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Alert

A call from the technical department of Microsoft

Sep 25, 2015 8:34AM PDT

I received a call on my husband's landline from Microsoft Technical Department. The caller identified himself as Peter Jones. He had an Indian accent. He wanted me to go on the internet with my computer, because there were many corrupt files downloaded on my computer every time I go online. He had to help me to remove it.

I thought it sounded strange, because how would he link the landline to my computer? in any case, I asked him to call me on Saturday, because my laptop was not with me. I gave him my mobile number. He gave me a code: 05.

I did not trust this, and Googled Microsoft Technical department. I found interesting information there, and could not wait for Peter to call back.

Today, Friday, I received another call from my friend. He called from the number +1 516-342-5264. It said New York on my phone. He said he wanted more information from me. I asked him how on earth he would know that my computer has problems if he wanted info from me. He should know certain information. I also told him that I contacted Microsoft, and they said they don't do things this way. (I did not)

When I told him that he was a fraud, he put the phone down. Just an alert that this is still continuing. I live in South Africa.

Discussion is locked

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Technical dept.
Sep 29, 2015 8:16PM PDT

Ha! I also put the phone down and walk away.they hang up after being frustrated waiting to talk to someone. Act crazy, they will leave you alone.

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2 tricks we used
Sep 29, 2015 6:35PM PDT

I was the IT Manager at a company and I received a call at work. I had heard about this scam so I led them on for about 20 minutes. After pretending that I was following their instructions and telling them various things I was seeing on the screen at a certain point I told them I was seeing a hand on the screen. They told me to enter several other commands and tell them what I was seeing. At this point I told them I was still seeing the hand but that now it had the middle finger up. The caller immediately called me every bad name in his limited vocabulary and hung up.

My wife recently received one of these calls at home and after pretending not to understand how they were monitoring her computer she ask them if they were a hacker. They said if they were a hacker they wouldn't be calling her and that hackers were bad. She told them she had heard of good and bad hackers so they must be a good hacker. A dialog about good and bad hackers went on for several minutes. When the caller determined they could't convince her that they were not a hacker, they hung up.

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Calls from fake IT people
Sep 29, 2015 6:36PM PDT

I get these calls occasionally -not a whole lot, but enough that it ticks me off. I'm definitely not a computer whiz type person so I would never be able to use some of the lines a few of these other users have used on the scammers, but I do occasionally play along with my own simple brand of head games. I asked on person one day how did he know my computer was putting out bad stuff and wasn't he afraid he would be infecting his computer by contacting me since he said my computer was terribly infected. And when he tried to offer me some explanation I simply said my computer was working okay for my purposes which amounted to e-mail and or facebook and I didn't feel it a necessity for him to waste his time with my computer. RIght now, I have an e-mail sitting in my inbox -unopened -with a return address of Microsoft asking me to participate in some survey or other. Nope! Don't think I'm gonna do anything with that other than put it in the garbage. And gee, tonight's garbage pickup night too. Imagine that!

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Call Blocker
Sep 29, 2015 6:44PM PDT

I just use a good call blocker, one I got on eBay for about $30... easy to use and now I rarely get BS or marketing calls.

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Crooks on Call
Sep 29, 2015 6:37PM PDT

I have been playing with these guys for months. My response is, Why are calling me? I have a MAC.

I have had some calls later regarding my Apple Macintosh operating system, yep you guessed it, "Why are calling me? I have a PC.

On a day where I just don't have any patience, "What the *^*)^ is wrong with you people. You are nothing but(*U*&^^&***)*&^& crooks and belong in *&(^& prison. Were you just born stupid or do you have to work at it?

I had a lady call once from Sears . My reponse to her was, I am on the FCC's "Do not call list (That's a joke in itself}do not call this number again." Believe it, or not, she had the audacity to call right back and told me, "You were very rude." My reply was "Rude? You called me, I didn't call you and you called me again. You haven't rude yet lady, but you are bout to %&*(_*^^%$%()()**^%%." She hung up and never called back.

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I had one do that
Oct 5, 2015 12:00PM PDT

I hung up on her. She called me back screaming, "nobody hangs up on me, nobody..." so, I hung up on her again, LOL.

