nasty telephone call

I have received a nasty/ stupid telephone call advising me that my desktop computer is infected with virus !!. The caller purported to be from " windows service" not Microsoft. My wife who answered the call initially was taken in. The caller wanted me to switch on my machine and he will show me where the virus is.!!
I do not know what one must do in such circumstances, calling the police is pointless.
Needless to say I checked my machine ( full acan- nearly 5 hours) and found nothing ( microsoft security essential). Has anybody received similar calls and what can one do about it??

Lots of this and similar scams about. Be polite, refuse all help and put the phone down.

Hi

We get these sporadically. If I'm in the mood, I engage the caller in conversation, such as; "aahh, now which computer are you referring to?" to which the answer is almost invaraibly " your main computer...." " Yes, but which one? The Unix box or or one of the linux servers.... there's about 20 here......." and so on. All lies of course, but only responding in kind. Or perhaps " computer..... what computer??? "

They eventually hang up.

If I'm not inclined to chat with them I simply reply "no, you aren't being honest are you" and I hang up.

Scare tactics. Ignore.

Cheers

John

Just ignore it...

In reply to a post by Dick_B:

Lots of this and similar scams about. Be polite, refuse all help and put the phone down.

When someone cold-calls me and uses scare tactics to try and sell me something I don't want, I feel no overwhelming urge to be polite...

Same here - I used to try a modicum of politeness by merely stating that we're registered with TPS once I could get word in, but they can often get rude or persistent.

More recently, if it's 'number witheld' or 'unavailable', I usually lift up the reciever and then hang up.

I had the Microsoft or Windows suport scam call too before I'd heard about it elsewhere - only days after getting a new computer that was bang up to date for scans, firewalls and updates.
I just felt sure that Microsoft wouldn't make such a call.
He insisted he needed to check my computer and I insisted he did not - he hung up!

My Mum got one on the phone a couple of months ago. She kept him on the phone for at least ten minutes then told him she doesn't have a computer. I wouldn't worry.

Don't be polite, be as rude as you can possibly bear. This works !

I know I have done it and they can not stand foul language or worse.

They are scum trying to scam you and get confidential information, treat them as such.

I usually have a wee bit of fun with them just depends how I feel when they ring.

Usually goes along these lines :-

Brrrr brrrr

Yes ?

This is John from the Computer maintenance company

Yes ?

Maaaaaam - we have been having reports that you have some problems with your windoze computer

Yes ?

Would you please switch it on

Why ?

So we can help you

Oh ?

We can tell you why you are having problems.

When did it tell you I was having problems ?

Yesterday maaaaaam

Strange - it's not been switched on for the last three months !

Phone is hung up on me.

Did I do something wrong ?

I'd agree with this, do not be polite to scammers. Growing up I travelled with my parents and as little boys do, I acquired a foul vocabulary in several languages which I remember to this day even though I forget what I did last week ...

Arabic, Hindi or Urdu does not seem to matter, the volley of obscenity works a treat as well as being very satisfying. They drop the phone like a hot potato

These people have been targeting this area for many weeks,mainly because the folk are elderly,I felt left out as I did not receive one until a week ago,as mentioned in the post the numbers are withheld or similar

One of the joys of having a Fritzbox is you can block calls with no number along with the ones with numbers who call to tell you about your accident claim, the fact you are with TPS means nothing to these people

......the fact you are with TPS means nothing to these people

If they are calling from outside the UK (which many/most are) then the TPS service cannot block them

My favourite is to keep agreeing with them, and when they think you are coming along, they will direct your attention to the keyboard, and the Windows function key sitting in between Ctrl and Alt at bottom left of keyboard.

At this point I inform them that I have a custom keyboard, and this space is occupied by a red light, which is now flashing.

This usually makes them pause, until they decide they misheard and try again.

Then I say, well, you're a microsoft expert, right, so you know what the red flashing light means ?

When they eventually have to acknowledge the question, even if it isn't in their script, that's when I tell them it means..
"the phone is ringing, and some lying £$%^&*( "£$% is trying to scam me for money."

