"Microsoft" Scam Calls

Foxhound38

Just spent the half an hour on the phone stringing along some lad from India purporting to be from Microsoft who was telling me all about the horrible viruses apparently riddling my computer, and trying to get me to download some dodgy software to "rid" me of them.

Anyone else plagued by these hoax calls? That's 3 in the last 2 weeks I've gotten. It's getting most annoying.

The odd thing is that he had my name. How did he get that one wonders? How do these criminals even get the numbers in the first place? I do cringe at the thought of how much money the scammers must be earning from the gullible and people who aren't at all IT literate.

lkionm

Don't be looking at the kinky porn and you will be safe.

Duff

Rang my mother on a Saturday morning about a month ago. She was going along with it only for I called to the house while she was on the phone to him and she was asking me what antivirus she had installed on her laptop. Cúnts.

Berty44

Best thing to do is tell them you don't actually own a computer.

Even better, we were plagued by them at our office for a few days, often them calling at same time so when we could we connected the calls to have them talking to each other !

Solair

It's going on for at least 2 years!
Nothing you can do about it other than waste their time and have fun or just hang up.

They're outside the jurisdiction and calling with faked caller ID.

Unfortunately, absolutely nothing can be done about it as the country they're calling from seems to do nothing about it.

They may not be calling from India either or the calls might be sent via convoluted internet route.

Stringing them along wastes their time so that's about as much as you can do.

paulmclaughlin

Actually, they're from 'Windows' not 'Microsoft'.

A man who worked for Malwarebytes gave them access to a virtual machine and played along with them. It's on Youtube somewhere. They're none too bright either.

Wurly

We've gotten these calls as well. We usually just keep them on the phone for as long as possible and annoy the crap out of them. Call out random numbers and false names and ask them how they are etc...

Solair

If you wind them up enough an angry supervisior comes on and threatens you too!

Some YouTube footage of that too.

They're calling random numbers in the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ and probably plenty of other places too.

Unfortunately it's the downside to really cheap VoIP international calls. The upside is you can call people anywhere for almost nothing !

Best solution is troll them.

Senna

Were do you people advertise your phone number?? I've never had a spam phone call like these, even at work.

rameire

they two things I use to get rid of the idiots are,
1. I have linux,
2. my windows are double glazed and are argon filled, A rated with a uv film protector.

mikehammer67

bill gates rang me once

i told him i was happy with my mac and wouldn't be interested in switching to windows

he hung up on me

returnNull

just pretend to have a **** when the sh1ts ring

mattjack

I ask them would they like to hear my whistle and then try deafen the cunt.

mikehammer67

mattjack wrote: »

I ask them would they like to hear my whistle and try and deafen the cu nt.

better still mace the cuunts

MurdyWurdy

Used to live in NZ and got them every few weeks. Never had one in Ireland. I can only presume that as we are not in the phone book here, but we were in NZ that's where they're getting the numbers from. I used to just hang up on them.

smileyj1987

Solair wrote: »

If you wind them up enough an angry supervisior comes on and threatens you too!
Some YouTube footage of that too.
They're calling random numbers in the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ and probably plenty of other places too.
Unfortunately it's the downside to really cheap VoIP international calls. The upside is you can call people anywhere for almost nothing !
Best solution is troll them.

I agree , keep them on the phone for over an hour playing dumb . I did it before and they have never rang me back . Turn off your wireless or wired connection and keep asking them how you can fix it they will eventually hang up on you .

Manc-Red

Wurly wrote: »

We've gotten these calls as well. We usually just keep them on the phone for as long as possible and annoy the crap out of them. Call out random numbers and false names and ask them how they are etc...

We do the exact same thing, I usually develop a stutter too & ask them to repeat the question numerously over & over again!!

They'll hang up but I don't..... They end up ringing me back to hang up because they can't ring anyone else!!

Mr. CooL ICE

My sister answered the phone to them and went along with it for a while. Stopped because the remote login they were trying to get her to use wouldn't work.

She is pretty gullible, but I was genuinely ashamed of her after hearing about this.

omerin

never had a call from them, but if I did I would ask them to hold for a while and place the phone next to my latest Daniel O' Donnell LP

cavan4sam

i generally thank them for calling that my computer is on the blink
then i ask them to hold on while i get my credit card and debit cards

it usually results in them hanging up

mfceiling

Had them on recently. Got them to "hold" while i went to look for my power lead, all the while letting them listen to jingle bells.

Then put the 7 year old on to them for a chat - how was their day, what is the weather like in india, do they wear pants etc.

After 50 minutes i apologised and told them my computer was actually a microwave and i was sorry for wasting their time.

