ioneabee Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I've just posted this to my facebook status - - I suspect 99% on here are computer savvy enough but... "to all my friends and family PLEASE remember that absolutely NO-ONE from Microsoft will ring you to tell you you're slowing down their network or you haven't got any anti-virus and subsequently give them your credit card details and full access to your PC. I had another panicked call from a customer this evening - they're still out there and trying to scam your money out of you - just HANG UP although it is fuelling my car nicely for the subsequent repairs I have to do" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpyoldjanner Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Sadly plenty of people do fall for this type of thing. One of the biggest scams this year has been one were the scammer phones pretending to be a police officer from the Met Police saying they have someone in custody for using a cloned bank card for your account and then ask questions to get your bank details. Some of them even ask you to withdraw a sum of money from your account as part of the investigation and then send a courier round to pick up the cash. One case in the South West were an elderly lady fell for this scam and then a few months later was scammed again when they again pretended to be Police officers this time saying they had caught the culprits from the first time and had her money back for her. If memory serves me correctly they stole over £80k from her over the two occasions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I regularly get these whenever I work from home. They seem to target during the day time when they have more chance of getting someone less savvy (senior citizens etc) if I have time I have played along with them. I have been tempted to build a vanilla VM with an FBI logo as its wallpaper just to see what happens It does pee me off as some folks are obviously falling for this. my mother who is well into her 60's who had her first computer only a few years back gets these too and because I've told her not to give any detail or access to her computer to anyone over the phone unless it's me. Bless her she has listened and just tells them she doesn't know what windows is Worth posting this sort of stuff regularly as if sooner see another one of these posts than hear of someone falling victim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I hate to say it, but it's getting to the point where I'm running out of sympathy for people who get caught by scams like these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 (edited) I hate to say it, but it's getting to the point where I'm running out of sympathy for people who get caught by scams like these. I hear you and when I hear of folks who should know better then fair enough but most senior folks are a lot more trusting and I feel it's that demographic they are targeting and are most successful with. I've questioned them quite a bit in the past and they typically have a plausible answer for most questions. When one of them was asking me to press the windows key (to show me the event log) I asked where the windows key was on a MAC, he hung up Edited December 18, 2014 by Fodder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimboy2 Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 My girlfriends step nan got caught out with one of these Microsoft scams. Problem was she lived in Switzerland and was a multi millionaire. Luckily something spooked her and she hung up the phone. I do believe that she gave card details but I don't think they managed to get any money. If they did, they would have hit jackpot. So scary! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 If senior folks are unable to distinguish between genuine and fraud calls, then they are likely to have bigger issues. It also makes the assumption that old people are stupid, which I'm loathe to make. Some of these scams have been around for years, and they weren't all old people back then. I mean, obviously the people trying this are scum, but there's more than enough knowledge out there now to prevent these things happening. I'm not even convinced that it's old people in particular who are suffering, I think it's more the average Joe who is just a bit stupid. If you're stupid, then there's not a lot any one can do to help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I'm not saying they are stupid but some are less savvy in the way modern frauds work. In fact I'd say she was more savvy than my 20 year old niece who was surprised when she left her laptop on the train it wasn't handed in to lost property. She used my mums laptop to complete some course work and then I spent the next few days clearing all the crap off it due to her allowing everything and anything to install to it. Anyway you never know, this thread may have helped the red line guy if he's still lurking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bockaaarck Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 When I get phone calls from a withheld number or suchlike I always pick up the phone and just say something like "Smith" or "Roberts" straight away. Then they say like "What, I'm sorry...." And I say "Colonel Smith here, what do you want?..." and normally they put the phone down. If they don't quite get what I've said I say "You've called a British military establishment, how did you get this number? Do you realise who you're calling? I demand to know how you got this number?......" They soon put the phone down........but not before I've traced their location......enabling me to press the 'Launch' button 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhackyWill Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 My elderly neighbour who is nearly 80 got caught with the Microsoft scam . Told her she had a virus on her computer and they would run anti-virus on it for her for £60, but she had to pay it up front by credit card, which she did.. Boils my pi55, :rant: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ioneabee Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 When I get phone calls from a withheld number or suchlike I always pick up the phone and just say something like "Smith" or "Roberts" straight away. Then they say like "What, I'm sorry...." And I say "Colonel Smith here, what do you want?..." and normally they put the phone down. If they don't quite get what I've said I say "You've called a British military establishment, how did you get this number? Do you realise who you're calling? I demand to know how you got this number?......" They soon put the phone down........but not before I've traced their location......enabling me to press the 'Launch' button thats a new one - must try this one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ioneabee Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 My elderly neighbour who is nearly 80 got caught with the Microsoft scam . Told her she had a virus on her computer and they would run anti-virus on it for her for £60, but she had to pay it up front by credit card, which she did.. Boils my pi55, :rant: thats more or less what happened to my "older" gent - except they started off at £150 and because he was a pensioner, they would reduce it to £140.........then when they tried to set up the charge, a bill was showing up on his screen for £499 - he queried the difference and they brushed him off with something along the line of taxes and charges, but the amount to be taken would still be £140...... sadly, he gave them all his credit details and full access to his PC ........ barclays rang him within minutes and blocked everything, so I don't think they managed to take anything he said to me that it was in the back of his mind the whole time that it was a scam, but they were just so convincing ..... for nearly 3 hours on the phone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudman Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 On a related matter - when I was last in Australia, Channel 9 did a piece on Indian based call centres and the tactics they use and they are trained to maximise sales efforts after 5 o'clock on a Friday as the instructors told them most Aussies are off their face by then and will agree to anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinaoslov Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 · Hidden by ChrisS, December 21, 2014 - Scammer ????????? Hidden by ChrisS, December 21, 2014 - Scammer ????????? Got a call from a 385 phone number last week and caller claimed their system monitored a virus in my computer. I hung up. I know for a fact that Microsoft would never call anyone about computer issues and software fixes. Obviously, the call was a bluff. Link to comment
martinaoslov Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 · Hidden by ChrisS, December 21, 2014 - This IP address is in the Philippines. Hidden by ChrisS, December 21, 2014 - This IP address is in the Philippines. Besides, you'd find the phone number at https://www.callercenter.com/385-940-1370.html too! Apparently, the scammer has called several people already and everyone says it's a scam. Be warned! Link to comment
ChrisS Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Last two posts from "martinaoslov" have been hidden. His 'Location'................ San Francisco His 'IP' address..................... The Philippines !!!!!!! So we could have a thread about a scam turning into a scam for a scammer... Or it could be perfectly innocent. Forgive me, I'm old........ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash6812 Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 I keep getting these calls. I listen to them, then ask them what the IP address is of the problem pc. I then ask them the MAC address and the email address that I used when I registered. They can't answer the questions unless I log on and give them control of my windows machine. That's followed by how do I log on to a windows machine when I'm running a MAC machine and would I have a windows problem? They then hang up. All they do is go through about 1000 calls a day. If I can keep them on the line and wind them up then bonus. I've got to have my entertainment one way or another. The best is when they ring, I will tell them that the person they want to talk to is being investigated and would they hold on as their call is being traced as they may be involved. It just carries on. Don't get angry get even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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