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Experiences with phone scammers and phishers

My mother unfortunately refuses to get an "unlisted" phone number and has been rung several times by people with Indian(?) accents claiming to be Microsoft staff wanting to "repair her PC" over the phone. I'm assuming these scumbags trawl the online White Pages looking for random numbers to call, and then get the victim to download malware and/or disclose their credit card numbers, etc.

Fortunately my mother hasn't fallen for it and just hangs up on them. I intercepted one such call and the caller got rude when I accused her of being a scammer.

Suggestion: tell the scammer you have a Macintosh, not a PC. I would be interested to hear their response to that one. :)
 
About the only time I have ever dealt with scammers was a couple of years ago when they called 4-5 times in the space of 2 weeks (Targeting our general area for a while)

We had a guy with an obviously foreign accent from "Globus Computer Security" or some such silly name and he was calling to inform us that they had monitored some hackers or virus or something bad that had dastardly infected my computer
I checked my computer and everything was fine
But apparently I neede to visit a website that would "help"
I said no and that I was sure my antivirus would be able to clear it
He insisted I go to the website
I refused again
this was repeated several times with him becomming more and more "worried" about my computer
After a few tries he got his manager to talk me around
I think it was around that time that I just hung up
5 mins later I was reading the newspaper and lo and behold there was an article warning about scammers

Another time my mum picked up
about 5 seconds into his opening spiel she just yelled "look, you know this is a scam, I know this is a scam so just F@#$ off" before hanging up

A friend of mine was called by them and despite being good with computers he decided to mess with them
He was pretending to be the most stupid person around

He did stuff like
Scammer: What kind of computer have you got?
Friend:ummmmmmm, a blue one
S: No... what brand?
F: Uh, the guy at the shop said it was a "Desktop"

S: Can you go to [Website]?
F: I need to take it out of the box first......which one is the on button?

I think the scammer eventually just hung up on him
 
fta said:
My mother unfortunately refuses to get an "unlisted" phone number and has been rung several times by people with Indian(?) accents claiming to be Microsoft staff wanting to "repair her PC" over the phone. I'm assuming these scumbags trawl the online White Pages looking for random numbers to call, and then get the victim to download malware and/or disclose their credit card numbers, etc.

Fortunately my mother hasn't fallen for it and just hangs up on them. I intercepted one such call and the caller got rude when I accused her of being a scammer.

Suggestion: tell the scammer you have a Macintosh, not a PC. I would be interested to hear their response to that one. :)
Click to expand...

We get these all the time. We play like we are stupid and expect them to send us a new computer and I tell them over and over that the new computer they send has to have Windows 7 because I don't want to learn Windows 8. Had one on the phone for almost 10 minutes as he kept trying to explain he can't send me a free new computer.

But as a general rule, if we don't know who is calling from Caller ID, we leave it to the answering machine.
 
Another good tactic is to say, hold on while I get the owner and just let them hang on for 5-10 minutes. That's providing you pick up that it's a scam.
 
My mom had one of these calls a few months ago. And she thought it was genuine. She received an email from "Microsoft" explaining that her files were too big and there were other corrupt data files. They offered to clean it up for $300. There was a freephone number and she called it. They then offered to do the job for $100 and have her sign up for an annual fee of $50. She went back and forth with them for a while over a few days as she kept getting emails. When she eventually told me about it, I hit the roof. I explained to her it was a scam don't tell them anything. But she was very nearly taken in by it and I had a hard job convincing her it was a scam.

The call I received was where the "tech support" guy says there has been a problem with your PC go to this website etc. Well I had time to kill and played along. He gives the URL "www.fleecemymoney.com" or whatever and I say "www what ?" He repeats, "go to www.fleecemymoney.com" and I say what comes after the w ?" and so it goes on. I say "the site comes up "server not found" and the has me check my internet connection etc. I ran out of time before he did ! It really sounded to me this guy was going to stay on the phone no matter how stupid I sounded.
 
Yesterday caller ID said that Lunt Boat Co. was calling from the 213 area code.

