1

Don’t quite know where to drop this one, as it could be of interest in Microsoft, Licensing, Scam/Security, or just plain laughable.

Anybody else getting ‘George’ or similar (with a few silent h’s & q’s) on what sounds like a terrible laggy VOIP line asking to review your Microsoft licensing? One made it through the phone firewall today, and he goes in asking to speak to a ten-years-gone employee that never dealt with IT. Seeing as all our current licensing is through Dell and I expect their rep on the horn when things come up, I made it a rather short conversation. Anybody else getting similar?

26 Spice ups
2

No.

Fine with me.

3

sounds about what had 3 years ago.

i never spoke with him directly, my manager did, however once we had our ducks in a row we never heard back from him.

4

Never heard of this one or seen it, but thanks for the heads up!

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Not yet

6

Had a similar call a month or so ago (can’t remember the guy’s name but it was accented). The guy was wanting to confirm our contact information so a Microsoft licensing rep could call us. My first indication something wan’t right is the guy said the wrong business name. When I said that wasn’t us, he then wanted to know what our business name was. I replied by asking him where he was calling from and he said Microsoft. I asked if there was a number I could call him back at and he said no.I then asked how I could confirm that he was indeed from Microsoft. He said something along the lines that I just had to trust that he was so I hung up.

No clue whether our calls are related or not but they sound very similar.

7

I seriously LOLed as soon as I saw the title of this thread because I knew exactly what I’ll see once I open it.

A friend of mine received a call from “George” (another name was used but the person on the other line was clearly NOT anyone from the West judging by their accent as well as they happened to call around midnight if not later). Anyway, she received this call AT HOME asking her about her Microsoft licensing. She knew right away it was fishy and hung up. They never called again.

For reference, this was about 6 months ago.

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8

If I had a nickel…

Don’t get me started on those “Microsoft” guys. We all know their robots and not actual human beings that would call us.

“Symantec” calls me ALL the time for a survey of our IT infrastructure…

This PC Mall place always calls with this guy on the phone I can’t even understand what he’s saying. Sorry, not going to buy a product from you. When I want to, I will call.

I don’t personally deal with CDW but they call me frequently also, bypassing the receptionist. “Just wondering if I can help you with anything” “…Oh yeah I was just in the middle of NO!!!”

I always try to tell our receptionist that if they ask for my real name instead of my nickname…then it’s 99.9% likely that it’s a marketer of some sort.

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starg33ker wrote:

I always try to tell our receptionist that if they ask for my real name instead of my nickname…then it’s 99.9% likely that it’s a marketer of some sort.

unfortunately it’s easier for the receptionist to dump the calls on us instead of dealing with the person on the other end.

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starg33ker wrote:

“Just wondering if I can help you with anything” “…Oh yeah I was just in the middle of NO!!!”

Today’s quote.

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11

Suddenly I feel left out because no one ever calls me.

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I never seem to get these calls, which is a shame, since I like to play a little game called get the salesman to hang up on you!! It normally involves randomly putting them on hold, having them repeat parts of the pitch / script multiple times, passing the call around to other employees as the ‘subject matter experts’, asking for free stuff, asking where I can send the invoice for my billable time for the phone call, telling them it is being recorded, sometimes even playing back parts of the conversation to them. The list goes on, it normally makes me smile. For anyone that sticks it out they get offered the opportunity to come & demo the product, at my office in some random location in Africa / Australia / India or similar.

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13

We get calls from anyone and everyone. The girls up front have to get downright mean sometimes. If they make it through to me, the person on the other end will usually say something like, “Wow, I didn’t think I was going to get through.” If it isn’t someone asking for the model number of our copiers/printers, it’s someone from “Microsoft” or some other well known company. They are pretty tricky and will usually say something like, “I just got cut off with your IT person” or “I’m returning a call.”

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Skillet wrote:

Suddenly I feel left out because no one ever calls me.

Me too :frowning:

lol

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Cold calls… don’t you just want too send them a cuddly zombie in a parcel?

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16

Here in the UK we get a lot of calls, mostly at home, from ‘Microsoft’ telling us that we have a virus and that they want to remotely connect to your computer to fix it.

If you let them connect they bring up a fake webpage showing you that you have lots of viruses. Then they ask for £5 and your credit card details so that they can fix it. If you give them that then your bank account gets empty very quickly.

Oh and they also leave key loggers and things on your computer afterwards.

Apparently, the ‘unauthorised access to computer systems’ laws don’t apply here because technically you allowed them access in the first place.

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We had one a while ago as well but the reception staff are well trained, if i dont tell them im expecting a call, I’m not in the building at the current time.

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Edward_Elric wrote:

We had one a while ago as well but the reception staff are well trained, if i dont tell them im expecting a call, I’m not in the building at the current time.

haha we don’t normally hear anything from them because our lovely receptionist loves too talk and she keeps them chatting for hours without actually doing anything, last time i was down there she was on the phone with a cold call company talking about the sales guys farther, she hung up after saying good bye and then turn too me saying “ahh he was nice” with a smile on her face lol

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Bollo wrote:

Edward_Elric wrote:

We had one a while ago as well but the reception staff are well trained, if i dont tell them im expecting a call, I’m not in the building at the current time.

haha we don’t normally hear anything from them because our lovely receptionist loves too talk and she keeps them chatting for hours without actually doing anything, last time i was down there she was on the phone with a cold call company talking about the sales guys farther, she hung up after saying good bye and then turn too me saying “ahh he was nice” with a smile on her face lol

i wish that happened here

sales calls aplenty here :frowning:

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Have not gotten one of these in awhile now but they do happen. I think next time I am going to ask them to load up LogMeIn and let ME look at their computer. Either that or spin up a VM of DOS 6.22 with DOSSHELL up and running. Ask them what’s wrong with my PC. :slight_smile: