Another Microsoft scam

[Steeps]

Kept one talking for an hour and a half on hands free while editing photos one evening. My PC was so badly infected with viruses it would crash, take ages to restart, give random error messages, eventually it got to the point where I had to declare that I didn't have the internets and I had been trying to find teamviewer in Encarta '97 on cd-rom.

I can see why people fall for this rubbish though, I did a large bank transfer with an online bank which needed additional security checks and the message asked me to call a number that was not listed anywhere on the bank's website or any literature I had been given... which had a note underneath saying don't call strange numbers that you don't recognise! The bank did confirm that was one of their numbers but didn't acknowedge why I had an issue with it.

 

[Haggisman]

Only yesterday the Police here in Fenland said cards are being pushed through local doors similar to this scam.

Ringing the number costs 200 quid, so although the original scam might be dead similar ones are still running.

Then the police are equally gullible. Had to give someone at an old job a severe telling off after emailing the above "warning" to everyone in the company. The only "scam" in that instance is the time cost to the business for the individual to forward the email and everyone else to read it (if it takes 2 mins to read then that's an hour lost for every 30 employees!)

 

[Basher]

Then the police are equally gullible. Had to give someone at an old job a severe telling off after emailing the above "warning" to everyone in the company. The only "scam" in that instance is the time cost to the business for the individual to forward the email and everyone else to read it (if it takes 2 mins to read then that's an hour lost for every 30 employees!)

Surely education plays a big part in stopping the effectiveness of these scams? Done in the right way, police and internal security personnel at companies should be warning people...

 

[Kuros]

I don't see the point of entertaining these calls, to be honest. If you annoy these people, they'll likely just add your number to further lists for further calls. Get abusive or swear at them or the like, you can quite easily find yourself being called at silly o'clock in the morning!

 

[Steampunk]

My point was that many of them are employees just doing what they have to do to earn a living. Their objective is, in fact, little different to anyone else doing a hateful job - so when that guy said he was just doing his job: he was. They're just pawns.

There's a bit of a difference when your "job" is knowingly stealing from the gullible.

 

[Mynight]

I don't see the point of entertaining these calls, to be honest. If you annoy these people, they'll likely just add your number to further lists for further calls. Get abusive or swear at them or the like, you can quite easily find yourself being called at silly o'clock in the morning!

I figure if I waste an hour of their time I may have stopped someone else from getting scammed that day.

If they add me to a list awesome more people's time for me to waste .


I can quite happily code whilst talking on the phone so doesn't affect me.

If each person who had time to spare wasted their time rather than just hanging up as they know it's a scam there's probably be a lot less scammers out there. Never know it could be your nan/parents next on their list to call.

 

[Doogles]

Making phone calls which a lot of people find irritating (PPI, accident claims) is not the same as phoning up to deliberately try and scam someone out of money.

It is perfectly possible to work in a PPI Call Centre and go home at night knowing that the worst thing you've done is annoy a lot of people by offering a service which they're not interested in receiving. Admittedly there may be an opportunity to exploit people to some degree, but that doesn't have to be the case.

The same cannot be said about a scammer - their sole objective is to exploit.

Perhaps people from down South struggle with such basic things?

Hey Essex here and I don't struggle with such basic things

 

[Haggisman]

Surely education plays a big part in stopping the effectiveness of these scams? Done in the right way, police and internal security personnel at companies should be warning people...

Unfortunately you can't teach people common sense/to think before they act

 

[zola25]

Does no one use call blocking to prevent these calls? Our phones only let through calls from recognized numbers and send everyone else to answerphone - if the call is genuine, they will leave a message.... and I have peace and quiet

 

[Steampunk]

Unfortunately you can't teach people common sense/to think before they act

Most of these scams rely on social engineering which many intelligent, educated people fall for. Like distraction theft, if someone taps you on the shoulder and starts talking to you, chances are you'll turn to look at them before you can even think about what you're doing. These scams rely on mechanisms that most people are innately vulnerable to.

The only thing you can do is to tell people never, ever, under any circumstances give out any personal information to a caller. It's a simple rule that most people can stick to if they stop to think about it.

 

[£15]

After years of educating my parents on such calls my father fell for a call 'from Microsoft' which resulted in him paying them over £400. I was so disappointed and annoyed with him. Fortunately, his bank refunded him.

He's 70 next month and I fear this may happen again.

I was at a customer's house just last week when they got one of these calls. The caller was stating there was a problem with the customer's internet and that they were going to fix it. They asked them to go to their PC, but the problem was they didn't have a PC. The internet was for their Sky Box. As soon as they found out, they hung up.

 

[Coolasmoo]

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