[mekaw]

so I'm sure most of you know about this
Microsoft Warns of IT Support Phone Scams | News & Opinion | PCMag.com (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387138,00.asp)

these assholes been calling me all day, roughly 4 times as of 5 min ago.

firs time it was some lady with indian accent and i told her to fuck off

second time, it was another lady, so i told her I own mac(lies) and she hangs up

third, some guy calls and I told him I work for microsoft and home for vacation and he freaks and hangs up

and fourth, another guy calls and I told him I know of you fuckers and your scam and I hang up.

I can't trace their numbers even if i *69 after the call to see who called. so what should I do next when they call? Some people told me to call the police but doubt they can do anything about it really =/

[Ch28]

Keep time stamps of when they called.

Call the non-emergency line of your local police after 3 of them for harassment.

[Dragon-88]

Its something thats been going on for awhile. I have soo many customers walk in asking about this and all I can say is just tell them its a scam.. Basically all they do is tell you their from Microsoft and you have a virus or something.. Then they load a tracker/remote application and steal all your data...

All you can really do is ignore and hang up...

Maybe next time they call do a RS troll story..

[BaoTurbo]

Techs don't call you from reputable software companies. Derp derp

[CT10]

I got a call last week and was playing around with them acting all scared and worried about my computer being at risk of a virus. They basically spend about 10 minutes trying to scare/convince you into thinking your computer is at risk. After a while they then directed me to a website called ammyy.com and asked me to download some program. That's when I told them I worked for the police (lies) in Canada and we've been catching spammers like them and fining them and their company $100k Cdn, and he said sorry and hung up lol.

[mekaw]

i suppose they are hoping that they'll get a hold of someone else other than myself in my house.

[AzNightmare]

This reminds me of a prank I watched a long time ago.
Some IT guy claiming to be working for their internet provider has been detecting a lot
of pornography traffic. And the woman that answered was a mother, and she thought her
son was the one watching porn, so she followed the IT guy's step-by-step instruction to do a "porn sweep"
to remove it all from the computer. He leads her to go to DOS and "deltree" her entire computer.

Could be fake... but that's pretty fucked up.

[BaoTurbo]

^Could have ended with the mom asking the son if he was watching porn all the time, but making you wipe your own computer and hanging up is more funny to hear.

[MG1]

LOL........

[EndLeSS8]

I got the call last week, I told them that they sound like BS and I hung up on them

[El Bastardo]

Time is money for these people. If you have some time to spare keep them on the phone for as long as you can. Make them sell to you. Make them repeat their pitch again and again. Act like you're afraid of viruses, that you're an ignorant consumer. They'll put in the time if they think you'll be giving them money at the end of the call. Waste their time and then tell them you'll have to think about it/talk to your boss/take it to Best Buy's Geek Squad for a second opinion/call them back.

Wasting their time is the only way you can aggravate them as much as they aggravate you.

[tiger_handheld]

what do they ask? I want to play along .. will report back if i get a call.

[mekaw]

they call you and say, that they are from microsoft or some company that works for microsoft and my windows machine has been sending a virus through my router or internet or w/e. then they pause.

[InvisibleSoul]

WTF? I've never heard of this scam before... seems like it's not that easy to do, since most people would have to manually enable remote desktop and then go into their router and set up port forwarding... I wonder if the scammer actually takes the time to walk someone through all that.

[GLOW]

they call you and say, that they are from microsoft or some company that works for microsoft and my windows machine has been sending a virus through my router or internet or w/e. then they pause.

that's when you reply: good, it's working...problem? *then pause*

:troll:

[lacubrious1]

Ive heard about this...

Can't wait until they call me, I'm gonna ask them a bunch of questions then eventually tell them I have a Mac.

[k3mps]

I didn't get a call from IT, but i literally just got a call from CANCUN MEXICO.
saying i got picked for a trip for 4.

anyone else get this call

[Nlkko]

Apparently this is getting popular. Novus sent us an email warning about this type of scam.

[FOREVER]

Just got a call from them today LOL.

Told them I have a mac and the guy said I had to upgrade it every 6months for "maximum performance" to some mumbo jumbo. Then said I should go to my computer to complete the proccess. I asked if I had to complete it, he said if i wanted to, obviously not. Then he thanks me and hangsup :fullofwin:

Got a total time of 2:23 talking to him. My dad was talking to him trying to understand him for 4 mins :bowrofl:


EDIT: LOLOLOLOLOLOL Called again, told them I was running linux, -long pause- *click*

EDIT#2: Caller ID picked up their number (1) 510 943-3040

[AutozamAZ-3]

EDIT#2: Caller ID picked up their number (1) 510 943-3040

WARNING internet scam WARNING - YouTube





edit: long but funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvn6mCzRRpU&feature=related

[Manic!]

When they call tell them your name is Bill... Bill Gates.

[FOREVER]

When they call tell them your name is Bill... Bill Gates.

They call you by your last name Mr.____ or w/e:(

[kungpow]

How did the scammers get your numbers??? Do they just call people randomly from the yellowpages?

[FOREVER]

No clue, but they called me again. Woman doesn't know what Linux is LOL.

[Anjew]

WTF? I've never heard of this scam before... seems like it's not that easy to do, since most people would have to manually enable remote desktop and then go into their router and set up port forwarding... I wonder if the scammer actually takes the time to walk someone through all that.

what? you do not have to enable remote desktop at all. they arent using that method.

they will direct the chump to a website to download a 3rd party client file.

[InvisibleSoul]

what? you do not have to enable remote desktop at all. they arent using that method.

they will direct the chump to a website to download a 3rd party client file.

