BT Support - errors on my network!

£15

£15

£15

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7 Nov 2012
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I've just wasted 30 minutes of my life going along with an international call from someone claiming to be from BT wanting to scan and fix my network/router as they've detected errors. It's a quiet work from home day, so I thought I'd see how far they'd go before they cottoned on to my fake replies and hang up on me, but they didn't!

They had me in event viewer, showing me all the warnings and how serious they were. I was spurred on by the fact my dad was caught out by one of these calls last year and conned out of over £400 (which he thankfully got back from his bank). If they're on the phone to me, then they're not on the phone to anyone else.

They then tried to get me to install Teamviewer. It was at this point I realised I was wasting my own time and thought I'd better get off the phone as someone from work might be trying to call me. :D So I confessed I knew what they were trying to do and how do they have the nerve? I suggested they got a proper job and stop trying to rip people off. Trying to make them feel guilty, I suppose. I was expecting them to hang up on me, but they kept passing me on to their supervisors and stuck with the script about being from BT and wanting to help me. I ended up hanging up on them.

Unbelievable.

Anyway. Not a great thread, but like I said, it's a quiet working (from home) day.
 
Can't stand scammers
Wasting your breath trying to make them
Feel guilty those people have no conscience
Latest one is they tell you the new government track and trace app says you
Probably have covid19
And you must pay 400 quid immediately for the testing kit to be sent out to you
Total scumbags
 
I've done this before but they actually got quite aggressive with me and used some interesting insults due to their broken English.

It's fun to go along with though
 
I was once called a "Son of a donkey" after stringing along a cold caller about an accident I didn't have.

They asked me details of the incident and I said I was driving along a country road when I hit a cow, after a brief silence the caller went ballistic on me, said what they had to and then put the phone down. I later realised they were probably of the Hindu faith where cows are sacred.
 
Junglist said:
I've done this before but they actually got quite aggressive with me and used some interesting insults due to their broken English.

It's fun to go along with though
Click to expand...

Likewise. I played around with one when I was bored one day. I was playing the old modem noise down the phone to him and looping him round in circles until he got annoyed, insulted me and hung up. He then phoned back a few more times to give me insults! :)
 
I sometimes give them Welsh lessons, ignoring everything they say.

"Your cat wipes his backside on your curtains...".

They usually swear (sometimes very creatively) and hang up. :)
 
My dad, not being tech savvy (he only got the internet last month), had the "you have a problem with Windows" call and initially thought they meant his double glazing, cue a very mangled exchange of words. When he explained there was no computer of any description in the house they didn't believe him and called him a liar!
 
Good work op :D

The best reaction I got was one of these fools to actually phone me back after I strang them along and tore into them systematically about their fake name and how they are scum, then telling me to go fornicate with myself and fornicate with my mother, in a fit of rage :D
 
I've not had a tech support scam yet but I've the odd car accident call. They say that I've recently been in a car accident. So I ask them - so which year did it "recently" happen? They don't know the answer so they hang up. My last accident was in 1990!
 
Trouble is, a lot of these outfits, the people actually on the phone are paid pretty-much by the word. It's why they always try to keep talking even when you're telling them to **** off, for the 20th time lol.

So the best way i've found to deal with them is to just hang up instantly... no words, no pay :D
 
I had one call of this type, from "Microsoft" in my case, before I got a privacy phone. I told them I knew it was a con and hung up. They rang me back to ask me how I knew it was a con. They tried to con me, failed and then asked me for advice on how they could improve their conman skills! I was sort of impressed by their sheer cheek doing that. But not impressed enough to stop me laughing at them and hanging up again.
 
For the car accident ones, best response I heard was to ask if the fact you were 4 times over the limit and crashed into a police car would be an problem getting compensation ?
 
They used to phone a specific number (on an empty desk) at work and we'd spend ages stringing them along. But someone took the phone away :(
 
Angilion said:
I had one call of this type, from "Microsoft" in my case, before I got a privacy phone. I told them I knew it was a con and hung up. They rang me back to ask me how I knew it was a con. They tried to con me, failed and then asked me for advice on how they could improve their conman skills! I was sort of impressed by their sheer cheek doing that. But not impressed enough to stop me laughing at them and hanging up again.
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Next they'll start doing those surveys you get from companies to judge their customer service.

"Was the con-man friendly and polite?"
"Did the con-man successfully con you, if not, why not?"
"Would you recommend this con-man to a friend?"
 
They must having another round of these I got a silent caller myself only yesterday, no idea what he might have said as I have no time for these jokers and hang up before the get a chance.

Its a real problem for elderly and vulnerable who are surely their main targets the amount of times I get mother on the phone saying xyz called and said theres a problem with the phone/computer/other and have to explain they're scammers especially after they almost succeeded in emptying her account once.
 
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