Transcript of my call with an Indian Microsoft Support scammer.

[Over The Hill]

I don't get this 'having fun with scammers' - the poor sods making the calls are just trying to earn a living. What's wrong with 'Sorry, no thanks' then putting the phone down?

Does no-one here reflect what it is like, keeping your family fed by doing night shifts in a cubicle in a Mumbai call centre?

I am very polite to a real call centre staff, wherever it is in the world. Worked in one myself.
These are not call centre staff - they are con artists. The man phoning up from Microsoft because my computer is broken is not phoning from Microsoft and my compute is not broken. They are trying to trick me into giving them access to my computer to steal from me and prey on the dim witted or polite people of the world. The must have a degree of success or they would not keep calling. Surely we do the world a favour by putting them off doing this job.

 

[Over The Hill]

Any charge for nicking this to add to my repertoire?

Sure ......







....no charge!

 

[IDMark2]

I am very polite to a real call centre staff, wherever it is in the world. Worked in one myself.
These are not call centre staff - they are con artists. The man phoning up from Microsoft because my computer is broken is not phoning from Microsoft and my compute is not broken. 1.They are trying to trick me into giving them access to my computer to steal from me and prey on the dim witted or polite people of the world. The must have a degree of success or they would not keep calling. 2. Surely we do the world a favour by putting them off doing this job.

1. No, they're not, they're using skilfully crafted language well, just like a Cornflake packet
2. Yes, you're right

 

[Markymark]

How does that work then ?
The link is only a standard URL with nothing that could link a reply to my email and the email I put in their web page is the one the bank uses for reporting phishing emails.

Chances are it's not a standard link but one with a long url with a code which identifies which email it was

 

[ufkacbln]

Well, I don't get them anywhere, let alone to my computer. But to blame the receiver of the call for following the scripted instructions of the caller - admittedly a dumb thing to do - is to blame the victim. And as for control of your computer, that is very much on the agenda with the scammers requesting that you download something that will allow them to 'help' you. So yes, they do try to gain access to your computer.

(edited (see below))

As you point out, blaming the victim is wrong, and these are criminals
Don't forget that we are (mostly trolls) articulate, intelligent and computer literate.

There are thousands of vulnerable adults out there that are being ripped off and often with residual issues long after the crime itself

Conning money from a vulnerable person because of a non-existent computer problem is no different from the gut who walks downthe street, identifies a vulnerable person, points out the "problems" with their roof and then charges a fortune for shoddy or no work

 

[hoopdriver]

Don't forget that we are (mostly trolls) articulate, intelligent and computer literate.

There are thousands of vulnerable adults out there that are being ripped off and often with residual issues long after the crime itself

Conning money from a vulnerable person because of a non-existent computer problem is no different from the gut who walks downthe street, identifies a vulnerable person, points out the "problems" with their roof and then charges a fortune for shoddy or no work

What was there about my post that made you think I disagreed with that? These people are criminals and should be treated as such. I was taking issue with people on here who apparently believe scammers are just regular folks, working hard, trying to put food on the table for their families and that we should not be rude to them.
My position was, and remains, that they are criminals. Nothing in any of my posts suggests otherwise.

 

[ufkacbln]

What was there about my post that made you think I disagreed with that? These people are criminals and should be treated as such. I was taking issue with people on here who apparently believe scammers are just regular folks, working hard, trying to put food on the table for their families and that we should not be rude to them.
My position was, and remains, that they are criminals. Nothing in any of my posts suggests otherwise.

My apologies, that was not my intention at all.

Your post pointed out that it was wrong to blame the victim, and it was that point I followed up, it was meant as a general comment. I have now edited it to make that clearer

 

[hoopdriver]

My apologies, that was not my intention at all.

Your post pointed out that it was wrong to blame the victim, and it was that point I followed up, it was meant as a general comment. I have now edited it to make that clearer

No worries!

 

[mr_cellophane]

I used to really enjoy answering machine messages, one of my favourites was playing the bit in 'Oh Superman' by Lori Anderson, followed by the remaining many minutes for the track.

Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh Hoh

As I believe the lyrics are.

I thought they were
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha

Got an email just now from Royal Mail. The subject was
"Parcel is expecting of receiving"
At least learn English if you are going to scam me.

 

[Mugshot]

I was once abusive down the phone to a Brit who cold called, and he plagued me for several days by ringing back and being abusive. Unfortunately his number was withheld so I could not take it further. But I was pleased to waste his time.

I read a story about a chap that worked in a call centre (not a scammer type one) who received a bucket full of abuse from somebody he called, although he was used to it for some reason on this particular occasion he was rather upset by it. He made a note of the phone number and on occasions if he was having a bad day he would call the number back and when answered he would shout Gods least favourite word down the line. Apparently it cheered him up no end.

 

[hoopdriver]

I read a story about a chap that worked in a call centre (not a scammer type one) who received a bucket full of abuse from somebody he called, although he was used to it for some reason on this particular occasion he was rather upset by it. He made a note of the phone number and on occasions if he was having a bad day he would call the number back and when answered he would shout Gods least favourite word down the line. Apparently it cheered him up no end.

And these are people for whom we are supposed to feel empathy?

 

[Mugshot]

And these are people for whom we are supposed to feel empathy?

I'm not suggesting we should feel anything for them, just relaying a story I read somewhere.
I do think it's worth remembering though that not all cold calls are from people trying to scam you, annoying though they may be. To give somebody a torrent of abuse is likely to be OTT in many such circumstances. I'm happy for the scammers to get it in spades though.
In a previous job I sold a product which needed a home visit in order to discuss a customers requirements and to measure up. There was never any cold calling, in all the cases the potential customer would have called into the shop and requested that they have a home visit. If I was not there then somebody else would take the details and let them know that I would call them back in order to make an appointment. It was not unknown to be hung up on or told in various ways to naff off before you could even get a word in edgeways and these people had asked me to call them!

 

[PlymSlimCyclist]

I do love these calls. Unfortunately an elderly friend of mine was caught out by this, and was promptly told if there was anything wrong either with their network or system then they'd need to contact the system admin (me). When my Mum received a call, she just gave them my number and asked to call me.
Funnily enough, I never received any call about issues in either household.

I'd have loved to have strung them along. Ah well.
Now my Mum just screens all her calls, and my friend is (slowly...) becoming more aware of scame.

 

[JtB]

I received a similar call (to the OP) yesterday from 005415634613. The woman on the other end said she was from Microsoft and they had detected a bad signal from my computer indicating that it had downloaded a virus from the internet. Firstly I asked what she meant by a "computer", I had never heard of such a thing before and then I asked her what this "internet thingy" was she was talking about. After finally giving up she told me to "go to hell" and then hung up.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Unfortunately my dad got caught with this a couple of years ago. He gave them access and they wiped a lot of system files rendering the laptop unusable then took £149 (I think) from him. Seeing him in tears when it was explained made me want to throttle anyone involved in this scam.