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I am the IT Director for a company that has about 100 users. My direct phone line rings with a number I don’t recognize. I answer and the user asks to speak to me. I say “this is Chris, can I help you”.

They say “I’m calling from your support team and we have detected a problem on your computer”.

My support team is small and I know everyone really well. I say “So, you are calling from here”.

“I am calling from support, we need to connect to your computer”, they respond.

Knowing full well they are not calling from here I decide to play along and turn the tables. I say “what kind of problem are you having, do you need me to connect to your computer”.

I can tell they are confused and he repeats his request. I ask him what machine are you referring to and he responds, “I believe you are using a Windows laptop”. Nope…

I tell him no and he says so, you are on a Mac, again I respond no. He says well what do you have. I told him I’m on Linux(which is a lie). He is really confused at this point and I get angry with him and tell him he is fired. He hangs up.

Anyone else ever get a call like this? If so, how long did you play with them before they hang up? I think if I ever get a call like this again, I’m just going to pretend to be one of my users and be totally clueless and see how long it takes them to give up. I’ll start with what’s a start button. Then I will give them the IP address of google DNS and keep up like that until they give up. Or maybe I’ll try to trick them in to giving me his IP address. Oh what fun this would be. I hope he calls back!

38 Spice ups
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i usually say that they dialed my cell phone and ask to call at my desk so i can provide all the information they need. i then do a quick google search for local FBI field office and provide the number.

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I’ve strung them along for a bit when bored, just to see what they’d do. Pretended to do what they were asking, but getting confused. Went to the toilet with them on the phone. Said that I didn’t really know computers and that I’d hand them over to my son, who promptly tried to eat the phone as 1 year olds generally do.

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4

When I get those, I ask always lead them on till last possible second, if I have free time that is.

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I LOVE using the old “Linux” line…

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@Alex49381 - NICE!

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My sister got this call a couple of times saying they are Microsoft. I told her to ask them what is the public IP that the problem originates from. Usually confuses them enough for them to hang up the phone.

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I’ve tried to trick them into giving me their IP, no luck yet.

For the most part as soon as they realize you have a clue, they hang up.

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Had one call once, kept him going for about an hour acting completely clueless… Told him I couldn’t find a start button, couldn’t find IE… Eventually told him I was on Windows 3.11 and that I was using Netscape… he got REALLY upset and yelled at me in the tongue of his people and hung up on me. I get really excited for the prospect of trolling them again sometime.

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I’ve strung a couple along before, with one being especially aggressive when I wasn’t giving him what he wanted. He kept on being evasive and insisted “His boss needed the information”, so I invited him to tell his boss to go f**k himself and then slammed down the phone.

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I’ve had 5 or 6 of them personally and well over 20 reported by family and friends. If I can be bothered I string them along for a while and have some fun, make them hold for an age while I ‘boot up’ my computer etc. When I tell them who I work for and that I’m reporting the call, they always hang up immediately.

If I’m in a bad mood or short of time they just a swift ‘fuck off’ and hang up.

I keep meaning to build a honeypot computer to allow them to connect to, then see what other fun can be had in reverse, but haven’t got around to it yet.

4 Spice ups
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These are making my Friday! Keep them coming!

One little piece of info I left out… he was calling from a call center, I could tell because there were a lot of voices in the background. This is strange to me. Organized phishing. I mean, get a real life.

4 Spice ups
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Yep, any I’ve had have always had call centre sounds in the background.

The last one, I could hear the guy beside him repeating almost word for word, the same spiel my caller had just said to me.

The other thing I find funny is if you ask where they’re calling from, it changes like the wind, they start the call saying they’re from Microsoft or similar, then you ask ‘Where are you calling from again’ and it changes to Symantec, Facebook, or my favourite, the ‘PC fixing centre’.

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I’ve only had one of these calls a couple of years back,

Them: “Hello i’m calling from “Microsoft”, we have detected a virus on your system, blah blah blah, usual waffle , have you noticed your computer being slow?”

Me: “Yes, counter strike just dipped to 59fps.”

sound of phone hanging up

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15

The biggest shock is that you haven’t realised that before!

This isn’t someone chancing it from their bedroom, it’s properly organised.

I strongly suspect the people in the call centers aren’t in on the scam. They’re given a story, a script, and an autodialler.

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I’ve heard of these stories for quite some time, but this is the first time I’ve actually had them call me.

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unfortunately, it’s a real business model and pretty profitable. We know how little the average person really knows about PC’s we all complain about it on here everyday. The truth is, a half assed one of these guys can scam 3 or 4 people a day at about $300 a pop(based on the people I know who’ve fallen for the scam-some of them very smart people too). These guys live in pour areas and get paid maybe $50 a day. do the math. it’s VERY profitable.

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I feel so left out, i never get these calls.

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19

If I had to speculate purely on my linguistic listening skills, I’d say my call originated from the Philippines.

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Don’t worry, at the rate this scam is going, I’d say you’ll get your turn soon enough!

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