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

B00MSTICK

I've Fedora 15 up on it now

ED E

Didnt realise this was still going on strong. When I asked the aul man he said we've been getting them every couple of weeks. If anyone calls they'll be put onto either me or him and both of us are well aware of who they are.

I wanna do some ****ing about with them though. Its a pity there's no way to easily record the call(antiquated system) but I'll see what I can sort.

Actually, lets see whats on yt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn5sBDwmZ5s

Anyways, windows box or Ubuntu?

Does logmein support audio? Loud Nyan Cat on loop.

I'll mock up a nice abusive wallpaper, or maybe not if there's something better I can do.

Is there something better? Replace all the desktop icons' targets with /shutdown.exe -r -t 1 or similar. Limit bandwith to 5kbps each way? System language set to japanese?

fti

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Limit bandwith to 5kbps each way?

Slower connection means longer waiting times. Time is money and wasting their time means wasting the money they invest in trying to con you (you are also wasting an opportunity to catch an easier fish while they're stuck with you).
You could also complain about your PC being so slow, I'm sure they've got something to *help* you with.

ED E

fti wrote: »

Slower connection means longer waiting times. Time is money and wasting their time means wasting the money they invest in trying to con you (you are also wasting an opportunity to catch an easier fish while they're stuck with you).
You could also complain about your PC being so slow, I'm sure they've got something to *help* you with.

That is the idea.

B00MSTICK

"Howard" called back but I was out unfortunately...

I'm pretty sure ammyy and teamviewer don't work with Linux, I'm not sure about LogMeIn though.

I have the system as Gaeilge anois too.

Lockster

Has anyone actually got these cowboys to stop calling them? They ring our house 2 or 3 times every week. Both me and and the wife have tried every tactic, lead them along, been rude to them, been nice to them and asked them to stop calling but it just continues. Any tips?

fionny

Lockster wrote: »

Has anyone actually got these cowboys to stop calling them? They ring our house 2 or 3 times every week. Both me and and the wife have tried every tactic, lead them along, been rude to them, been nice to them and asked them to stop calling but it just continues. Any tips?

Try telling them at the start of the conversation that you are recording and will be passing the details along to the cops.

EDIT: As for the idea of backgrounds... most remote desktop software removes the background image which the connection is active to prevent an unneccessary slow down.

Gadgetman496

Lockster wrote: »

Has anyone actually got these cowboys to stop calling them? They ring our house 2 or 3 times every week. Both me and and the wife have tried every tactic, lead them along, been rude to them, been nice to them and asked them to stop calling but it just continues. Any tips?

They only ever called me once and I acted all surprised as to them thinking that I had a computer. I just told them I don't even have a computer in this house. They never called back since and that's over a year ago now.

fionny

I wonder could you ask them to ring you back on your "other line" and give them the telephone of the local garda station.

fti

Lockster wrote: »

Has anyone actually got these cowboys to stop calling them? They ring our house 2 or 3 times every week. Both me and and the wife have tried every tactic, lead them along, been rude to them, been nice to them and asked them to stop calling but it just continues. Any tips?

As they most usually use Skype numbers, filtering on the phone number could be useful. Pay attention to the phone number calling you. Skype numbers usually looks weird. I have been called twice (once an Indian souding staff, the other one was sounding much more African than anything else). Each time it was a 7 digit number beginning with 100xxxx. If you think the number suspicious, don't answer, let your voicemail doing it. If it's someone legit, you can pick up the phone before he/she has finished leaving a message. Maybe if no one answers for some time, they will believe no one lives here.

If you answer their call, just pretend you don't have any computer at home.

It may take some time to be left alone as I don't think there is one team playing the game, rather several small teams, each trying to make as much money they can.

