A New Record. Windows Support!

[Hugh Manatee]

A new personal record this morning. It is raining hard with a strong wind. I'm bored and actually volunteered to do a little bit of tidying! After a while, the phone rings. A very Indian sounding young man called David telling me my PC is infected with all sorts of terrible things.

Oh no says me, what could possibly be wrong? I mean, wasn't I using it only yesterday? Turns out (after a lot of typing errors in the Run box, I'm sorry, I have trouble with words and spelling), that I have 1300 errors and warnings.

Yikes, that sounds bad says me, what could be the cause? Another 20 minutes of incorrect spellings and we finally get to another window showing we a lot of my applications are stopped. Isn't this because I'm not using them? No, it is due to infected cookies or something.

Just as we pass the hour mark, he tells me we can remotely connect to their big friendly server that can diagnose and cure all my computer's ills! Thank goodness says me, let's do it!

More bad spelling and misunderstandings, (oh, you mean a full stop, not the word dot?) takes a while but, finally, their web address is typed into the Run command.

What can I see? No, not that. All it says is that it cannot find the Server. It says I need to check the spelling! We do this at great length and in intricate detail. There doesn't seem any reason it shouldn't work. He then tells me to check the Internet connection.

Oh, I don't think I have one of those. No I don't trust these new dangled things and anyway, I'm not sure it'll catch on! This seemed to annoy my new friend quite a bit.

I made it an hour and ten minutes that this guy wasn't ripping off someone else. Ho hum, back to the tidying I suppose.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

You are the Screen Saviour!

 

[jamin100]

I'm an IT manager for a large school and we've actually had them call the main school number press '4' to go through to the IT support department and then try it on with me...

He got really stumped when our proxy server refused the connection to his server.. I asked him if he wanted me to change the VLAN settings on the switch to bypass the proxy, he said no and just asked me to restart the wireless lol... Edjit

 

[ColinJ]

I know someone who isn't net-savvy who fell for one of those calls and actually handed over control of their PC to the caller! They ended up locked out of the machine and faced with a demand for a 'support fee' to 'fix the problem' ...

Only at that point did the truth become obvious. The PC ended up in the local computer shop to be unlocked and cleared of all the malware which had been installed.

I don't understand why people fall for this kind of thing. If a stranger walked up to them in the street and said that they needed to borrow keys to their house for an hour, would they just hand them over? I suppose it is a nice quality to be trusting, but I prefer to be safe so as far as I am concerned trust has to be earned.

 

[TVC]

70 minutes sounds like a record to me, kudos, I've only managed to string them along for five minutes before getting bored and asking them if their mother would cry if she found out that they were a criminal trying to defraud people.

 

[DaveReading]

I managed just over an hour once, so I take my hat off to the OP.

At the end of my call, I actually remarked to the lady that it had been an hour in which they hadn't been able to scam anyone else. She said she didn't care as there were plenty of other potential victims out there. Previously I had clung on to the notion that the individuals on the phone were themselves innocent dupes who genuinely thought they were helping you. Now I know better.

 

[SamR]

Family member had a call from 'Microsoft Support' a few days ago, and when she told them she used a Mac, they refused to believe it, "maam, you don't understand me there is a problem with your Windows...'
Eventually they gave up trying.
If they ever call me, I intend to have some serious fun with them.

 

[mybike]

They seem to have a problem with my machine, I've 'menu' instead of start and 'terminal' instead of run. Have to agree, every minute you have of fun is a minute they're not messing with someone.

 

[buggi]

Legend!

 

[andyfraser]

I don't understand why people fall for this kind of thing. If a stranger walked up to them in the street and said that they needed to borrow keys to their house for an hour, would they just hand them over? I suppose it is a nice quality to be trusting, but I prefer to be safe so as far as I am concerned trust has to be earned.

There are still a lot of people from all age groups who think that computers and the internet are a complete mystery. Then there are news stories about the NSA and GCHQ monitoring us online and hackers after our details so why wouldn't Microsoft know there's a problem with their computer before they do? On Watchdog they showed how the scammers direct their victim to Event Viewer to see all the errors there then they show them all the stopped services. How are they supposed to know that those errors are benign? How are they supposed to know those services will only be running if they've been told to run? Until people become more informed and more suspicious of people calling out of the blue it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

If they ever call here I don't know whether I'd play dumb or use a different OS and pretend I think I'm using Windows. I do like the idea of telling them my machine isn't connected to the internet though.

 

[ColinJ]

There are still a lot of people from all age groups who think that computers and the internet are a complete mystery. Then there are news stories about the NSA and GCHQ monitoring us online and hackers after our details so why wouldn't Microsoft know there's a problem with their computer before they do? On Watchdog they showed how the scammers direct their victim to Event Viewer to see all the errors there then they show them all the stopped services. How are they supposed to know that those errors are benign? How are they supposed to know those services will only be running if they've been told to run? Until people become more informed and more suspicious of people calling out of the blue it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Ok, some complete stranger walks up to them in the street and says "I work for Samsung and we have realised that there is a risk that your television could explode at any minute. Please lend us your keys so a team of experts can safely remove your TV and take it away to be upgraded"!

It isn't a question of whether Microsoft knows about problems, it is that complete strangers are saying that they work for Microsoft and victims just take their word for it.

 

[Lullabelle]

Some of the retired generation have taken to the internet but some are still quite naive about it unfortunately and these are the easy targets

 

[subaqua]

Some of the retired generation have taken to the internet but some are still quite naive about it unfortunately and these are the easy targets

they need to get my MIL to be able to hear them first. and they would get bored with the constant repeat of "sorry , what was that" , "oh i am sorry " before she would of them.

 

[andyfraser]

Ok, some complete stranger walks up to them in the street and says "I work for Samsung and we have realised that there is a risk that your television could explode at any minute. Please lend us your keys so a team of experts can safely remove your TV and take it away to be upgraded"!

It isn't a question of whether Microsoft knows about problems, it is that complete strangers are saying that they work for Microsoft and victims just take their word for it.

Being approached in the street and being called on the electric telephone are two completely different situations. At home people are more relaxed and feel safer. They may well let you collect their Samsung TV if you phone them and convince them that you're from Samsung and there's a problem.

 

[IDMark2]

Previously I had clung on to the notion that the individuals on the phone were themselves innocent dupes who genuinely thought they were helping you. Now I know better.

I had thought myself that the people you spoke to were only reading scripts and getting paid a pittance for it as just their way of making a living any way they can.
Possibly my gambit of asking if they know what they are trying to do before hanging up is more than necessary, I could just hang up or string them along, probably it's only me that feels I tried to be human about it in the end.