as part of my internet package. And i don't answer my mobile to unknown numbers either so problem solved

What happens when your doctor or the hospital call you on a withheld number?

[zygalski]

Jonesy23 said:

Time to invest in something like a BT8600. The single most effective way of stopping this sort of rubbish.

Time to suggest she gets rid of the landline phone more like.

[Ste1987]

Allanv said:

davek_964 said:

J4CKO said:

Allanv said:

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 st job.

Dont have much sympathy, they are in a job that involves being accessory to fraud,

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/malwarebytes

It is unpleasant and causes people a lot of stress, what if they do it to your older relatives, loss of trust, cost, stress, fk them I say, I will take every opportunity to tell them what I think and waste their time.

+1.

I imagine your average burglar has a family to support as well - that hardly makes it OK.

Understood from both.

How many burglars are so to support their families nowadays?

[boxst]

Got another call, and this time had a blank Windows 7 VM up.

Interesting. So they ask you to install TeamViewer after looking at the 'OH MY GOD SO MANY!" (normal ) error events in Event Viewer. Then they talk through lots of rubbish, install another driver to try to blank the screen (which doesn't work on VM's) so I could see what he was doing. He ran the SysKey to encrypt the accounts and then he made the mistake of telling me to reboot, which I did and of course it locked him out (and left me with a password encrypted VM). So I didn't get to the end of the scam where he asks for payment I assume as he hung up after I told him I rebooted.

It's an interesting scam, I'm surprised that anyone can be bothered to go through all the steps and fall for it though.

[Moominho]

boxst said:

Got another call, and this time had a blank Windows 7 VM up.

Interesting. So they ask you to install TeamViewer after looking at the 'OH MY GOD SO MANY!" (normal ) error events in Event Viewer. Then they talk through lots of rubbish, install another driver to try to blank the screen (which doesn't work on VM's) so I could see what he was doing. He ran the SysKey to encrypt the accounts and then he made the mistake of telling me to reboot, which I did and of course it locked him out (and left me with a password encrypted VM). So I didn't get to the end of the scam where he asks for payment I assume as he hung up after I told him I rebooted.

It's an interesting scam, I'm surprised that anyone can be bothered to go through all the steps and fall for it though.

very interesting!

[ZDW]

We get this frequently in the office (software devs). Standard form seem to be using a person that tells you you've got a problem, get you to confirm the errors in the Windows event viewer. All those red errors.. then why you agree there's a problem needing fixing they pass you on to the next person up the ladder who's more technical (you're now more likely to be of interest to them). It's a bit like a pyramid of people until you get to someone who wants your credit card to fix the problem - up to 20 mins getting to this stage so their quite invested by now. At this stage you can start having fun with them - use speaker phone for the amusement of your colleagues.

I feel the guys doing the first part of the call may genuinely not know that it's a scam but by the 3rd you've been passed on to certainly do. Some guy in England was convicted for running such a scam a while back.

Now we know how it works our opening line is : OK shall we just speed this up and give you a credit card number?

they always hang up immediately

[gmaz]

I had one so I told him "yes, my computer does have a problem, it makes a strange noise" and when he asked me if he could have a listen, I got confused between my computer and the "test" button on the smoke alarm.

[Vipers]

gmaz said:

I had one so I told him "yes, my computer does have a problem, it makes a strange noise" and when he asked me if he could have a listen, I got confused between my computer and the "test" button on the smoke alarm.

have to remember that next time.

[HairyMaclary]

gmaz said:

I had one so I told him "yes, my computer does have a problem, it makes a strange noise" and when he asked me if he could have a listen, I got confused between my computer and the "test" button on the smoke alarm.

Thats brilliant. I had my first one of these last week.

Did my best to keep them on the phone for the best part of 20 mins.

Got to the command prompt. She said type ASSOC and tell me what it says.

I failed at this point as I cant remember what that kicks out so said 'fk off you theiving little ' and was asked to repeat three times before I she said who was I to abuse her? She was trying to hlp me. Ffs.

Apparently I've been report to the police.

[stevensdrs]

When I could be bothered answering one of these calls and the guy said they had detected viruses on my computer, I said " yes that's right there are loads of them" He then went onto say how he could help to get rid of them. I said " why would I want to do that?", "they are supposed to be there". That confused him for a moment and then he just said it would be better if I let him remove them.
I said " I can't let you do that as I need them for my job"
More confusion from his side and then he says that I can't possibly need them as they are bad.

" Oh I most certainly do" I said, "I write viruses for a living"
Click, he hung up.

Another one, we have detected a virus on your computer. " which one I said?"
The one you are using now he said. I said "there are 500 computers here, which one" Click.

And another where I let them take me to the error log bit of the spiel and told them there were none showing.
Some level 2 woman then came on and tried again with me and got the same result. She told me to fk off! Charming Lady.

They still call on a regular basis.

[lenny007]

Had three calls from these arses in the last week at work.

First one told me i had security problems due to Internet Explorer issues on Windows. When i replied we only had Macs, they hung up rather abruptly.

Next call a couple of days later was answered by a work colleague who i'd warned they might call back. After he called them a fking scamming bd and told them to go fk themselves, there proceeded to be a 5 minute conversation which included many profanities.

They then called back immediately, told my colleague that they were going to come to this country and would be fking his white wife, mother and children. And also taking all of his money.

After repeatedly shouting "fk!", "fk!", "fk!" at them for about 5 minutes my colleague finally responded with "for a kick off, my mother is dead you sick bd" he then exclaimed "aha! So it is a scam then! I was right!" at which point they hung up, ultimately defeated.

Funnily enough, they've not called back since.

[bad company]

I had one of these calls. Asked if she understood English she replied yes, of course so I shouted fk OFF!

Stupid mare tried again the next morning.

I have BT Trucall now and not had a dodgy call since.

[gtidriver]

I tell these lovely people that im a convicted peodophile and am not allowed a computer, i then ask in a creepy voice if they have any children that i could play with.