Brian63
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2001
- Messages
- 1,639
- Location
- Michigan
- Gender
- Male
- Basic Beliefs
- Freethinker/atheist/humanist
In another thread this came up, that I very recently fell victim to scammers who called me over the phone and alerted me to problems with my computer, in that some hackers had previously gotten into it. So these phone reps needed to get control over my computer and fix the problems. Long story short, the whole thing was phishing for my financial information.
Prior to the whole event, I knew there were scammers that called up various other people in the community and tried to get their private info in various ways. I had never in my life (to my memory, at least) received such a call myself though, and I had never been part of a conversation firsthand where people were describing similar experiences and attempts at being scammed. I had been under the (mis)understanding that these sorts of things happen just once-in-a-while to the occasional person, and when it did so the whole act would be obvious as a fraud, so it really was not something that registered even in my universe of things I was worrying about. Lesson learned, the hard way.
These people are very professional, very kind, very helpful, very courteous in what they do, and it is all an act. They can have a very official-looking and professional website, they follow standard protocols in how reps and supervisors interact with the customers (similar to how actually-legitimate phone companies do). It just amazes me the extent that they went on to put on this completely fake performance, and how nice and helpful they were, but it was all a lie.
If someone calls you with a similar story and you are not sure if it is real or fraud, the best action to take is to hang up with them, and call your computer company themselves, rather than have them call you. Maybe these phone reps that called you will be bothered and annoyed, but that may just be an act as well. Protect yourself and call them instead, and find the phone number through your searching, rather than asking them (since that would defeat the purpose of calling them as verification anyway...they may just give you again their own phone number.).
What has been most surprising to me though is to learn how *EXTREMELY COMMON* these sorts of scams are. As mentioned above, this was my first time ever being contacted like this. Since then, however, I have been reading from other people how it is basically a routine, normal, common, part of their regular life that they get calls like this. I am still confused why other people get them so frequently, and this is my first experience. How often do you get such scam attempts directed at you, and what are your overall experiences with them? Has it worked on you in the past, but you have learned since then to be on the lookout for it? Have you had heated exchanges with the scammers, do you have fun with them instead? Some of both? Other? Any experiences with email scams, or scams of any other nature?
Brian
Prior to the whole event, I knew there were scammers that called up various other people in the community and tried to get their private info in various ways. I had never in my life (to my memory, at least) received such a call myself though, and I had never been part of a conversation firsthand where people were describing similar experiences and attempts at being scammed. I had been under the (mis)understanding that these sorts of things happen just once-in-a-while to the occasional person, and when it did so the whole act would be obvious as a fraud, so it really was not something that registered even in my universe of things I was worrying about. Lesson learned, the hard way.
These people are very professional, very kind, very helpful, very courteous in what they do, and it is all an act. They can have a very official-looking and professional website, they follow standard protocols in how reps and supervisors interact with the customers (similar to how actually-legitimate phone companies do). It just amazes me the extent that they went on to put on this completely fake performance, and how nice and helpful they were, but it was all a lie.
If someone calls you with a similar story and you are not sure if it is real or fraud, the best action to take is to hang up with them, and call your computer company themselves, rather than have them call you. Maybe these phone reps that called you will be bothered and annoyed, but that may just be an act as well. Protect yourself and call them instead, and find the phone number through your searching, rather than asking them (since that would defeat the purpose of calling them as verification anyway...they may just give you again their own phone number.).
What has been most surprising to me though is to learn how *EXTREMELY COMMON* these sorts of scams are. As mentioned above, this was my first time ever being contacted like this. Since then, however, I have been reading from other people how it is basically a routine, normal, common, part of their regular life that they get calls like this. I am still confused why other people get them so frequently, and this is my first experience. How often do you get such scam attempts directed at you, and what are your overall experiences with them? Has it worked on you in the past, but you have learned since then to be on the lookout for it? Have you had heated exchanges with the scammers, do you have fun with them instead? Some of both? Other? Any experiences with email scams, or scams of any other nature?
Brian