Sorry.:(

TAPlank

Yeah, I got 2 or 3 of these phone calls several months ago, over maybe a 6 week period. Fortunatley I was wise to the scam and instead of entering into a discussion about computer viruses I switched the topic to complain about the dreadfully wet weather we were having and how bad it looked for the holidays, than asked how the weather was where they were and what plans the caller had for his vacation, I kept up this line of patter despite their efforts to talk about viruses until they finally hung up. I was deliberately prolonging their call time to maximise their costs, a kind of reverse scam! The biter getting bit! Oh how I enjoyed it, so maybe I did benefit from the call. No calls since then, I am probably now listed somewhere as being someone to avoid calling. If so, GREAT!!!!

I had developed the idea a few years ago when I was being plagued by calls from telephone companies trying to get me to switch providers. They too used to hang up in mid speak!

One of these telephone company callers offered savings of 467% as in that days newspaper advertisement, yes that is what they said! As the most one could save was 100% and not believing they were offering money to make phone calls, I asked how much a 5 minute call to England would cost and they firstly quoted the standard day cost with Eircom and then their charge, of course it was only a few % cheaper.

charlemont

Start singing down the phone in a sub-continent accent like something from a Bollywood film.

mach1982

Lockster wrote: »

Has anyone actually got these cowboys to stop calling them? They ring our house 2 or 3 times every week. Both me and and the wife have tried every tactic, lead them along, been rude to them, been nice to them and asked them to stop calling but it just continues. Any tips?

They only called me once , told them I have it set to track the IP to the phoner number ( all bull) and repot to gaurads , also i staed speaking irish like the Calsberg ad .

ED E

fionny wrote: »

EDIT: As for the idea of backgrounds... most remote desktop software removes the background image which the connection is active to prevent an unneccessary slow down.

Oh right, I'm an NX user so that never occurred to me.

dublinbusdude

We have got three calls in the past week here and our number is ex telephone book now with eircom... why are they still calling us!!!

fti

dublinbusdude wrote: »

We have got three calls in the past week here and our number is ex telephone book now with eircom... why are they still calling us!!!

Most probably because they don't use the Eircom directory directly, rather lists. These lists could have been extracted from the Eircom directory a few months ago (it took me almost one year to receive my first call). Another option is that lists were lists provided to legit call centres for a cold call campaign (for example Airtricity trying to convince home owners to switch from ESB) and then leaked and sold to non legit call centres.
As I don't think there's one "bad" call centre trying to pry money from unsuspecting people but rather tens of them, it could take some time before all of them have called your number and decided you're not a catch.

As said some posts ago, take a look at the caller ID shown on your phone, if it's a weird looking number (aka a Skype one, usually some 7 digits leaded by a 1) just don't pick up the phone and let your answering machine do the job. It will save you time.
Or if you are in a good mood, answer the phone and play with them. The longer you stay with them the fewer calls they will be able to make to more vulnerable people. :cool:

35x

Got call from guy with Indian sounding accent...usual stuff about all the dangerous material on my PC etc and warranty expiry. Asked where he got my number and he said they had it from when I registered my Windows XP ( I never gave my number as it was purchased in US!!).
Strung him along and was seriously thinking about telling him to perform biological impossibilities but enjoyed wasting his time talking rubbish instead including the weather in San Franscisco where he said he was based.
He said he worked for Windowscare and I asked for their web and email details ......
( windowscare.net and enquiry @ windowscare.net ) I did not check either and I was wondering if anybody else has encountered this gang?
I presume I will be hearing from them again....I'm practicing my L.Cert Irish ( I knew Peig and a bit of Sean Nos would bound to come in handy sometime!!!!!! )

Janey Mack

35x wrote: »

He said he worked for Windowscare )

I think they left out an 'S' as in Windows-scare.

..I'm practicing my L.Cert Irish ( I knew Peig and a bit of Sean Nos would bound to come in handy sometime!!!!!!

I don't think the punishment matches the crime. Peig should be reserved for mass murderers.

I haven't had the pleasure of speaking to any of these call centres yet. They've called a few times but when the kids pick up the callers usually hang up fairly fast.

