Weird phone call! "online pc doctor" - Only thread on these scam calls please

Irishgoatman · 09-05-2014 10:37PM

Time and time again I've said, on this thread, if you missed a call from a number that you do not recognise DO NOT ring it back. Even if it's an Irish number. If it's important I'm sure they will have other ways to contact you.

By all means check on-line to see where the area code relates to, if you feel inclined, and if you know someone who is on holiday there, then that's a different matter. But, again, they will have other means of contacting you.

Just ignore these calls and don't lose any sleep over them.

200motels · 10-05-2014 12:20AM

I got a call from these guys yesterday and the minute I mentioned that I use Linux the phone went dead.

Irishgoatman · 10-05-2014 12:46AM

I'm sorry if I appear to keep repeating myself but some people haven't been on this thread long enough to have seen early postings.

If you answer your 'phone and it is obvious that it's a scammer please do not put them off straight away, unless you're busy.

The longer you can keep them on line, obviously without giving them any useful info, the less time they have to tempt some unsuspecting person into falling for their scam. Just wind them up for a while at the very least.

If you're using Linux don't tell them straight away, make out that you are following their directions then ask them if they are sure this works with Linux! they really love things like that:D.

Going Forward · 10-05-2014 01:08AM

I usually invite them to fcuk off when speaking to them, every four or five words.
It's fun, the language barrier helps.

Janedoe10 · 10-05-2014 07:51PM

irishhh wrote: »

does anyone know about 0238663600? I am getting calls from this number many a times.. when i ring back it says it is a bordgais number but it always says currently it is not available and asks us to leave the name and number.. i searched on google and it says it is a scam. is there a place where we can report of calls from such numbers?

That number never leaves a message , the call always comes through at some obscure time like 4am in the morning for me anyway . I have had 2 in the last week . Even if it is a legit call for a survey it's a nuisance so I just ignore it .

Mearings · 10-05-2014 09:12PM

Janedoe10 wrote: »

That number never leaves a message , the call always comes through at some obscure time like 4am in the morning for me anyway . I have had 2 in the last week . Even if it is a legit call for a survey it's a nuisance so I just ignore it .

I cannot see a legitimate Irish or British polling organisation phoning people
at 4am.

Going Forward · 13-05-2014 01:14PM

Had a call today from some lengthy number, 212 was in it somewhere.

He told me he was "John" calling from Microsoft Vindows.
I told him he was a scammer and a thief. He Hung up. Cheeky article.

percy212 · 19-05-2014 11:58AM

Had a scam call from Morocco this morning. I was looking forward to having some fun and opened with "Wonderful, I have been waiting for your call". He hung up. Pity

Patty O Furniture · 19-05-2014 03:07PM

Strange thing is, that a neighbour of mine gets a lot more calls than me & he doesnt own a pc

but thankfully he heard someone on local radio a while back to realise it was someone scamming.

But i do agree with Irishgoatman, that i got one of those calls one time from "Microsoft Man"
To kindly tell me i had a problem with my pc & would gladly help me with an upcoming problem, little did he know what was coming!

Asked me first to log on & give him details, i asked him where he was ringing from & asked what the weather was like as its stormy outside, persisted with asking me for my details,
i said to him "i didnt know him well enough to give him that kind of approval & would like to get to know him better" a stony silence followed by a noise whether he hit the phone off something or fell off his chair

Sadly he never called me back, but maybe one day he will, here's hoping.;)

percy212 · 19-05-2014 04:53PM

They called back from a different number a few hours later. I presume it was them as the number was a long unrecognizable one. I answered with a hearty "Good morning, Westmeath Police headquarters".
Heard a click. Ha ha. That might put an end to it hopefully...

percy212 wrote: »

Had a scam call from Morocco this morning. I was looking forward to having some fun and opened with "Wonderful, I have been waiting for your call". He hung up. Pity

Patty O Furniture · 19-05-2014 10:52PM

Has anyone ever said this to them "Ah Mr Bond, i've been expecting you"

Or i've seen this in Seinfeld in where the telemarketer would ring up & Jerry would say "I cant take your call now, but if you'll give me your no, i'll call you back later,"
"You cant call me at home" came the reply, "now you know how i feel" Jerry replied

Spoonman75 · 20-05-2014 05:03PM

My mother got 2 phone calls today from some Indian sounding guy claiming he was from Microsoft Support. He asked her to turn on her computer as he could see a lot of "errors". He had her name and address as well. Thankfully, she's savvy about these kind of calls and told him where to go. He started to raise his voice to her and she put the phone down.

Not sure if this means much but I'm from Cork and I'm not sure they target by region but just giving people a heads up.

