I just stopped a scam.......

[lastlib]

My mother's phone rang a little while ago. I picked up the upstairs phone just as she answered the downstairs phone and said hello. A very foreign-sounding voice replied, saying that they had "received an error message from your computer," and they were calling to trouble-shoot. Mom started to ask them to repeat (she's 85 and deaf as a post), and they started to repeat. I recognized a scam, and interrupted the guy. "Sir? you're full of crap--my mother's computer isn't connected to anything." (I personally disconnected it months ago!) "Now you have ten seconds to tell me why I shouldn't report you for wire fraud to the attorney-general and the FBI." He mumbled a half-assed apology and hung up.

I think I will report them anyway. May not do any good, but WTH?

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Massive scam, all over the country, well known.

Don't know if reporting it would do any good unless you have a verified phone # to report.
Many scams use ways of spoofing the number on call ID.

btw..I got that same call a year or so back, had some fun with the twit on the other end, who had an Indian accent and said his name was Bob. Said he was from Microsoft, wanted permission to remotely hook into my puter.
When he kept mentioning Windows, I kept acting confused about how many windows I had in the house, and why hooking into my puter would help with them.
Mr. Dixie was LOL ing his head off.

I have Linux.

[lastlib]

3. that's funny!

good job, dixiegrrrrl!!

[Fantastic Anarchist]

6. LMAO ...

I've done that to them a few times, too. Acting like I have no idea what I'm doing.

"What is 'CMD'? How did I get that? Oh, you want me to type 'CMD'? Where do I type this? Where is the 'run" button - I don't think I have that."

Yeah, and just keep going as clueless as possible until they get frustrated and hang up.

[hobbit709]

2. The fake MS ones called me the other day.

When I said that I don't need a MS license because my computer runs Linux "Click"

[Denzil_DC]

4. Been plagued with these calls for years,

though they've tapered off in the last year or so.

First time, similar spiel to yours, wife passed the call on to me. Guy said, "We've had a report your computer is running slow." Me: "Hang on a minute, how did you get this information?" *click* *BRRRR*

I've had various run-ins with them. Almost always an Indian accent, sounds of a call center in the background. Never have time to really play with them, though others do run rings round them and waste a lot of their time. One call, once I was clear it was just another scam artist, I just kept repeating things loudly over the spiel, like, "You're a crook, a thief, you're trying to steal my money, you're a fraud ...." The guy got flustered, said I should go to a doctor, I replied, "You should go to the police and tell them what you do for a living." *click* *BRRRR*

Best fun was the last one I answered. Guy asked for me by name (they've obviously gotten hold of leaked account info from some firm I've been dealing with with that has call centers on the Subcontinent), I asked, "Who are you?" He asked to speak to me by name again, I just repeated, "Who ARE you?" He tutted and said patronizingly, "It's quite simple, I want to talk to Mr. (my name)." I replied more forcefully, "And I quite simply asked WHO ARE YOU?" At this, he came out with a crescendo of "Fuck off! Fuck OFF!! FUCK OFF!!!!" while I laughed my socks off and shouted over him, "WOW! YOU'RE QUITE A SALESMAN!" *click* *BRRRR*

[Fantastic Anarchist]

5. These calls are becoming ...

... ubiquitous. Every time they call me, I reply that my next phone call will be to the Attorney General. They usually cuss and hang up.

I fucking hate scammers.

[Dash87]

7. Common scam. They couldn't do anything anyways, though.

With this scam, they have you give them access to your computer, run some fake program that pretends to find viruses, and then charge you ridiculous amounts for their services ($500+).

They almost always claim to be from Microsoft.