My man strung a well spoken female caller on one day, until in the end she told him to go F*** himself!

danger mouse

I cant find any of these videos

jos28

I usually tell that I don't own a computer and start asking their advice on which one I should buy. My son usually asks them what department they work in and then tells them that he works for Microsoft in their fraud department. That normally gets them hanging up fairly quickly

Foxhound38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKjyMKj3n4

This is quite good towards the end when the guy has the scammer caught by the balls. He's a security professional who essentially let the guy do what he was going to do right up to the point at which he was being asked to pay money.

When your man catches him out, the scammer gets a bit... agitated

Mongfinder General

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fJ2-r9yOg

One trick I used was to say that "OK I'll just hang up to connect the modem! click!

Schnitzel Muncher

I accused one if these lads of breaking my computer one time when he asked me to check something, I was eventually put through to his supervisor who ended up hanging up on me when I demanded they fix my computer.

Alternatively I say I don't have a computer or don't have the internet or don't have the Windows.

ilovesleep

The first time they rang me, I fell for it. The man that rang me, I found him very hard to understand & tried telling him that & he was so arrogant telling me my english is poor. The brass fcuking balls of the cúnt. He actually had me telling me the computer was going to break & I tried to explain to him that it wasn't my computer & I'm not in a position to turn it on to fix it & the owner isn't here. He told me something that I am going to be to blame if it breaks so I better work with him. I eventually hung up because it wasn't right. I figured if there was something wrong with it the owner would have told me about it.

I came on here to boards to after hours here & I was put straight that it was a scam. Cheers folks.

They still ring about once a week & now I tell who ever is calling that I'm hungry & I want an indian take away & what would they recommend?

Other times I scream down the phone, not saying anything, just scream as if I'm being killed or tortured.

Fracture

just go along with them for a minute then whistle into the phone as loud as you can, so loud that it is nearly bursts their ear drum.

dilallio

Posted this a year and a half ago about one of my friend's experience with these scammers:

One of my friends who is a bit of a practical joker got a call last Thurs from a lady telling him she was from Microsoft and that he had a serious virus on his pc.

Jim (my friend) knew straight away what she was up to, but played along with her, and opened the windows event viewer when instructed, which of course showed standard application errors.

His young lad was home from school so he quietly asked his son to play along with what was about to happen.

As soon as she told him that the event logs proved that there was a serious virus, she asked him to type in a command to allow her to get control of the pc.

Jim goes" A virus, a f*ckin virus, I knew it, I knew it. My son is always playing games - the little f*cker. Hold there on the line for a minute will ya"

He starts shouting at his son, shouting
"Mikey, come here ya little b*llix or I'll tear strips of ya"

He goes back on the phone asking her to wait for another minute, and pretends to knock seven shades of sh*te out of the young lad, while screaming at the same time.

At this time, his son is playing along screaming:
"No daddy, No, Nooooooo. Please don't hit me! please don't, please don't."

The son's shouting gets louder and louder, with Jim punching his fist into his open palm right next to the phone, while shouting
"That will teach you, ya little f*cker, that will teach you"

After 2 minutes of this, he motions his son to stay quiet, grabs the phone and tells the girl on the phone
"He's not moving. He's not moving at all.
Mikey. Mikey. Wake up! Wake up!
Daddy loves you"

He pretends to start crying and then asks the girl could she go off the line cos he has to ring an ambulance for Mikey. And hangs up.

She hasn't called back yet.

biko

Haven't got a call myself yet but there's tons of threads on the scams, in AH and Computer forums. Not sure if someone actually have been scammed.

Chrome Crusader

"I am calling about your windows computer"

Yeah?

"Your windows computer"

FUck off <insert racial slur> !

Amirani

Chrome Crusader wrote: »

"I am calling about your windows computer"

Yeah?

"Your windows computer"

FUck off <insert racial slur> !

That'll show them.

biko

biko wrote: »

Haven't got a call myself yet but there's tons of threads on the scams, in AH and Computer forums. Not sure if someone actually have been scammed.

One of my neighbours got as far as loading the "help page" before realising it was a scam as the page asked for her pin, she dropped the call, but the malware* was already uploaded & running.

I cleaned up her PC and she cancelled her card

* I think it was a botnet app

Freddy Smelly

MurdyWurdy wrote: »

Used to live in NZ and got them every few weeks. Never had one in Ireland. I can only presume that as we are not in the phone book here, but we were in NZ that's where they're getting the numbers from. I used to just hang up on them.

they dont use phonebooks to find your number... they use autodiallers that just randomly dial numbers until they get an answer

theblueirish

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

they dont use phonebooks to find your number... they use autodiallers that just randomly dial numbers until they get an answer

I think they use eircomphonebook as when they called me they asked for my wife, this is the only thing thats in her name.

channro

Friend of my mother gave them control of his pc and they also produced a map of his closest western union so he could pay for a few years subscription to software that would keep his laptop protected. I get farmed out to fix it up and he tells me the laptop has been running red hot for a full day. Reinstalled windows and got him to change all his passwords. You'd be surprised how many older people get robbed by these clowns.