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You live and learn
Sep 29, 2015 6:39PM PDT

Once my computer was acting up, can't remember now exactly what was happening. I googled my problem and came across Yahoo questions & answers. Someone has posted an 800 number which I called. Whoever I spoke to, told me I had a virus and it can be removed remotely for $200. To which I said no thanks. I can't trust Yahoo any more.

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Scams from technical department of Safari also
Sep 29, 2015 6:40PM PDT

It's not confined to the Microsoft world, either. Several people I know have gotten official looking letters from Apple's Safari that their Mac is infected, and send money so they can clean it up.

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Got to love my mother.
Sep 29, 2015 6:45PM PDT

Having done computer repair for years I've always stressed with my parents to approach the internet with a good dose of skepticism. My mother received one of these support calls and being quick to realize it was a scam since she knows it's not cost effective for a company with millions of people using their product to call each person, responded perfectly and shut the caller down in one sentence. He started into his spiel and she interrupted him by saying. "Would it help you to know I don't own a computer?" Dead silence. Then a click and dial tone.

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They call me a few times a year...
Sep 29, 2015 6:51PM PDT

Paul with a very thick accent (it sounded like he was working in a kitchen) called me saying he's with Microsoft Tech Support and he has discovered viruses on my windows network and needed my IP address to fix it. I said on my windows network really? He said yes now give me your IP address and I'll fix it. I said I have a MacPro and your a fraud! You should be ashamed of yourself! How can you look into the mirror every day? He remains quiet and then I said goodbye and (I thought he hung up by now) he then said goodbye and hung up... Wow I kinda felt bad for the guy. I think he had a conscious...

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I tell these scammer , what is internet ?
Sep 29, 2015 6:53PM PDT

I tell these scammer , what is internet ?

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Alternative resources
Sep 29, 2015 7:07PM PDT

If you enjoy playing the scammers (more than just the MS ones) and want ideas or just enjoy reading about people who have done this, I suggest the book "Delete This At Your Peril" by Bob Servant. Russian woman wants to be your friend, Nigerian Bank and more.

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I just laughed at them
Sep 29, 2015 7:08PM PDT

They called me too. "Hello, I'm calling from Microsoft..." I didn't let them get any further before I laughed into the phone, said "I don't think so!" and hung up on him.

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In India for a day.
Sep 29, 2015 7:11PM PDT

I live in Canada and I've had a couple of these recently. Each had an Indian accent. My favorite was the guy who told me my PC had been taken over by Chinese hackers (oh my !)
I chatted a bit and I felt sorry for the guy so I began to talk to him, in a reasonable way, as to why this was illegal. I also said that I understood that he had to do this because he was probably very poor and it was the only job he could get. He actually agreed with me and demanded that I find him employment or hire him myself.
I read that, in India, working at a call center makes you more money than being a doctor.
What a world we live in !!

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30 Days
Sep 29, 2015 10:46PM PDT

There was a show that I think was called 30 days or something like that where they took a person and put them into a situation that would make them uneasy. They sent one guy who lost his job at a tech call center in the U.S. because his job moved to India. The show sent him to India to live with a family where the kids worked in a call center (apparently, when they were bored and/or didn't want to go to school). The only requirement for the job was to understand English. Anyway, the guy lived with this family in some sort of tent/ramshackle hut and he worked in the local call center.
Bottom line: the people working in the call center were not making even the equivalent of minimum wage and living in poverty. It is going to take a "revolution" over there before this overseas outsourcing stops. Or, maybe someone will figure out how to get a tariff on the books for overseas service contracts. Not likely.

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Fake support calls from microsoft
Sep 29, 2015 7:12PM PDT

I worked in a internet call center and you wouldn't ( but probably would ) the calls from fake support personnel. Some of the callers would say their from at&t/microsoft/yahoo. We always hated to tell a customer that their computer had to get reformated to get rid of the access malware and that would go over like a wet fart in church.

I would advise people to just simply hang up.

A really good trick use is i give a fake code of some sort and ask for the counter code. The callers will get frustrated.

A lot of times they will call to say they found spy or malware on the computer and needed to get in to fix it. Just ask them why they need me to give them access as they already was in the computer.

Short and sweet. If you didn't call support; plaly games with them but always scan your computer after the call.

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LOL
Sep 29, 2015 7:13PM PDT

My caIler had an Indian accent, but when I asked where he was from he said, Ireland. I just started laughing. Before I finished, he had hung up.

