phone calls offering PC help - how are victims selected ?

jpaul

jpaul

jpaul

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My older relations have a had a number of calls offering help fixing their PC problems, they know to hang up,
but nonetheless I have never had any.
I mostly use FF with noscript 'add blockers', and chrome occasionaly to access 'trusted' sites, as do they.

Does anyone know what mechansims are used to select victims, is it the electoral role ? they have had a yahoo acccount in the past, and also belong to some organisations that maybe lax with their mailing lists (U3A) but other than that struggling to think of ideas ?
 
My guessing is: Age and location.

Those living in specific areas are more likely to be educated enough where trying is wasting time.

Those of a certain age are more likely to be computer illiterate and more easier to con.

:: edit ::

And in a middle income region. But still location based.

In short they need information that relates to those criteria and confirms that data before they try.
 
I'm pretty sure they just generate a random list of numbers and then try them one by one. Not so hard for a computer to do that, and test each number if it works then forwards it to their "PC helper".
 
Responses to phishing e-mails, such as clicking on a link in the mail whilst not malicious can register that email and the associated data with it (name/telephone number) as a "hit".

Previous lists of people who have been targeted.

Freeware/shareware mailing lists of old.

I'm still personally convinced that to a degree some of the **** my parents use to install like freeware and even sometimes paid for advent calendars etc were leaked too. I know they got a lot more garbage calls and ended up with a call blocker phone after paying for desktop app that basically just played a tune and had a pretty background..
 
they buy data, either legitimate or illegally gathered.

I worked for an estate planning company, our call centre data guy would buy data in, ordered by location and age of clients (40+). It then gets scraped to make sure they're not contacting anyone illegally and it's loaded into a call system.

The only difference with the scammers is the data is probably stolen and cheaper and they won't care about anyone that registered on any anti-spam calling registers.

Where does that data come from? You're all thinking it's phishing or some illegal activity. It'll be from things your parents have signed up for or registered for, anything from postal competitions, online comps, websites etc. All legal ways of data being gathered and sold on, or then hacked from those servers and sold on illegally.
 
I tend to waste callers' time when they try it on me. Interesting to try to learn how they attempt the con so I can warn others.

Always stop before typing in any links though. If I was that bothered I would set up a limited access VM.
 
"I'm sorry, they have passed away, please don't call again"

Almost lost my car insurance after thinking they were a cold caller :D
 
No picking people, they buy lists of breached data then start ringing down the list, if they hit someone they think might be worthy of a 'scam' they'll then get on another list to try calling back.
 
They ring me at work. I even rattle off the MS certs I hold and inform them I work for a Microsoft Gold partner but they carry on the script.
 
It seems when scammers have tried this with me before they only seem to know my last name and telephone number which is information provided by sites like whitepages.co.uk.

So I'm not sure if they're just typing in a location and just calling everyone who's number is set to public and is unlisted but it's pretty sketchy.
 
We used to get those calls when I worked at a defence establishment. "Hey, Jock, can you trace this call?" Click. :) "Do you know where you've called?" :)

When they call me, I ask them, "Which computer?" That always confuses them.
 
The best thing to do is drag the call out as long as possible with the most mundane questions and act like you're totally computer illiterate. :)
 
For my in-laws, the attention of these 'tech guys' came form the TalkTalk breaches of old - as both are with TT, and both have suffered with these types of calls. Sadly, my sister in law got caught out the the degree they were able to change her Windows password, and had her down the post office; about to make a money transfer to them! She suffers from Asperger syndrome, so trusted everything they told her.
 
Talking to someone from the place I used to work, they were rather worried about GDPR so what have they done?

Opened a call centre in the Philippines so they can carry on making unsolicited sales calls. They are sneaky *****!
 
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