What's the best way to deal with these kind of calls?

srsly78 · 20-05-2014 05:13PM

Waste their time as much as possible seems to be the most effective thing to do, that way they aren't hassling anyone else.

You could try a call-blocking device. I got one and it seemed to work for a while, but then they started using different numbers. I have India, Morocco, Switzerland, Egypt and others blocked now. Could easily block all international calls, but I work internationally so this is awkward.

Even if you tell them to fook off they will still call you back, whatever system they use does not flag people as "not gonna fall for scam".

Mearings · 20-05-2014 06:26PM

A deviation from the dodgy phone call is the text message which I have just received: I have something important to tell you, call me noow (sic).

The country code of the number that I'm supposed to ring is 00 212- Morocco.
Naturally this scam message was deleted. Might be worth passing a warning around to those unaware of these criminal activities.

Going Forward · 20-05-2014 08:25PM

Spoonman75 wrote: »

My mother got 2 phone calls today from some Indian sounding guy claiming he was from Microsoft Support. He asked her to turn on her computer as he could see a lot of "errors". He had her name and address as well. Thankfully, she's savvy about these kind of calls and told him where to go. He started to raise his voice to her and she put the phone down.

Not sure if this means much but I'm from Cork and I'm not sure they target by region but just giving people a heads up.

What's the best way to deal with these kind of calls?

Spread the word, a lot of people still don't know it's a scam!

Microsoft have better things to be doing than ringing people up offering to fix PCs.

Spoonman75 · 21-05-2014 04:42PM

Going Forward wrote: »

Spread the word, a lot of people still don't know it's a scam!

Microsoft have better things to be doing than ringing people up offering to fix PCs.

My mother was wondering how they had access to her name address and phone number.

Then I read this today.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/technology/ebay-asks-users-to-change-passwords-after-attack-uncovered-1.1803847

233 million customers have been affected.

cat_dog · 05-06-2014 03:51PM

This number just called it rang a few times but I didnt answer. Did they get my contact details from EBay?!

Techniques07 · 05-06-2014 04:01PM

Yeah they've called here 6 times in the last 2 days and mostly from a blocked number which I haven't seen them do before. I told them that people know it's a scam and they hung up instantly, but called again later. Pests

Mearings · 05-06-2014 07:35PM

cat_dog wrote: »

This number just called it rang a few times but I didnt answer. Did they get my contact details from EBay?!

There are 104 pages in this thread so they have been around long before the ebay hack hit the fan. A friend who has never used a computer also gets these calls.

robinph · 10-06-2014 11:48AM

Have only had the calls on the house line previously, but a new one that I've not yet figured out the purpose of has come through on the business line a couple of times now. Didn't stay chatting with them long enough to get any new information today as I wasn't interested, but they seemed to be calling from France, claim to be from the "Institute of blah in blah blah" and then ask what model number of printer or fax we are using.

On asking who they were then they just repeat about doing research into the blah and I told you we are from the institute of blah... what model printer and fax do you use?

I can't figure out what the scam may be though by them asking for printer and fax model numbers? Possible that they then tell you there is some critical problem with that model and they will fix it remotely for you or something, but I couldn't get any reason from them as to why I should tell them what model equipment we were using other than they just kept repeating that it was research into blah, mumble, blah, institute, research.

jocmilt · 10-06-2014 03:27PM

Attol wrote: »

I just gone one on my mobile from 01 706 1200. The reception in my room blows so it got cut off straight away. WTF!? Where did they get my number :S

I'm with VODAFONE

I got a call from that number on March 8th 2014. It was a guy taking a survey so I played along. About 50 questions about where I lived, what I worked at, what house plants I bought, what sports I watch, foreign travel, etc.

I played along, responding with 100% lies all the way.

The interesting thing is that two days ago I go a letter informing me there is a test available in my area for blocked arteries. This junk mail was to the address I gave when I registering with VODAFONE. I know this because I gave an address specific to VODAFONE and this exact address/name is not registered anywhere else. Then I remembered the guy who called from 01 706 1200 had asked a lot of questions about checks my doctor had done with regard to stroke, arteries, blood pressure, etc.

My theory is that the phone caller already knows your VODAFONE registered address, your age and they are just filling in more infor of you in order to target you with deals/offers that may interest you.

I would think the company conducting the questionaire from 01 706 1200 is separate from VODAFONE or any other company they are using information from. I guess we must have ticked or not ticked the box that says "give/don't give my personal information to marketing companies".

jocmilt · 10-06-2014 03:48PM

Irishgoatman wrote: »

I'm sorry if I appear to keep repeating myself but some people haven't been on this thread long enough to have seen early postings.

