Fake microsoft Caller Scam

[Garacesh]

I have never been called by these so-called 'companies', but if I did, I would try and fit this in for my amusment:

 

Windows 2000

 

Oh god, I remember seeing that for the first time when I was around 14 or something. It was just as amusing back then, too

[ascott2]

When they called me saying they were from Microsoft, I told them "Oh, I work for Microsoft too, which office do you work in?" never heard a thing since.

[LosOjos]

My boss had one of these calls, strung them along for a while until it got to the point where they wanted him to allow remote access.

 

"Ooh that's going to be tricky. I work for the secret service and I can't install software on my machine, let me put you through to our IT team"

 

Phone went dead pretty quickly apparently

[CAM]

Anyone tried answering the phone in Welsh?

 

Bore da! Dw i'n CAM. Mae'n ddrwg gen i, dw i ddim yn deall chi. Ydych chi'n siarad Cymraeg? Dw i ddim yn siarad Saesneg, ydych chi'n siarad Cymraeg?!?!

Nos da... *Click*

 

(Poorly translated with autocorrect interfering, not that the intent is for them to understand you anyway .... Good morning! I'm CAM. I'm sorry, I don't understand you. Do you speak Welsh? I don't speak English, do you speak Welsh?!?! Good night...)

Edited January 24, 2014 by CAM

[featured_spectre]

I stand by my previous statements...Welsh is nothing but code!

[mikeyd101]

I also enjoy playing with them on the phone and string them along for as long as possible, while there on the phone to me there not scamming anyone else.

 

I act completely stupid and make them repeat everything 10 times, "im sorry where is that again, im sorry I dont see that link/button to click" kind of thing, and a hold on a minute the front door thrown in for good measure, and leave them hanging 10 minutes. By the time/ if we reach remote login, after i've pretended to download whatever they wanted, and their saying things like im trying to login now and not working, I reveal that they have just wasted the last 40-60mins on the phone with IT professional and i'm not about to fall for a stupid scam, I have to say that some are a mite unhappy, at which point i hangup

 

I also try and figure out how smart they are when they ask for an ip address ill give them a 10.x.x.x address and see if they catch on.

[clareq]

If you search on here there are a couple of other threads reporting such calls. I still laugh remembering my colleague taking such a call on our DDI line - What Operating System do I use? Vista 7 I think

[yugo]

Relevant

[bushby]

i had one last year on the office line,

 

that was fun.

"hello how may i help"

"ohadsuiogdsa" what ever they say

"oh you have a issue what machine are you on and where are you located?"

they say garbage

"oh sorry i think you have the wrong number as this is microsoft internal tech support"

phone goes dead

[twin--turbo]

I have had 10-12 of them over time. But never have they said they are from microsoft . the script is usualy "Windows Support centre"

 

Originaly I said I run linux, took them a while to get off the phone.

 

The I decided to "Scam Bate" them set up an XP Virtual Machine and attempted to make the call as long as possible.

 

45 Minutes is my record.

 

Even with a BIG desktop background saying " You Idiot , I am not being Scammed by you" and even my saying "" What's that desktop saying, how did that happen" it still took ages.

 

The last time the guy on the phone went of on a rant when he realised he was being strung along.

 

Him " You think your smart"

me "Yep Smarter than you"

Him "your not so smart, I trash your machine"

Me "maybee but I am still smarter than you. It's a VM go ahead."

Him "HAHAHAHAHA, I am deleteing all yoru files"

Me "I see that, They will be back in 30 seconds"

Him "HAHHAH they are all going"

ME " Wow, you realy have me there, I am going to have to revert to snapshot"

Him " You still think your smart"

Me " Er Yes "

Him " I am going to come and f....k you up the a....s"

Me "That's the VM rebooted and restored by the way"

Him " You ^$%^$^$%^$^$ ..... Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

 

That was about 18 months ago. Never been disturbed again.

 

Rob

[witch]

I have had several of these and EVERY time I have said I am an IT professional and I knew what was going on but they have just kept going - told them that event viewer was not "problems" etc but it made no difference - they just go on arguing. I think it might be because I am female.

So the last one I had- I said:

"do you believe in God?"

He said that he did and I asked him as a religious person if he felt comfortable doing a job like his - ripping people off, stealing their money and frightening people?

HE WENT ON ARGUING! I was really surprised - I thought he would back off. He just went on and on and on. I put the phone down in the end

[TwoZeroAlpha]

I had one on Christmas eve, lovely early present. Gutted I didn't have a VM ready (will resolve that soon). Strung him along for about 15mins then let slip that I wasn't going to be scammed. He got very upset and was going to give me the number for his office so I could call them but hung up on me instead. Gave me an address in London for where he was based.

 

I have had 3 different friends caught be this, two gave card details but all three let the gits on their machine.

[Tesla]

Relevant

That was what got me to start this thread haha.

[detjo]

I had this a few days ago. Just kept him on and listened to him waffle on, agreeing with anything he said, til i got bored with it and hung up.

[FragglePete]

I had one of these on Thursday at home, my wife gets quite a few as well and just hangs up on them.

