Phone Scammers

[Bromptonboy]

Just had a funny one - got a call that came up as 'NOT_AVAILABLE  Unknown Number' on our caller ID.  My wife answered, after her saying 'Hello' a few times (we pick these calls up since we get international calls from her family that display the same way) - she hands the phone to me.  The gent on the line - speaking English with a heavy south Asian accent - tells me he is 'From the Windows Operating System  Company' - and that they had been notified that I have a virus.  'Oh, the Windows Operating System company!' said I.

He said that Windows notified them that I have a virus.  Wanting to have a bit of fun - I asked him which host name, and what is the IP address and MAC address of the system that notified him.  I toyed with him for a few more minutes, then got bored and hung up.

I googled it, and saw that it is a well known scam:

http://money-watch.co.uk/7118/beware-of-the-windows-phone-scam

[Rico]

That's awesome!  Typically I don't answer unknown calls, but once in awhile I do and just set the phone down and make Kaylee bark really loud into the receiver.  Hehe!

[ricdude]

Sometimes, my caller id actually reads "phone scam" for incoming calls. If I don't recognize the number, I trust the phone, and ignore the call...

[billybob476]

Fran's older cousin (he's in his 70's) actually got taken in by one of those "Microsoft" calls. They got him for a bit of money which his credit card company blocked. I cleaned up his machine, didn't look like they installed much in the way of malware, it was more of a social engineering thing to get his credit card info.

I guess the unfortunate thing is while we can spot this stuff a mile away, not everyone can.

[jedijeff]

My Parents almost got caught on that one as well, a few months back I got a call as well. Told me my PC was sending error messages and they wanted to sell me some support. Asked them how they could get my phone number from a computer, and if he could tell me which computer was telling him this info. The guy kept persisting and I led him on for about 10 minutes with moronic questions and then told him he was a crook and hung up.

[Feathers]

I had one of these a few months ago too. I remebered Jeff talking about the call his parents had had so wasn't taken in for a moment (of course).

I have to say, they didn't try very hard. I got the initial spiel and replied (a little too cheerily I think) at which point he rang off and went away. I was quite disappointed really, I wanted to see how long a dance I could take them on.