What was even funnier, one of them was really shocked by this, and informed me:
"you are a bad man, you will go to hell"

Talk about moral relativism...

Edited by deleted (Wed 16-May-12 11:47:12)

In reply to a post by bathsheba666:

My favourite is to keep agreeing with them, and when they think you are coming along, they will direct your attention to the keyboard, and the Windows function key sitting in between Ctrl and Alt at bottom left of keyboard.

I sometimes play along like that, and can usually string it out for a few more minutes with confusion about which key they are referring to.

At which point I ask innocently "Does it matter that I'm using a Mac?"

"Click" from the other end

Edited by billford (Wed 16-May-12 11:53:47)

These people seem to know that the phone number has a computer connected to it. It might be interesting if a poll of those who have received such calls as to who their telcoms/service providers are is conducted.
I've known many people who have received such calls and in almost every case, two ISP's are involved. What's more interesting is that they have called their ISP's call centres in the months leading up to the calls.

That doesn't surprise me. Were their call centres in India?

To be fair, it seems to be individuals in the call centre making a quick buck by selling user data rather than the ISPs themselves.

Well i have never had one of these calls, and now I am feeling left out.

I've never had one either.

Actually calling your telephone provider and getting the number for these people and reporting to the police may be a good idea, as they can get the Regulatory body for the industry aware of the situation and may be able to get something sorted

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

More recently, if it's 'number witheld' or 'unavailable', I usually lift up the reciever and then hang up.

I bought a box off Amazon that solves that problem. It can be programmed to reject specific numbers but by default it rejects any call without an ID. It cost me £30 but it's been worth it.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

I bought a box off Amazon that solves that problem. It can be programmed to reject specific numbers but by default it rejects any call without an ID. It cost me £30 but it's been worth it.

Have you got some more detail on that? (A link to the product would be ideal )

The only one I've heard about costs nearly a ton

The scammers don't give one whether you have a mac or linux so I don't understand the point in telling them this, the scam has failed, put the phone down, simple as.

You miss the point- by the time it gets that far they realise that it's them who are being taken for a ride and you're deliberately wasting their time.

It's much more satisfying if they put the phone down .

Nope but I don't see what the point to us of doing it is?

You waste a few minutes of their time, no big deal, they are scamming people all day long so it's trivial to them.

Also remember some of these scammers are in the UK, and there have been incidents in the past of someone being exceptionally rude to a cold caller etc and the next thing is they have a brick coming through their window.

In reply to a post by Gypsydog:

......the fact you are with TPS means nothing to these people

If they are calling from outside the UK (which many/most are) then the TPS service cannot block them

I was referring to all these PPI and You have had a Accident calls from the UK

To have some fun and satisfaction on them, this is a person who is trying to con/ scam, that will cost me money. I have done OS, even cried down the phone because I took it as a biological virus and even sang to them to date.

Me either. Please ring me for amusement. I'll return the favour and we can join in the fun.
Game on which one of us can be the most abusive.

Pretend to want my internet bankings that always gets me.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Wed 16-May-12 18:52:47)

What I find hilarious is people who say "it was clearly a scam, I did a virus scan and nothing was shown" - Sigh. People are so stupid.

And yet again Microsoft get blamed for it a lot of the time, somehow.

I use several tactics that look to work getting rid of these calls. Once you learn to just use them they work most of the time.

* Computer virus with pc. "Sorry you must have the wrong house as I do not have any pc or mobile phone, thank you for calling" then put the phone down.
* Can I fit new windows / guttering / gardening etc.. "Sorry I am renting the house", they just give up and go away.
* You have won xxxxxx on lottery, bingo etc. "Sorry I do not gamble or drink so you must have the wrong house"

In reply to a post by billford:

That doesn't surprise me. Were their call centres in India?

To be fair, it seems to be individuals in the call centre making a quick buck by selling user data rather than the ISPs themselves.

You're right on the first point and probably guessed the the two ISP's in question. I think (I hope!) that you're right on the second point.

These "boxes" are of little use if, as I do, you have legitimate callers with hidden numbers.

