Jo Med Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Had a phone call today from an Indian gentleman telling me that his company worked as support for Microsoft and that my computer was transmitting a virus. He said he would sort the problem out and asked me to switch on my computer and follow his instructions (yeah right I'm that kind of dumb). I said it was ok, just give me the name of the rogue file and I'll sort it out - oh no that will take too long he said I'll do it. On your bike Mike!!!!! - and put the phone down. So a warning to everyone out there, please do not give access to your machine or ANY personal information to any of these scam merchants. I have had loads of this type of thing by e-mail but this is the first time one has actually telephoned me and tried it on so beware, they are out there and they really are out to get you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badlilkit10 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 very scary thanks for the heads up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otterine Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 That is scary. Some months back, my parents received a phone call in the middle of the night - 3AM or so. The person said their credit card account had been hacked and they needed verification to close the account and set up a new one. My stepdad was half asleep and rattled off the credit card number before waking up enough to realize it was a scam. They immediately called the credit card company and shut down their account, before the thieves could use the information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaC Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 we have to always be aware to be safe. good thing we can think. no phone calls here either just the email kind. amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatColorado Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Dang, is nothing safe? Makes me feel nervous about having a charge card, let alone using it. I wonder how often people fall for computer scams like that one. That's why I don't answer the phone, stay out of trouble that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo Med Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 As a result of posting this in another forum, a German member gave me a link to a "beat the telesales" questionnaire. http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/english/counterscript.pdf I regularly get loads of telsales calls - very frustrating when you are up to your eyes in papier maché or glue so I used it today and didn't get beyond the first question before they rang off - it was so much fun. You know how the Indian call centres give all their staff an English name (maybe its a name popular in whichever country they are canvassing, I'm not sure) so that we feel more comfortable speaking with them. Well I intended to use this questionnaire on the next telesales call I had but I didn't get further than the first question. Caller:Hi my name is Jenny and I'm calling from??? Me: Can you please tell me your surname Caller: my name is Jenny Me: What is your surname Jenny - silence Me: What is your full name including your surname Jenny - silence Me: Jenny? Caller: - just one moment please. Me: Of course Jenny. - waits.............................. Caller: Hello my name is Jenny and I'm calling from.... Me: What is your surname Jenny Caller: Would you like to speak to my supervisor? Me: ok - waits a while Caller: Hello my name is Jenny and I don't use my surname Me: Well Jenny why do you expect me to talk to you when you won't tell me who you are? Caller: OK Ma'am, thank you for your time - rings off Me - YESSSSSSSSS - score - and I now have a load of other stop em in their tracks questions thanks to this questionnaire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 LOL!! Thanks, Jo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 We're on the No Call list, so we don't get many telesales calls, but back in the day, I had worked out a piece of business to use to drive them crazy. Never had to use it though, since the Do Not Call list came out right about then. I can do a very convincing little old lady voice, and I was going to play the very hard of hearing little old lady, just make them repeat everything over and over, and louder till they just couldn't take it anymore, and remove me from their lists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 At one point, we were being annoyed by calls from the local newspaper, wanting to sell us a subscription, even though I'd cancelled a subscription months earlier because the lazy delivery person flipped the paper over the fence into the flower bed. I got tired of finding smashed flowers every morning. Anyway, when yet another call came, I feigned high enthusiasm and thanked them profusely for finally putting out an edition in Braille and that I was sooooooooooo looking forward to being able to read the paper again. It was the last call. :thumb: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheckMouse Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 My elderly uncle had a pretty good way of getting rid of these telemarketers, way before the do-no-call lists came out. He'd listen to the whole rapid-fire speech, usually by a woman, and when she paused for breath, he'd say, "Honey, I didn't understand most of that, you went so fast, but you sound like a very pretty young lady! Did you know God loves you?" That usually brought the conversation to a screeching halt - they didn't want to hear a sermon But my DIL got a phone call a few days ago - and, unfortunately, she fell for it. The caller said she had just downloaded a virus, and she needed to input a special code so "Tech Support" could fix it for her - and my DIL did. She called my son on her cell phone before she finished talking with the lady, and he said to get a call-back number and hang up. So she told the lady she had to contact her own computer technician and would call the lady back later. CLICK! Took them a couple days to get things running right again; and they changed all credit card and bank numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I have a little more tolerant view of the telemarketer, having been a call center agent. Honestly, it was absolutely forbidden for us to give our name or location to any caller, even when they insisted. That was simply for safety reasons. You wouldn't believe the sick, sad calls we got there. I had more than one person proposition me during my very short time working as a call center agent and from what I understood, in the past, at least one agent had been stalked by a caller and buildings and cars have been vandalized. As to telemarketers, well, that's a job I considered too. Having been out of work a long while now, I would take just about any job that took me and it would be nice if I didn't have to quit or get fired from it because of the stress. People don't always know that telemarketers and collection agents have a set number of calls to make in a very limited amount of time and a certain amount of money they have to collect every month or they will lose their jobs. I know many of them ask for how they get treated sometimes, but a lot of them don't, so for those I break in and simply tell them, no, thank you and then hang up if they continue on. I hope no one thinks I'm upset by anything here. It's just that I have to spend so much time being rude to people on the phone sometimes to get the simplest things taken care of that I find it becomes a habit and one I'd really rather not have when I don't need to. Just my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fov Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Weird - I think I just got this same phone call! The woman was a very slow talker and I didn't let her get very far. She was saying something about being the licensed service center for Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 7 -- I interrupted to ask how she got my number and she started to repeat that they were "the licensed service center..." and I hung up. I might not have been so rude if not for Jo's post about it, but as soon as the woman said "Microsoft" I remembered this. I normally don't even answer the phone if I don't know who it is, but I was expecting a call from Seattle and that's where the caller ID said the call was from. (I'm also on the do not call list and generally if a telemarketer calls repeatedly I'll finally answer and tell them to stop calling me.) A quick Google search reveals that this is not a new scam. I'm just surprised I never heard about it... and then coincidentally read about it here just a few days ago. Karma, I guess! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 That's a good one Jo! Bet Jenny won't be calling you back ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muriel Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Hehe, they called me on Saturday evening. Asked for someone else and when I said they didn't live here they asked if I was the main computer user in the house. I said we didn't have a computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo Med Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Here is a You tube link showing a computer technician's response to the exact same call that I had. If you have time to kill there are a load more recorded scammer telephone calls from the same group of hackers. They direct you to the windows log files first and you see lots of errors and warnings - these are normal and we all have them but they tell you that these are causing problems. So funny because they ask you how many are there and when you say oh - hundreds - they always say OMG. OMG - lol. Then they give you a website address to type in - do not do this, this is where they gain remote access to your computer to steal your information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheckMouse Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 People don't always know that telemarketers and collection agents have a set number of calls to make in a very limited amount of time and a certain amount of money they have to collect every month or they will lose their jobs. I know many of them ask for how they get treated sometimes, but a lot of them don't, so for those I break in and simply tell them, no, thank you and then hang up if they continue on. I hope no one thinks I'm upset by anything here. It's just that I have to spend so much time being rude to people on the phone sometimes to get the simplest things taken care of that I find it becomes a habit and one I'd really rather not have when I don't need to. Just my opinion. I had a caller in FL a few years back that woke me up with her sales pitch. I know telemarketing is a tough job, so I politely said, "No thank you, I'm not interested." She kept right on talking. By my third "no thank you" she stopped and said, "So why don't you just hang up?" I explained that I was trying to be polite about it. She answered in a huff - "This is not about polite! It's about telemarkenting!" and she slammed down the phone. So now I still say "no thank you," - but then I hang up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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