If you answer your 'phone and it is obvious that it's a scammer please do not put them off straight away, unless you're busy.

The longer you can keep them on line, obviously without giving them any useful info, the less time they have to tempt some unsuspecting person into falling for their scam. Just wind them up for a while at the very least.

If you're using Linux don't tell them straight away, make out that you are following their directions then ask them if they are sure this works with Linux! they really love things like that:D.

That's what I do. It's great fun. Waste their time and tell them nothing. I had those Indian guys from "Microsoft Windows" on a couple of years ago and I kept him on about an hour. He had me going to their website to get some code to enter on my PC, presumably to infect it with a virus they would then charge me money to remove. At one point, when he though I was falling for it, he got excited and was off getting anther guy. Then when I said I had to go he threw the lid altogether. It was excellent.

14-06-2014 09:43PM

jocmilt wrote: »

I would think the company conducting the questionaire from 01 706 1200 is separate from VODAFONE or any other company they are using information from. I guess we must have ticked or not ticked the box that says "give/don't give my personal information to marketing companies".

This number is owned by Ipsos/MRBI. I'd say the scammers are spoofing this ID.

Mec-a-nic · 17-06-2014 01:43PM

Ah, finally got one when I had time to deal with them -

A 'Mark Jordan' from "Microsoft in Florida" called with the story that my PC is running slow due to virus reports back to Microsoft. After 30 minutes of torturing him with my crying son, the washing machine on spin cycle and the dumbest 'windoze' user, I only managed to download two .exes to my 'Ossx' computer, and they wouldn't run. The guy knew his way to the OS X console but was still directing me to download windows apps... Anywhoo, the massive OSX viewer (15Mb) will take 30mins to download on my crappy modem (fibre..) so he'll call me back when it's done...

I've the urge to clone my test WinXP image and launch it in VirtualBox and see what he'd do but I've not the time this afternoon...

Sites they are using to install malware or screensharers:-

www.infosis.net  and   www.teamviewer.com

Edit:- making links not clickable

Mec-a-nic · 17-06-2014 01:52PM

jocmilt wrote: »

I'm with VODAFONE
...
My theory is that the phone caller already knows your VODAFONE registered address, your age and they are just filling in more infor of you in order to target you with deals/offers that may interest you.

Well, that's the standard 3rd-party 'Partner Marketing' - one has to be very careful in answering the 'Marketing Data' questions/checkboxes when signing up for new services.

A few years back there were other sources of customer data, leaks from offshore call centres - customer details were re-sold - a lower risk, and less traceable effort than outright payment-card-details theft.

Reference: http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/customer-intelligence/indian-contact-centres-face-data-theft-outrage

17-06-2014 05:38PM

Mec-a-nic wrote: »
Ah, finally got one when I had time to deal with them -

A 'Mark Jordan' from "Microsoft in Florida" called with the story that my PC is running slow due to virus reports back to Microsoft. After 30 minutes of torturing him with my crying son, the washing machine on spin cycle and the dumbest 'windoze' user, I only managed to download two .exes to my 'Ossx' computer, and they wouldn't run. The guy knew his way to the OS X console but was still directing me to download windows apps... Anywhoo, the massive OSX viewer (15Mb) will take 30mins to download on my crappy modem (fibre..) so he'll call me back when it's done...

I've the urge to clone my test WinXP image and launch it in VirtualBox and see what he'd do but I've not the time this afternoon...

Sites they are using to install malware or screensharers:-
www.infosis.net  and   www.teamviewer.com
Edit:- making links not clickable

TeamViewer is a legitimate remote control application, they're obviously using it for not so legitimate purposes.

Recondite49 · 17-06-2014 05:57PM

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Meh

Open Google. Type in "Whatever the error code was", follow the steps in the first link.

I wish it was always that simple...

Mearings · 17-06-2014 06:05PM

Recondite49 wrote: »

I wish it was always that simple...

Agreed. For non techies, like myself, the safest thing to do is to abort these calls early as possible.

Recondite49 · 17-06-2014 07:21PM

Mearings wrote: »

Agreed. For non techies, like myself, the safest thing to do is to abort these calls early as possible.

I meant simply googling the tech problem. I work in Tech Support and sadly it's not always that easy.

Steviemoyne · 18-06-2014 10:42AM

Karsini wrote: »

TeamViewer is a legitimate remote control application, they're obviously using it for not so legitimate purposes.

Can second this, use it in work all the time.

However a good rule of thumb is to never let anyone convince you to install it or use it (especially not the remote control option). Unless you wish to use it yourself (or your business uses it) there is no reason why the average person needs it on their pc.

Weird phone call! "online pc doctor" - Only thread on these scam calls please

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