I picked up and said. "Hello Boat" over and over. But no one was on the other end.

I have never made any inquiry into Lunt Boat. However I do intend to toy with spammers and scammers more than in the past.
 
My mom frequently gets the OP's type of calls; fortunately, the people who call speak english rather poorly, and my mom's english isn't any better. The first time it happened she told them she didn't understand and hung up. After that, she learned they were scammers and now threatens to call the police in broken english any time they call. Not that the cops can do anything, but it gets them to hang up pretty quickly.

Generally these people just mass-dial numbers, even internationally, and hope that someone is ignorant enough to fall for their tricks.

It helps to remember that there is literally no reason whatsoever that an ISP or hardware manufacturer or other legit company will ever call you up to ask you for things like your passwords or to get you to install something. It isn't just uncommon, it just simply doesn't happen. It is also not the case that legitimate tech support outfit will come out and ask to gain remote access to your computer; and any request for such is a huge red flag. Remote access for tech support is really only a thing for tech support among friends and families (in the event your family consists of complete idiots who can't follow instructions), or in the case of tightly controlled business contracts where its simply more efficient to do system maintenance remotely: it's not something that should ever happen in a regular private citizen/tech support situation and it's *never* something that should be initiated by anyone other than yourself (even though I'm sure there's plenty of legit tech support people who would love to just circumvent stupidity by getting their customers to do it this way)

Personally, I've never encountered phone scammers.

I did once get a virus that locked up my computer and prominently displayed the Dutch Police force logo, informing me in broken Dutch that child pornography had been found on my computer (the virus returned after I thought I had cleaned it away, but now it was telling me I was a suspected terrorist instead of a pedophile) and that I was facing 20 years in prison unless I paid a 100 euro fine within 48 hours using some obscure alternative anonymized payment option. Naturally I didn't fall for that obvious scam (though some people did), but it was a bitch to remove from my computer.
 
Coincidence or what! I just hung up on an obvious phone scam! I should have let him speak, to explain what it was all about. I just lack patience, and hung up on the Indian sounding accent.
 
angelo said:
Another good tactic is to say, hold on while I get the owner and just let them hang on for 5-10 minutes. That's providing you pick up that it's a scam.
Click to expand...

On youtube there is an hour of Cisco generic hold music.

I got a cold call (the fifth in two days) about electricity one day and told the person to hold whilst I got the person responsible. I got the youtube cisco music up on my mobile and set it playing into the mouthpiece of my landline.

After twenty minutes I went back to phone and to my astonishment the caller was still there! So I told them the person in charge of accounts couldn't come to the phone right now and hung up.

They called right back to complain I'd been rude so I told them that "yes, and this is rude too" and hung up again.
 
I get the windows computer one about once a week. I'm a network engineer so I typically start asking them how they got through my firewall and why the couldn't tell that it's a Linux computer, what ports are open, etc. Another one I get is asking me about lowering the interest rate on my student loans. Now, I graduated from college in 1978, so I don't find this a problem personally. I operate on this paradigm: There are two kinds of paranoia, rampant and insufficient.
 
dystopian said:
I did once get a virus that locked up my computer and prominently displayed the Dutch Police force logo, informing me in broken Dutch that child pornography had been found on my computer (the virus returned after I thought I had cleaned it away, but now it was telling me I was a suspected terrorist instead of a pedophile) and that I was facing 20 years in prison unless I paid a 100 euro fine within 48 hours using some obscure alternative anonymized payment option. Naturally I didn't fall for that obvious scam (though some people did), but it was a bitch to remove from my computer.
Click to expand...

Somebody in my office had similar. Instructions were to buy a transfer money card or something, I forget exactly. They were actually going to do it ! Rather than get me involved (I'm the tech guy) they were going to go pay up ! Unbelievable. And this guy is the VP of finance at my place. It was easy to remove by using a Windows 7 restore point but he other removal tools couldn't do it.
 
