17 replies to this topic

[Taylor525]

My dad had a call this morning claiming to be Mircosoft, asking you check something on your computer!! His reply was being to busy to do it, call back later. They have called several times, and hes asked me what I thought. I said go on google and type out the experience to see if its a fake caller, like usual.

He found out on google that theres a fake call centre based in India trying to get you to type in a code and pay a whopping £180 to fix the problem you don't seem to have!! and give you nothing in return.

Now, I though that no one would be stupid enough to pay, but it turns out thousand have been caught out, so thought I'd keep you all aware.

Anyone else had this mock caller???

Edited by Taylor525, 20 November 2012 - 04:51 PM.

[todd1970]

Ive never had one myself but i know my neighbour has , a do bits and pieces for him on his PC as he dosent have a clue about them.

He told me the guy phoned him and hes like 'yeah blah blah..virus..etc etc' , he sensed something was right and told the guy no thanks ill get my neighbour (me) to sort it.

Just as well as i told him the scam involved .. he nearly shat it .. he does a lot of personal banking and transactions on his PC.

They prey on the old and vunerable and always hope they get someone on the other end of the phone that hasnt the first clue about computers.

Id love for them to phone me about it , id play along at first and then say FK RIGHT OFF !!!

[samson81]

My neighbour had this the other week and the chap on the phone said "we have noticed you have been having issues with your pc lately and can look at it remotely from here and tell you what we can do for you" so he did stupidly allow them remote access through teamviewer,

After 10 minutes on his pc they said your anti virus is about to run out and you have got over 500 errors on your pc which is slowing the system down, To which my neighbour said an image appeared showing the errors but was only on the screen for a few seconds then the chap removed it and said i can fix your computer right now from here for £80.

My neighbour said its ok i will give it to my friend and he will sort it for me, Then the chap said i will do you a special offer and sort right now for £50, he said ok how do i pay you and he replied with i will give you a link if you put your details in there and make the payment i will sort this issue for you.

Well from that he said let me call my friend and see what he says which he did he called me and i said put the phone down disconnect the internet lead i will be round in a bit.

The cheecky shiter had installed a keylogger and a few other nasty surprises and then added them to the anti virus exception list to stop them flagging up, I sorted the computer for my mate and warned him if he did make that payment he would have lost his £50 and they would have had his details too.

These people con the middle aged people and above very easy as all they say is your computer is playing up and most people are not that literate enough to think this is a scam they will think it might be right which is why soo many people are caught on this.

I hate these scumbags and they should be hung and quartered but people will keep falling for it and well not a big deal can be done about it really.

Sam

[bri365]

I have two ways of dealing with calls like this and the many others I get from utility companies, internet providers etc even though I'm ex directory.
1. I say "hold on I will get the home owner for you" and then go and get my air horn which I then blast down the phone for a few seconds. They normally go away with that one.
2. Again say "hold on I will get the home owner for you", then place the phone on the side and leave it. All the time you are still connected at your end, they cannot disconnect the call at their end. I did this to british gas for over five hours, then picked up the phone and said are you still there to which I recieved a very rude reply.

[ady]

2. Again say, then place the phone on the side and leave it. All the time you are still connected at your end, they cannot disconnect the call at their end.

hahaha exactly as I do!

I've had these calls a few times too...total tossers.

[hornynick]

very good thread over at digital spy with advice and tactics:
http://forums.digita...d.php?t=1435992

[hornynick]

dont need an excuse to post this gem:

[Bencrest]

hahaha exactly as I do!

I've had these calls a few times too...total tossers.

It's not true, the person who makes the call can terminate it. However, as long as I've got nothing urgent on, I'm quite happy to string them along :)/>

[edit]

Something odd going on, the last reply showing for me was Ady's... now there's about 4 other replies! Oh well, what is said in the post above is correct

Edited by Bencrest, 20 November 2012 - 10:14 PM.

[Bencrest]

Thanks Bencrest for the positive vote, but I know it to be true.

I know you are right, I was saying that the person who claimed they could keep them on hold for 5 hours was wrong

[playstephen24]

had 2 myself but i questoned it straight away asking what os i was using and he couldnt tell me or wot name it was under as soon as i said i got a mate that works at mircosoft i can double check it he hung up think i recked his done but there is another scam going around aswell where some1 will post a card threw ur letterbox saying they tried 2 deliever a parcel and they missed u to arrange a drop off u got 2 ring a premuim rate number. a few people have fell for this and there fone bill came in at £300 odd just for the call

[ady]

It's not true, the person who makes the call can terminate it. However, as long as I've got nothing urgent on, I'm quite happy to string them along :)/>

[edit]

Something odd going on, the last reply showing for me was Ady's... now there's about 4 other replies! Oh well, what is said in the post above is correct

I didn't quite mean for 5 hours (quoted too much of the post) as I wouldn't leave my phone useless for too long anyway......

Just as long as it takes to make a cuppa......that works and that IS what I do.

[bri365]

Just to warn people of another phone scam going around at the moment is someone (normally indian sounding) will ring up and claim to be from the local council stating that you haven't paid your council tax for that month and unless you make immediate payment then they will stop collecting your household waste. About seven people at my work have had this call in the last couple of weeks.

[aaamusements]

I got the "Windows" scammer phone up and I kept him talking for 20 minutes. Even got to talk to his supervisor. It was great fun!

After a while I said to him "On closer inspection, this is an Etch-A-Sketch". He didn't know what to say to that...

[Magz]

20 mins, not bad. Our office record (they cometimes call the tech support line numbers) is 87mins. We'd have got the full 90 mins, but someone started laughing in the background. Trick is to get them to really believe you're trying to install their malware (obv. don't actually download it) but you can't get to it because if your firewall. Once they've spent ages talking through that, guess what - your other firewall software is blocking now. This guy went through 5 different ones with me before he gave up . On average they'll go through at least 2 before they think something's up...