I don't get that many cold callers calling here,but when they do i find playing some samples from here down the phone line:

http://www.fart-sounds.net/fart_sound_board.htm

Seams to do the trick

Edited by djfunkdup (Wed 16-May-12 20:26:13)

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

These "boxes" are of little use if, as I do, you have legitimate callers with hidden numbers.

I have some who withhold their number, the phone shows them as "Private" and I usually answer them- I'd let them through.

I don't have any who are likely to call from overseas, ie number unavailable, they show as "Out of area" and I usually just ignore them- in the unlikely event that it's a legit call then the answerphone cuts in after 8 rings and they can leave a message.

But it's pita as they usually ring at inconvenient times and I have to physically go to the phone to discover that I'm not going to answer it... if the box can divert "Out of area" calls to a recording without it ringing, that'll do me fine

In reply to a post by billford:

I have some who withhold their number, the phone shows them as "Private" and I usually answer them- I'd let them through.

I don't have any who are likely to call from overseas, ie number unavailable, they show as "Out of area" and I usually just ignore them- in the unlikely event that it's a legit call then the answerphone cuts in after 8 rings and they can leave a message.

I don'tknow the product mentioned above but at that price I can't really see it having the ability to differentiate between withheld and OOA numbers. i hope that I'm wrong.

I've been very careful with my number from day one and I suppose I've been very lucky as well but I receive very few (As little as two or three a year at most) unsolicited calls. Now when it comes to calls that I'd prefer not to receive that's a different matter!

I suppose I get one or two calls on more days than not... the worst was a couple of years ago when I was getting 3 or 4 calls on most days for a month or so. IIRC the worst was 8 in one day . All OoA.

Not many are computer related (accident damages, Gov^t insulation grants etc etc), and I've also been pretty careful where I give my number. I think most of them are targeted war-dialers, too high a proportion of silent or pre-recorded calls to be believably manually initiated and, whilst I'm far from rich, I'm comfortably enough off to be a worthwhile target .

What would be really nice would be to get a computer to answer OoA calls and, if there was the usual excuse for a human being on the other end, to give them a Turing test

When I got my 'Microsoft' call, I was indeed with an ISP with a call centre in India ..and I had been in rare contact with them not too long before that!

or you could just hang up once you've realised they're trying to scam you or sell you something.

I had one of those types of call about 4 years ago. Strangely enough I was asked for by name. When I mentioned that I had died the day before (obviousl i pretended to be someone else) there was a minute of awkward silence and an apology. I have not received any similar calls since then.

I'm surprised the major supermarkets don't cold call to mention special offers. For example, at my local asda the chicken is always going cheap (or woukd that be cheep?).

DFS would need some serious telephone infrastructure to keep customers updated with sofa sales.

In reply to a post by zhugeliang:

...... at my local asda the chicken is always going cheap.....

Now that is fresh!!!

In reply to a post by zhugeliang:

When I mentioned that I had died the day before

I like that, noted for future reference

In reply to a post by JonasTone:

Actually calling your telephone provider and getting the number for these people and reporting to the police may be a good idea, as they can get the Regulatory body for the industry aware of the situation and may be able to get something sorted

Wouldn't that be difficult though? Is there a worldwide ofcom or telecom register list?

I would personally say - "if" I got a phone call - oh I have just got your IP address and I am going to hack into you and wipe your data via my secure Linux server.... I wonder if that would be a nice, polite way of saying an expletive?

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by bathsheba666:

My favourite is to keep agreeing with them, and when they think you are coming along, they will direct your attention to the keyboard, and the Windows function key sitting in between Ctrl and Alt at bottom left of keyboard.

I sometimes play along like that, and can usually string it out for a few more minutes with confusion about which key they are referring to.

At which point I ask innocently "Does it matter that I'm using a Mac?"

"Click" from the other end

same. just play along and then ask them for their "bank account details and sort code so you can wire dem da monies."

I wouldn't count on it. The previous owner of my number has been dead ten years, and some companies refuse to accept that. One wonders how they can negotiate an alternative state.