With a bit of knowledge you could have some real fun with this, if you have an old computer on an isolated network you wouldn't mind using that has no sensitive info on it. :devil-smiley-029:
 
Another way to play with the fake Windows tech support.

They speak.
You answer, "Buddy's Glass."

They talk about your Windows computer. You say, "We fix windows here. Automotive, residential, commercial, all kind of windows. We have safety glass, smoked glass, thermopane, mirrored glass, bullet proof glass, tinted glass, fire resistant glass. We can repair or replace any type of window. We have metal, wood, and vinyl frames. Free estimates gladly given.

Can I have your address so we can send somebody out to give an estimate. They'll be driving a green and white Buddy's Glass van so your neighbors will know they're aren't casing your place."

They talk about computer Windows.

You say, "No this is Buddy's Glass. We fix computer windows, interior windows, any kind of windows. Is this automotive, residential or commercial?"

They hang up.

Eldarion Lathria
 
Hickdive said:
angelo said:
Another good tactic is to say, hold on while I get the owner and just let them hang on for 5-10 minutes. That's providing you pick up that it's a scam.
Click to expand...

On youtube there is an hour of Cisco generic hold music.
Click to expand...

If I'm at the computer, I give 'em this :

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UYTLIdjSyc[/YOUTUBE]
 
My step Dad got a call from a scammer. There was background noise and said "this is your grandson". Of course, my step dad answered "Danny?" I can hardly hear you. The caller went on to say that he had been arrested for DUI but didn't want to call "Mom" and that his lawyer was going to get on the phone so my step dad could bail him out. Luckily my step Dad just handed the phone over to my brother who said "we don't have the money to bail you out....call your mom"! LOL! As it was though, they both fell for it and immediately called me to say my son was in jail. I'm like.....WHAT? I just spoke with him five minutes ago and he's on his way to work!
 
Playball40 said:
My step Dad got a call from a scammer. There was background noise and said "this is your grandson". Of course, my step dad answered "Danny?" I can hardly hear you. The caller went on to say that he had been arrested for DUI but didn't want to call "Mom" and that his lawyer was going to get on the phone so my step dad could bail him out. Luckily my step Dad just handed the phone over to my brother who said "we don't have the money to bail you out....call your mom"! LOL! As it was though, they both fell for it and immediately called me to say my son was in jail. I'm like.....WHAT? I just spoke with him five minutes ago and he's on his way to work!
Click to expand...

We've never gotten such guys on the phone but the last time we got one of those in e-mail (hacked account) my wife was in the same room with the guy when I read the e-mail about him being stranded in the Philippines.
 
The latest for me was from what some scammer tried to pass himself off as the ATO [Australian Tax Office] claiming I was owed $743.00. Money that I overpaid. I said, " That's great, but could you please donate it to the ex brothel madams fund?"

Silence on the line before I hung up!
 
Loren Pechtel said:
Playball40 said:
My step Dad got a call from a scammer. There was background noise and said "this is your grandson". Of course, my step dad answered "Danny?" I can hardly hear you. The caller went on to say that he had been arrested for DUI but didn't want to call "Mom" and that his lawyer was going to get on the phone so my step dad could bail him out. Luckily my step Dad just handed the phone over to my brother who said "we don't have the money to bail you out....call your mom"! LOL! As it was though, they both fell for it and immediately called me to say my son was in jail. I'm like.....WHAT? I just spoke with him five minutes ago and he's on his way to work!
Click to expand...

We've never gotten such guys on the phone but the last time we got one of those in e-mail (hacked account) my wife was in the same room with the guy when I read the e-mail about him being stranded in the Philippines.
Click to expand...

That reminds me, a guy in my office received similar email. He received an email from his cousin (or some relative) about getting all his stuff stolen, needed a few hundred bucks to get back from wherever it was. As it happens, the cousin was on his honeymoon and out of the country so it seemed plausible to the bloke in my office. He comes to me because I am the IT guy in the office and tells me about it. Not that he's asking about the validity but he's actually going to send money ! And yes, this is the same guy that was going to send money in the earlier incident.
 
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