Freddy Smelly

theblueirish wrote: »

I think they use eircomphonebook as when they called me they asked for my wife, this is the only thing thats in her name.

they dont use phonebooks... a few of their "call centres" in india were raided and there they (the cops) found autodialers. no phonebooks.

they have since moved out of india and are mostly operating out of eastern european countries and some north african countries now,

they generally prefer to ask for bill holder or females cos they are often easier to dupe into giving credit card info than males typically are.

getting an old lady to hand over credit card info is what they prey on

mconigol

Foxhound38 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKjyMKj3n4

This is quite good towards the end when the guy has the scammer caught by the balls. He's a security professional who essentially let the guy do what he was going to do right up to the point at which he was being asked to pay money.

When your man catches him out, the scammer gets a bit... agitated

1 hour and 22 minutes!? Thanks but no thanks...

Grand Moff Tarkin

Start talking to them in Irish and they hang up fast enough.

Richard Dower

I had one of these calls a few years back....cheeky fecker wanted remote access to my PC!, let him have it.

theblueirish

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

they dont use phonebooks... a few of their "call centres" in india were raided and there they (the cops) found autodialers. no phonebooks.

they have since moved out of india and are mostly operating out of eastern european countries and some north african countries now,

they generally prefer to ask for bill holder or females cos they are often easier to dupe into giving credit card info than males typically are.

They asked for her by her first name (which is Irish) I told them I was her and they didn't know any better.

Kirby

Go along with them for a minute, but speak really quietly. They will turn up the volume on their headsets. Then you hit them with the full blast whistle. Or just scream really loudly if you don't have one. Deafen the f*ckers.

They have rung us three times in the last week. It can't just be autodialers. That's too much of a coincidence. They have to have an eircom directory or something.

VinLieger

Yeah used to have them call pretty regularly, havent heard from them in a while though. Usually i just ended up strining them along pretending i was follwing their instructions, or id say i have a mac so its impossible to have a windows error or that im on linux etc.
One time though after getting 2 calls a day for about 4 days i got pretty pissed with them and told the guy to go fuck himself and a few more expletives and then hung up. He called back 3 times to be pissy with me about being rude and how he was just doing his job, still didnt let up on the abuse but I eventually realised he honestly believed he was working for microsoft.

Quin_Dub

Think they are definitely upping the volume of calls... I've had 2 in the last month..

I've had 2 or 3 calls before but there was maybe 9 months or a year between them..

The last call had a caller ID of 00000000000

It's always the same " Hello Sir , I'm calling from the Windows Support about a problem we have detected on your machine"

Eh... No your not!

Freddy Smelly

Kirby wrote: »

They have rung us three times in the last week. It can't just be autodialers. That's too much of a coincidence. They have to have an eircom directory or something.

yes they are... once the autodialer gets a connection your number is pushed into a database of numbers that work.

they can find your number so easily then

you can tell if there is a delay from when you first answer the phone to when you hear a voice on the other end.


autodialer randomly dials your number - > you answer -> your number gets pushed into a database - > scammer sees a live connection on his phone software on his pc and picks up the call -> scammer then tries to scam you. - > you hang up .

your number is now known as a working number and is kept on their database.

another agent then sees your number on the database and tries again to scam you

problemchimp

Keep them talking and string them along for as long as you can. The more time you spend with them, the less time they have to scam somebody else. I managed to get a bloke to actually sing for me if I did what he told me, then told him I had a Commodore 64 and the poor fuucker nearly cried.

VinLieger

Oooh just thought of a great one, gonna tell the next one that im amish and the only technology we are allowed use is a phone, see how that goes down

Chucken

Just had 4 calls this morning :mad:

The last fella got the brunt of my anger, I literally screamed at him to f**k offfffff and stop ringing my phone.

I think they were all trained in the John Wayne school of English!
Every sentence ended in "Maaam"

Solair

Just pretend your a voicemail system / IVR.

Keep saying "To continue, please enter your user ID"
"Your user ID is not valid!"
"Please try again"
"I'm sorry! You appear to be having difficulty! Please hold the line while we connect you to an operator....."

Then answer in a very corporate manner.

They think you're a machine, log the number as an IVR (interactive voice response) and never call back.

Other options are answer the phone in a language other than English and get increasingly angry the more they speak at you in English.

Or :

"Good Afternoon - Fraud investigation line? How may I help you? "