Yeah, that would be a lot easier... like GoToAssist or something like that... no port forwarding needed.

[krazynuck]

Telemarketer Prank 081 - Part I - YouTube

try 45 mins on the phone with them (I think this is the one I don't have sound right now)


I always get the captain calling me saying I won a trip

[mickz]

I had this call today and I decided to toy with the guy for a bit...

[mickz]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH THIS GUY CALLED MY HOUSE 3 TIMES JUST NOW.

#1 - I played it dumb and said I had Windows 3.1 and I had no task bar and therefore couldn't find the Start button.

#2 - I told him my phone kept cutting out and told him to call me at (604) 717-3321 instead (that's the VPD non-emergency line for those of you who don't know)

#3 - He called me back telling me the number doesn't work and that's when I called him out on his little scam and told him to stop calling my fucking house. He also had the balls to ask me why was I wasting his time. LOL

[Purely]

I got called two times from these scammers now. The first time I hanged up, and the second time I said I used Mac and was running Linux, and she said she got the wrong # and hanged up LOL.

[Psykopathik]

the best way to string them along is to play dumb. i mean really "Simple Jack" dumb. Throw in a studder, that will help it drag out.

when they say to click start, reply with something like

"whu- whu-whu- where's thuh-thuh whu- whu-whu- where's thuh-thuh stuh-start button? Its not on the tuh-tower anywuh wuh where..."

they will hang up or pull out their hair thinking they have a moron who will do what they want , but is too dumb to. drag it out as long as you can, then when they get to the part where you need to go to a website or something, say your internet isn't working or your mouse ran out of batteries and you are going to get more.

"please wait..."

never come back.

[InvisibleSoul]

Looks like one company involved as been identified... and get this, they were a Gold partner of Microsoft:

Microsoft dumps partner over support call scam | News | PC Pro (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/370054/microsoft-dumps-partner-over-support-call-scam)

[Presto]

Looks like a bunch of the scammers got busted, recently:


Regulators smash global phone tech support scam operation | ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.com/regulators-smash-global-phone-tech-support-scam-operation-7000005195/)
Regulators from five countries joined together in an operation to crack down on a series of companies orchestrating one of the most widespread Internet scams of the decade.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other international regulatory authorities today said they shut down a global criminal network that bilked tens of thousands of consumers by pretending to be tech support providers.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, speaking during a press conference with a Microsoft executive and regulators from Australia and Canada, said 14 companies and 17 individuals were targeted in the investigation. In the course of the crackdown, U.S. authorities already have frozen $188,000 in assets, but Leibowitz said that would increase over time thanks to international efforts.

Global phone support scam


Scammers would use remote desktop tools to access the victim's computer.

Read more: Phone scammers target PC users with phony virus reports

"These so-called tech support scams are the latest variation of scareware," Leibowitz said.

English-speaking consumers in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.K. were targeted in the global scam. Most of the scammers were based in India, but some also came from the U.S. and U.K.

The scam involved cold callers who claimed to work for major technology companies, such as Microsoft or Google, and who told consumers they had viruses on their PCs. The callers would attempt to dupe users into giving them remote access to their computers, locking the user out while attempting to "fix" the malware that the scammer claimed was on the machine.

In some cases, ads were placed on Google to lure in unwitting consumers when they searched for their PC's tech support phone number. And many of the people called were on do-not-call registries.

Windows PC users were targeted seemingly indiscriminately and charged between $49 to $450 to remove the non-existent malware that the supposed tech company representative claimed was on the PC.

Leibowitz said the frozen assets could be distributed to victims once they are identified, but he warned it's rare to "get 100 percent back in restitution." The FTC said that more importantly, it should be able to stop the scams going forward.

It is thought there could be upwards of tens of thousands of victims worldwide in total across six countries, and the FTC warned that the figure could be "significantly higher."

The scammers attempted to avoid detection by using virtual offices, including more than 80 different domain names and 130 different phone numbers. Officials said many of the scammers from India were using U.S. carriers, and the carriers agreed to block the numbers.

A U.S. District Court for judge, at the request of the FTC, ordered a stop to six alleged tech-support scams pending further hearings. A further 17 individual defendants were also targeted by the FTC in six legal filings with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The FTC charged the suspects with the Federal Trade Commission Act, which bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices, and were also charged with illegally calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry.

More than 10,000 complaints were drawn from Australian citizens to the country's regulator as early as 2009. Once the scam began to spread around the world, the Australia Communication and Media Authority contacted U.S. authorities with intelligence on the scammers, which had by then received 2,400 complaints. The FTC said "hundreds of thousands of U.S. consumers" could have been affected.

Canada had also received "thousands and thousands" of complaints, but Andrea Rosen, chief compliance and enforcement officer at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, said it was difficult to identify exactly how many. In Australia, it was estimated that the scammers made about $85 from each successful scam.

The FTC is working with the Indian authorities, but did not disclose confidential details due to the ongoing investigations.

Leibowitz thanked U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for their "invaluable assistance" to the FTC.

Canada's Rosen said "we make a difference by working together," highlighting how the agencies and regulators collaborated across borders to investigate the scams.

The FTC also acknowledged investigative assistance it received from Microsoft, as well as from other technology companies.

Frank Torres, Microsoft's director of consumer affairs and senior policy counsel, said at the press conference that Microsoft will continue to work with the agencies as other scams emerge. He noted that Microsoft will never cold call customers and ask for their credit cards to charge them for services they don't need.

"It's like playing a game of whack-a-mole, really, for cyber criminals to find ways to deceive people," Torres said.