 

I asked him exactly where he is located, Leicester apparently, I asked where as I know Leicester quite well (don't really), "By the McDonalds" was his reply, "the big one" ! I gave up at this point, just got in from work and just hung up on him.

 

Had one a while back where I played along a bit and started to freak out when he told me my computer was infected; I went into panic mode and started screaming down the phone pretending to cry that my machine was infected and I was going to throw it out. My family were rolling around in fits of laughter until he told me to "F**k off"

 

Pete

[Tesla]

I kind of want one, just to string them along, but we at home rarely answer the hosue phone, as almost EVERY time it's a recorded message of some kind, all the people we need to get in contact with have our mobile numbers, so if they do desperately need us then they can ring that.

[Arcath]

I kind of want one, just to string them along, but we at home rarely answer the hosue phone, as almost EVERY time it's a recorded message of some kind, all the people we need to get in contact with have our mobile numbers, so if they do desperately need us then they can ring that.

 

I'm the same, my home phone line exists only for the internet there is no handset plugged into it and no one knows the number so I don't really get calls like this.

 

I really want one of these "Microsoft" ones tho, my plan is to give my IP as 127.0.0.1 just to see what happens.

[bmdixon]

There's an Australian security guy who has posted a number of videos of him 'scamming' the scammers... See his blog here (Warning, some are NSFW)

[Oaktech]

We've had a few of those to peoples DDI lines here... One guy clearly knew he was phoning a school because he claimed to be calling from 'Your council IT service' and tried to get them to install log me in on the machine - which didn't work as logmein is blocked as a website for non admins. When the guy was questioned a bit further he couldn't answer any of the questions, and hung up.

 

One of the calls got abusive when the person discovered that the user on the end of the line couldn't do anything: downloads of exe blocked, installs of activex controls blocked, access to control panel blocked, access to event viewer blocked. Fortunately it was to one of our more pragmatic male members of staff who told the guy where to go with some colourful english invective.

 

The closest we came to disaster was that one of our local admin users got a call through and began to install, i think, team viewer, before thinking better of it and hanging up.

Edited January 27, 2014 by Oaktech

[CHR1S]

Unfortunately I have become jaded over time and now suspect EVERYONE!

 

Even the poor sod who knocked the door last week, collecting for the Air Ambulance. He had a very nice looking ID badge, but ill be a monkeys if your getting my details for a direct debit on my doorstep. (and the fact I'm tight as - charity begins at home old boy)

 

Strangely people tend not to string me along, the lady claiming to be from Virgin offering a free upgrade if I just confirmed my password with her didn't stay on the line.

 

I often find laughing manically at their stupidity whilst pointing it out is another great way to wind them up.

[LosOjos]

Unfortunately I have become jaded over time and now suspect EVERYONE!

 

Even the poor sod who knocked the door last week, collecting for the Air Ambulance. He had a very nice looking ID badge, but ill be a monkeys if your getting my details for a direct debit on my doorstep. (and the fact I'm tight as - charity begins at home old boy)

 

Strangely people tend not to string me along, the lady claiming to be from Virgin offering a free upgrade if I just confirmed my password with her didn't stay on the line.

 

I often find laughing manically at their stupidity whilst pointing it out is another great way to wind them up.

 

I agree but what's even more infuriating is my bank's recent trend of calling me then asking me to confirm my identity via a series of personal questions. When I point out that they called me and that they could be anybody, they act like I'm the idiot!

 

Of course I never tell them anything but have called my bank directly when this has happened and yes, it was the bank and yes, they do need to confirm my details. Absolute stupidity. Then again, I am with Lloyds, nothing they do makes any sense to me any more!

[Seb1780]

I agree but what's even more infuriating is my bank's recent trend of calling me then asking me to confirm my identity via a series of personal questions. When I point out that they called me and that they could be anybody, they act like I'm the idiot!

 

Of course I never tell them anything but have called my bank directly when this has happened and yes, it was the bank and yes, they do need to confirm my details. Absolute stupidity. Then again, I am with Lloyds, nothing they do makes any sense to me any more!

 

This^^

 

How do banks expect people to behave sensibly when their own tactics promote phishing?

 

Stupid, stupid, stupid

[CHR1S]

@LosOjos I'm with Lloyds too, to be fair they have been great with the very few issues I have had in the past.

 

The callers are quite happy to let you hang up and call them back on whatever number you know to be correct if you are wary. I now have them text me first from a verified number and then I call them back if I need to.

[Garacesh]

The callers are quite happy to let you hang up and call them back on whatever number you know to be correct if you are wary.

Isn't that moot anyway, because if the guy on the other end doesn't hang up, you get put back through to them? (There's some stupid mechanic about if both people don't end the call, I think..)

[Oaktech]

Natwest have been really good over this kind of thing... When their credit card services call me they tell me what transaction they are querying about, and only ask for parts of my DOB and then random parts of my security information. They've also been really good when I lost my card and it was picked up and used to set up a paypal account (my verified paypal account does not have this card attached to it) Everything was sorted out in 2 20 minute phone calls to natwest and paypal, and the £200 they had spent was back within 24 hours.