Finally spoke to a scammer

[buzzcut]

Last week I was at a client's house setting up a new computer and her phone rang and she said it was for me.
An east Indian with a very heavy accent asked if I was the owner of the computer there.
I said NO, he then started with asking me if this was my phone number and I said NO
So he raises his voice and spits out the address and again I say NO (not my personal address), and now he's getting upset and keeps telling me that (this address) is right...so
I tell him who I am and what I'm doing here, and that the computer has just booted up for the first time.
I ask him " why would you think that she has a virus? Also we all know that Microsoft does not call people and why do you keep scamming people....by then he hung up.
He calls her frequently and she tells him that she does not have a computer. He tells her that she must have a laptop.
Sadly some fall for this crap!

 

[TAPtech]

I have an elderly client with a small real estate brokerage. Fortunately she is sharp as a tack and does not give these jerks the time of day. It really boils my blood though, when they do this.

 

[buzzcut]

I have another client that fell for it, she called me up because the scammer told her that he could see her through the webcam. I got there and she had black tape on it.
So I N&P her computer, and she's not to let them know that she has a laptop.

 

[Porthos]

and she's not to let them know that she has a laptop.

Hang up and block call if possible is what you should have advised.

 

[Your PCMD]

I have had literally over a dozen calls from these scammers. Let that sink in. Over a dozen, that call me, at my shop, on the actually shop phone that I and my techs answer "Your PCMD IT Solutions, how can I help you?".

"This is <name> at Microsoft Security Center... blah blah, are you at your computer?"

Me: Yes
<name>: What do you see?
Me: A command line prompt
<name>: Do you see the start button?
Me: No, its a command line prompt
<name>: What is that?
Me: Its use for my Linux computer
<name>: ** click **

 

[LordIntruder]

We had a lot of customers here bringing in their hardware because they listen to the scammer at the phone and did what he asked them for.
Everytime I ask only one question: "Why do you think you are the middle of the universe?" After that, there's only silence. And after my work, there's a bill including a numskull fee. Believe me: I have never seen one of these customers with the same problem again. Oh, and before making an educated guess: they all came and come back. With other problems. And believe me: all of them have a backup solution now and they all know that microsoft does not know that they are using a computer with a M$ operating system.

Me: Its use for my Linux computer
<name>: ** click **

May I use that idea in the future without any fee?

 

[Your PCMD]

May I use that idea in the future without any fee?

Absolutely.....

 

[oldtech]

@LordIntruder - Why shouldn't these non-techies believe it's Microsoft? They've been told for literally the last ten years by a hyper-ventilating press corp that Microsoft, Facebook and others are tracking their every move online. They don't have the knowledge to discern that online tracking generally isn't personalized since that little fact is left out of the breathless reporting. Plus I'm pretty sure they've all noticed that after searching via Google that the ads in their browsers change to what they just searched for. To the uninitiated that seems pretty personal.

It's important to keep in mind if you are going to service that demographic that they are not immersed in our world/aware of the scam and something that seems obvious to us is not so obvious to them.

Kind of tired of seeing the victim of the con game pilloried for not realizing it isn't legit.

 

[LordIntruder]

The question is, after insulting and gouging your customers do you ever see them again at all?

Oh, and before making an educated guess: they all came and come back.

 

[MichaelEC]

@LordIntruder - Why shouldn't these non-techies believe it's Microsoft? They've been told for literally the last ten years by a hyper-ventilating press corp that Microsoft, Facebook and others are tracking their every move online. They don't have the knowledge to discern that online tracking generally isn't personalized since that little fact is left out of the breathless reporting. Plus I'm pretty sure they've all noticed that after searching via Google that the ads in their browsers change to what they just searched for. To the uninitiated that seems pretty personal.

It's important to keep in mind if you are going to service that demographic that they are not immersed in our world/aware of the scam and something that seems obvious to us is not so obvious to them.

Kind of tired of seeing the victim of the con game pilloried for not realizing it isn't legit.

It's very easy to forget that this sort of thing interests us and the knowledge we have, we take for granted. There's no shame in being ignorant until you've been educated. After that, it's a matter of being stupid.

People use computers as a means to an end and don't have to know the inner workings. That's why it is so easy to scam them. Even those that may be highly educated in other subjects. You don't have to be a mechanic to own or drive a car.

 

[Kirby]

I got one of these calls for the first time the other day. I had to reverse-lookup the phone number to know it was them, though, because when I answered the phone with the name of my computer company the other end was just silent...

 

[eznetso]

We are located in Florida, and have a very large retired population here. Unfortunately, most of these people play games, check email, and maybe skype with grandkids, and have NO idea about technology. I feel really bad for them actually because they don't know any better and they are all so vulnerable. We try to educate the customers that come in, and help. If they are ever unsure they can always call our shop and ask!

 

[Kirby]

We are located in Florida, and have a very large retired population here. Unfortunately, most of these people play games, check email, and maybe skype with grandkids, and have NO idea about technology. I feel really bad for them actually because they don't know any better and they are all so vulnerable. We try to educate the customers that come in, and help. If they are ever unsure they can always call our shop and ask!

I had an older gentleman with the FBI warning virus a couple of years ago. He had paid them 2 or 3 times before he brought it in. It came back every 30 days. He was an older gentleman, he had been surfing some porn and to his generation that just "felt bad", so he assumed it was real. I think he said he was out $500 total.

 

[BHit]

A lot of the customers we deal with are elderly and like many have said above they aren't very knowledgeable. I had a woman come in yesterday because she wanted a new computer to replace her old one. Her biggest problem with the new computer? it doesn't have a 64k modem port on it and she wants aol desktop installed so she can browse online. Even though it is really slow speeds and extremely outdated she wants it. We have obliged and helped her by buying the usb to 64k and installed aol desktop. To us Its slow, unsecure, and probably god awful to use but to her it works and its familiar.
I try and imagine if it was my grandparents walking into a store with a problem like the scammers or fbi virus. How would I want there interaction to be.

 

[Altster]

May I use that idea in the future without any fee?

While you are at it, take a look at (read: install and try out) Linux Mint.

 

[LordIntruder]

While you are at it, take a look at (read: install and try out) Linux Mint.

Been there, done that. My favorite still is LFS even if I use debian on the most of my servers to save time.

Back to topic: any suggestions where that Scammers get the phone numbers from? Some of my customers here are not listed in phonebook or somewhere else with their numbers.

 

[JoeTech]

It's pretty easy to get phone numbers with all the data breaches or they just buy the numbers from third parties that sell out your info. I think most likely there software is setup to just randomly dial all ph#'s in a given area code which might explain why they call places like computer repair shops or other IT business without realizing it.

 

[Kirby]

It's pretty easy to get phone numbers with all the data breaches or they just buy the numbers from third parties that sell out your info. I think most likely there software is setup to just randomly dial all ph#'s in a given area code which might explain why they call places like computer repair shops or other IT business without realizing it.

It's definitely random. I've been getting them at my computer store in the last couple of weeks, but they just hang up when I answer with the name of a computer store.