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They really don't like to be strung along
Sep 29, 2015 7:13PM PDT

I got this call for the first (and hopefully last) time about a month ago. My caller had an Indian accent but insisted he was calling from the U.S. I used to be in the computer security business, so I was suspicious. I managed to keep him on the line for almost an hour without allowing access to my system. He finally lost his temper and told me that if I wasn't quiet he would hang up on me. I was quiet, but he hung up anyhow. I smiled.

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Yell at them. It's fun.
Sep 29, 2015 7:21PM PDT

I just started yelling at him asking why he knows what's happening on my computer and accusing him of being a spy. It was fun.

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Best option: don't answer unrecognized calls
Sep 29, 2015 7:21PM PDT

I rarely answer the phone if I don't recognize the number, but I thought it might be a service person I was waiting for, asking for directions. Nope, it was the Indian-accent guy so many others have described, telling me something was wrong with Windows on my computer. I said I was so glad he called--my window was broken, and he could help me. No, Windows on my computer, he insisted. Oh, my computer, I replied. Was he going to help me fix my broken window? He persisted in trying to explain. I persisted in misunderstanding. I told him my windows didn't work by computer; they had a cord that let them move up and down. "No, your computer!!" And so on. It was an ok way to spend the time waiting for the service person, and a small victory knowing I'd wasted his time. But next time, I'll let voice mail pick up.

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Best option: don't answer unrecognized calls
Sep 29, 2015 7:22PM PDT

I rarely answer the phone if I don't recognize the number, but I thought it might be a service person I was waiting for, asking for directions. Nope, it was the Indian-accent guy so many others have described, telling me something was wrong with Windows on my computer. I said I was so glad he called--my window was broken, and he could help me. No, Windows on my computer, he insisted. Oh, my computer, I replied. Was he going to help me fix my broken window? He persisted in trying to explain. I persisted in misunderstanding. I told him my windows didn't work by computer; they had a cord that let them move up and down. "No, your computer!!" And so on. It was an ok way to spend the time waiting for the service person, and a small victory knowing I'd wasted his time. But next time, I'll let voice mail pick up.

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Call them out!
Sep 29, 2015 7:23PM PDT

I tell them that they are scammers. That they are the most notorious scam on the net. That they are liars and full of Sh*t! They, of course insist that they are from Microsoft. I then tell them that I would never have any dealings with faceless liars on the phone and hang up while they a spouting earnest denials. Feels good to me.

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Great scam if...
Sep 29, 2015 7:34PM PDT

...if you haven't heard of this one. I did get a call like this once. The computer was OFF. I said, oh, and do I need the computer to be on for this? .. yes.. OK, I've turned it on. It takes about 10 minutes to boot (of course, it's still off) WHAT? Yes, it's Windows 3.1, what do YOU use? "click"
Never got another call.
I've heard of people responding to this by saying, OH, by the way, do you need the internet for this? "yes" Well I don't have the internet. I'm not sure how to get that. Credit card? nope, I don't use those. Say, how did you know I had a Windows computer in the closet, that I haven't used in 3 or 4 years, and how would you know that it has a problem?
By the way, John Smith, born in New York, with an east indian accent? How did that ever happen?
Pretty much, I'd think they could tell when you're leading them on.. but, no..

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Best way to defeat the phone Scammers!
Sep 29, 2015 7:29PM PDT

If you get a phone call from these scammers, claiming that they are from whatever company, the best thing to do is say that YOU work for that company!! They are instantly screwed!! And you ALWAYS become VERY aggressive! For Example, say "I am a software Engineer for Microsoft"! "What your Employee Number?", "Who is you Section Leader?", "I'm going to report you to management!", "You'll make sure that you WILL get fired for this breach of company policy!" Watch how quick they'll hangup on you!! hehe!! And this works for ANY Scam calls, Microsoft, Telco, Financial Institution, Tax Office, any company!!

