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Weird phone call! "online pc doctor" - Only thread on these scam calls please
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demanufactured wrote: »Sorry......
What?gadgetman496 wrote: »I think their phone must be infected
No No the face on my Mam gave it away who was on the house phone0 -
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If they were doing a defrag and you unplugged the PC you screw up the PC . All she need to do is disconnect the Ethernet cable or turn off wireless. There no point in over reacting by canceling all the cards.
True enough Mach, hadn't thought of that but given my sister in law doesn't know anything about her family's PC whatsoever I just got her to unplug it. Will know better next time if there is a next time.
Ben0 -
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Your analagy is way off Kirby. What you have described is an obvious/blatant knock off. What these guys are doing is much more subtle and sophisticated. Yes anyone with a basic understanding of computers and some street smarts should smell a rat and get rid of them straight away but they target people who have neither computer knowledge or street smarts. It's a pure numbers game for them. Make 100 calls, get through to 50 people, 25 of which have PC's 10 of which are still on the phone talking to you after 30 seconds 5 of which give you online access to their PC's becuase they mistakenly but genuinely think they are doing a good/right thing. If they scam an average of €50 for each machine they get online access to and cream off €250 for their days work (90% going to the boss) it's not a bad days work compared to earning $5 a day in a sweat shop is it?
Not in any way similar to being offered designer gear out of the back of a car on the side of the street.
Still pretty dumb to be caught out though!!
Ben0 -
I wasn't claiming the technique to scam a person was the same as pulling up in a car.
The anology was to prove that knowledge of the subject matter is not really important. People make excuses like "Ah sure, I know nothing about computers." I know nothing about clothes but you recognise the signs.
Most people would recognise being phoned up, unsolicited, by an indian, claiming he works for "windows", saying he knows your pc is having problems........ is bordering on ludicrous. They have called my house too, so I know the score on what they do. A young child being caught out I can understand but an Adult has no excuse.
Don't get me wrong. It's awful and I think the government both here and in the Uk should be doing more to get on top of this as its widespread.
But they can't protect us from everything and if people are going to be foolish with their credit card information or letting people they don't know talk them into visiting websites.....if it isn't this scam, it will be another. A fool and his money and all that jazz.
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Kirby,
Not fightin with ya but a couple of small but critically important details need to be highlighted/corrected:-
1. The caller was indeed 'foreign' sounding but not crazy "indian" style. My sis in law bought the PC from a well known manufacturer who have several international call centres which she dealt with in the past on service related issues. She'd probably have been more suspicious if the caller had had a thick Irish brogue!!!
2. They identified themselves as being from "Microsoft" which to you and me sounds ridiculous (have you ever tried calling MS for support????) but for her it didn't sound unreasonable. (Naive yes, but not totally unimaginable)
In your analagy it is the behaviour of the people making the proposition (to random passers by), the location (a public highstreet or road) and method of sale (boot of a car) which should make anyone smell a rat. Doesn't matter whether you know anything about designer clothes or not.
In the PC scam the caller phones the house direct which catches the recipient somewhat off guard as they are 'safe' in their home and off guard. The callers sound proeffional and credible (using IT lingo) and the premise of their call has some merit i.e. who hasn't had error or problems of some sort with their PC or who isn't somewhat paranoid about a virus having somehow gotten onto their machine?? (The fact that the caller who is pretending to fix the machine is about to put a virus or malware of soome sort onto the machine is somewhat ironic!!)
As I say, I'm not fightin with ya. I agree people should be a bit more street wise and if they're not they should acquire the skills to recognise that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck it's usually a duck!!
I just think 80% of people will spot the scam you describe for the reasons I outlined whereas the PC support scam is much more subtle and sophisticated and therefore harder to spot.
I'll leave it there
Ben0 -
Just got off the phone with a lovely Indian chap called Arnold Wilson (good traditional Indian name i thought):D
He rang the house phone (don't have a clue how he got our number) claiming that our computer had 'infections' not viruses as there was a big difference. He explained that infections wouldn't show up in our antivirus and that only they had the software that could remove said infections...how conventien for them:rolleyes:
The worse thing is my dad, who would struggle to work a calculator, spoke to him first...and agreed to give him his credit card details.:eek: But luckily he got cold feet and handed me the phone. I realised straight away what it was so i had to stall 'Mr.Wilson' for a good 45 minutes while Dad tried to get through to the bank to cancel his card.. He got the card cancelled eventually so it's worked out allright in the end. But i know others won't be so lucky.
So the FIRST reason i made this thread (My 1st ever!:D) is to warn you all of this.
He claimed he worked for these buckos
http://techaviators.co.uk/ a pretty respectable looking website actually
And he rang from this number 02088199827
He also gave me this number 02088199749 to contact him.
So if you get a call from this number claiming to work for this company then DON'T GIVE THEM ANY INFORMATION...AT ALL
The second reason is to ask you if this or something similar ever happened to you. I found out that some people lost lots of money from this very scam and found it hard to keep my temper with this polite man who was trying so desperately to steal our money.
And all while i should be studying for my LC English exam tomorrow
a less than welcome distaction. He says he's going to call back tomorrow so i plan on unleashing the fury then 0 -
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