1

My wife has been getting these multiple times per week, different number every time. She gets one, and says loudly, this is a scam don’t call me again and hangs up.

30 seconds later the same guy calls back. Different area code. I answered it and I was far less polite about it. He didn’t call back again.

I expect to hear from him again in a few days however. Having him call back right away was new however.

20 Spice ups
2

Next time just say you are the Department of Justice - Cyber Crimes Division. You are special agent Hughe Jazz.

11 Spice ups
3

I’ve pondered that but now you’re impersonating a federal officer which can carry penalties. I pondered something like detective so and so with the cyber fraud unit…

4

I really should set up like a windows 98 vm and see if they can even get their remote software to run on that.

2 Spice ups
5

Other thoughts were having a Windows XP vm. Let them do their thing and halfway though, revert to a snapshot. When they complain they are disconnected, I should say ok lets do it again, only to have them find everything they did is gone. I wonder how many times I could pull that off.

6 Spice ups
6

Better still, have an XP, 7, and 8 VM and switch between them on every reconnect and see if they notice.

6 Spice ups
7

Do it. Who cares. Watch them hang up. I impersonate people all the time. At work I pretend to be someone who knows what they are doing. When I am filing legal paperwork I like to think of myself as a big city lawyer by wearing slacks and suspenders and wearing a Fedora.

6 Spice ups
8

I’ve never had to deal with one of these scammers myself; but at one time, I was getting a load that were trying a slightly different scam.

They all used the sale script; ask for your name, then use it in almost every sentence. Trying to make them seem like friends. They say that they have something that has been “awarded” - a USB device, rc helicopter that sort of thing.they then ask what printers are in use and which toner / cartridge is the most common. They’ll then quote a price that’s a bit cheaper than standard and say they can supply XXX number of boxes. Hidden in the spiel is the info that a box is 10 of those. They don’t highlight this and never give you the final price. But they try to get you to buy about a year’s supply of ink.

Those (like me) who are old enough will recognise this as a scam that used to involve carbon copy paper; the scammers would target an office junior and get them to order about 10 years supply.

9

That would screw with their heads.

1 Spice up
10

How about the old, take a screen shot of the icons, make it the background and then hide the actual icons?

4 Spice ups
11

When I was feeling vindictive, I used to do this on apple devices! :smiley:

12

I’m just going to leave this here, giggling at just how badly this mindf***s the scammers…

2 Spice ups
13

I connected one of these calls to a Linux box, he spend 3 or 4 mins looking for the start menu, then said “no I was calling about your Windows computer”. I just laughed and said that is my Windows computer, eventually he got pissed and hung up.

2 Spice ups
14

Sadly I don’t get these calls. I don’t have a landline anymore, and my cellphone isn’t registered on me (Company phone has its perks).
But IF I did get one of these calls…oooooo I’d have some fun. Hook them up to an OS/2 Warp 4-VM and then start wailing on them when they don’t know what they’re doing (Who actually does, on OS/2 anymore?), in Norwegian which is my native language.

Repeat-rinse, and see how many times it takes for them to grow tired.

Either that, or play a recording of a J79 on full tilt into the phone, and see how fast they hang up :smiley:

15

I don’t have a land line either. They call my wifes cell constantly.

I did the Linux thing once. I said, I only have a Linux computer and he said “Linux? What do I do with Linux?” I don’t know, you called me.

1 Spice up
16

Answer in German, they usually don’t call back :smiley:

1 Spice up
17

Never tried it, but the best way I think I would handle these types of calls would be to play this down the phone.

download.jpg

1 Spice up
18

Keep him on the phone as long as posible. Act like you don’t understand technical terms and have him explain everything multible times. In other words “become the user”. This will keep him from having time to scam someone else.

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19

I may try that. I do speak a little German so it would probably be enough to discombobulate them.

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20

Iv’e done the Linux VM with them as well. It was absolutely the funniest thing ever!!!

Me: here you go.

Scammer: ahh you have problem with windows theme I can fix it for you as well as virus

Me; go for it boss

Scammer: can you open the control panel for me I cant seem to find it.

me: yep here you go…

scammer; oh i see you are all messed up here, i cant find the… sir are you sure you connect me to correct PC?

me: yes this is only PC in the house.

Scammer: but sir you connect to a MAC?

me: listen boss you called me, its not my fault you are incapable of performing your job… i have done all that you asked me to do…

scammer: i can not provide you the help.

Me: then i want to speak to your boss because you are incompetent. this is supposed to be a simple task and you have neither the skills or technical ability to even understand what you are trying to do… so put me through to your boss…

scammer: hangs up…

4 Spice ups