I live in Sydney, Australia, and I have actually recieved a call from a Scammer claiming to be from the Australian Tax Department! And that they have conducted an Audit of my last year's Tax Return, and that if I didn't pay them monies, they were going to have the Police come to my house and arrest me! I told the moron that I was a Fraud Investigator for the Australian Tax Department! My hobby is listening to Police calls, I have a web site booked marked that allows me to listen to the local Police traffic, and I had that running when the scammer called and I told the Scammer that I have been offically issued a Police Two-Way Radio by the local Police as part of my job! And to go ahead and have the Police to come to my house to arrest me! It **** itself and hung up! I laughed so hard that I almost whet myself!! EeeeeeUuuuuu!! hehe!!

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demand unobtainable info
Sep 29, 2015 7:29PM PDT

Just ask what the mac address of your computer is - or its ip address - they are sol.

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Best way to beat the Phone Scammers!
Sep 29, 2015 7:31PM PDT

If you get a phone call from these scammers, claiming that they are from whatever company, the best thing to do is say that YOU work for that company!! They are instantly screwed!! And you ALWAYS become VERY aggressive! For Example, say "I am a software Engineer for Microsoft"! "What your Employee Number?", "Who is you Section Leader?", "I'm going to report you to management!", "I'll make sure that you WILL get fired for this breach of company policy!" Watch how quick they'll hangup on you!! hehe!! And this works for ANY Scam calls, Microsoft, Telco, Financial Institution, Tax Office, any company!!

I live in Sydney, Australia, and I have actually recieved a call from a Scammer claiming to be from the Australian Tax Office! And that they have conducted an Audit of my last year's Tax Return, and that if I didn't pay them monies, they were going to have the Police come to my house and arrest me! I told the moron that I was a Fraud Investigator for the Australian Tax Office! My hobby is listening to Police calls, I have a web site booked marked that allows me to listen to the local Police traffic, I had that running and I told the Scammer that I have been issued a Police Two-Way Radio by the local Police as part of my job! It **** itself and hung up! I laughed so hard that I almost whet myself!! EeeeeeUuuuuu!! hehe!!

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Scammers
Sep 29, 2015 7:31PM PDT

Ever notice since telephone services were 'farmed out' overseas, the pc term is 'out-sourced' which sounds better to share holders when the dog that thought it up is drawing his bonus for that year, those countries sprouted a cottage industry of trying to take advantage of trusting souls from the country of uncle sugar as they now have a working (barely) knowledge of the spoken language. Use to be emails from a certain part of Africa touting money just waiting for you to get, for a nominal fee of course. One of these days (hopefully) they'll catch on to the fact that we're hip to 'em and try something else for a change (which I doubt as it most certainly beats working) and I 'spose the only difference between them and Wall Street is the latter is legit.

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The good ol' runaround
Sep 29, 2015 7:52PM PDT

Yup, I get them often. I have educated my mother well on these as she is not so tech savvy and will fall for these types of scams.

But for myself, if I have the time, I entertain myself. I'll humor them for a bit by acting like I am going through the steps they want and asking them to repeat themselves (a lot!). If I have the time, I will keep them on the phone for 20 mins (I love unlimited talk) while I do homework or watch TV. Then finally lay it on them with a "wait, microsoft? I don't own a microsoft computer. How are you communicating with my Mac? You're a scammer! you F***ing Scammer!"

Then they say "sir, please don't use this language, that isn't professional"

Then I lay into the "you're professional? you're trying to scam money from me and want me to be professional? how do you live with yourself? you scam money from elderly and innocent people who trust you, you are worthless in life and should die!"

Thats better than my brothers doing. He will talk to them for a while, then say "sir, can you hold while my wife and I . . (insert your dirtiest thought)". The Indians get very offended and have stopped calling.

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Threaten to report them to the FBI
Sep 29, 2015 7:59PM PDT

When I get these types of phone calls, I start acting like I'm playing along to get their trust. Then I ask them their name, what company they work for, their phone number and location etc. Then I tell them that I'm reporting them to the FBI because they are clearly attempting to illegally scam me. I figured this may scare some of them into thinking twice before doing it again.

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I got what?
Sep 29, 2015 8:07PM PDT

I get those calls and I say "I got what? I do not have a computer. and hang up. My dad gets those calls also (he is 80 and does not know anything about computers) and he tells the truth, he does not have a computer and what are they talking about before he hangs up.. These people are not selective, they call everyone. Best way to get rid of them, tell them you have no computer and threaten to report them to the FBI for making harassing calls. These people are a joke. There English is broken and they can barely read the script they are supposed to follow.