LighterGuy

Question is how are they getting peoples numbers?
Like obviously these are cold calls. Many people have windows OS. So theres a pretty much a high percentage rate the person they call has windows then sell the con.

But I've heard people who are getting called dont have their number listed in the phonebook. Although I say thats the majority of their business. But I suspect any site that you give your number out, they can get it. Such as gumtree. Many sellers give mobile or home numbers out on the ad.

That and I reckon information is being sold onto them them. You know the whole "do you want your information to be shared with 3rd parties?" that was on so many forms? oddly enough that doesnt appear anymore? hmmmm.

TAPlank

My wife has answered one of these calls recently and being wise to the scam she said "hold on until I get my husband" and left him holding on. Don't know how long he waited.
Their call cost will not be much if they are made through Skype. Wonder how one can tell.

manna452121

Got a call yesterday from a Lady telling me I had a virus on my computer,I told her I did not have a computer and left her holding.

teddy b123

My father got a call from them today! And he bloody fell for it! I was fuming. Let them in via logmein. However they did leave a number to call back on and I've been having good fun with it, rang em about 5 times. they've told me I will be receiving a letter from their legal team. I would really laugh if I get done for harassment!

My name is URL

teddy b123 wrote: »

My father got a call from them today! And he bloody fell for it! I was fuming. Let them in via logmein. However they did leave a number to call back on and I've been having good fun with it, rang em about 5 times. they've told me I will be receiving a letter from their legal team. I would really laugh if I get done for harassment!

What's the number?

teddy b123

My name is URL wrote: »

teddy b123 wrote: »

My father got a call from them today! And he bloody fell for it! I was fuming. Let them in via logmein. However they did leave a number to call back on and I've been having good fun with it, rang em about 5 times. they've told me I will be receiving a letter from their legal team. I would really laugh if I get done for harassment!

What's the number?

It's 0012097534754

Think it should still work

Will ye be nice to them?

Edit: two 0's at the start

danjo-xx

its amazing that these guys can continue to do this with impunity:(

daftdave

teddy b123 wrote: »

It's 0012097534754

Think it should still work

Will ye be nice to them?

Edit: two 0's at the start

lmao , i just had a very funny call with these assholes , im gonna call them every time i need to be cheered up !!

thank you for the number !!

dublinbusdude

This their new number now I think: 001123456789 (+1 is the States)

Joe Public

I know the answer might be somewhere in the last 66 pages of this thread but I'm not going to check them all.

My question is - if you follow their instructions all the way I presume they end up getting a virus or whatever onto your computer. How then do they make money out of this? Do they quote you for a fix?

Joe Public

Joe Public wrote: »

I know the answer might be somewhere in the last 66 pages of this thread but I'm not going to check them all.

My question is - if you follow their instructions all the way I presume they end up getting a virus or whatever onto your computer. How then do they make money out of this? Do they quote you for a fix?

No, they make you believe you have viruses and need them to fix it, and they get credit card details off you to pay for the fix.

Edthehead

Had my second call from this shower today. I got the first call about two weeks ago, an Indian guy telling me he was ringing me from Microsoft and that they had been receiving virus infected email,s from my computer. He asked me to turn on my computer and he would give me instructions on how to fix the problem, I decided to play along just to see what he wanted, he then asked me to type something into the run box, at this point I said to him "how do I know this is genuine, how do I know this is not some kind of scam?" he replied he would pass me over to his supervisor, another guy came on with an American accent, he asked what was my problem, I told him he must be crazy if he thinks I'm going to do make any changes to my computer, his reply was, I was the crazy one, and handed me back to the Indian guy, he then asked me to type something into the Run box, I told him I had no intention of typing anything into my computer, he replied " would you like to suck my D**k" I was a little startled by this so I said "What" he repeated the sentence and hung up... I should have asked him to email it to me:D
The call today was from an Indian woman, stopped her in her tracks and hung up. They both had my full name.