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[adamsappel]

How do these scammers get so lucky with randomly calling people who have problems with Windows?

 

[obin_gam]

Someone should edit together a book with these scamming stories. This thread is hilarious It is almost as good as the stories of those who respond to the Nigeria Letters and screwing around with those guys.

 

[killer rin]

To be honest, I think I would love having one of these guys call me. It would allow me to talk back and play around instead of the usual useless telemarketing phone calls I get.

"How doez I Click"
"I dont know if my computer is on. There is a green light."

Then If I can keep him going for 30 minutes, come up at him with.
"So yeah, I program software for a living and know that your talking bullshit. It was fun messing with you, but I really should get going"

 

[NotBacon]

How do these scammers get so lucky with randomly calling people who have problems with Windows?

Because many people run Windows and many people have the same problems under Windows.

Last quarter I got one of these calls, and this guy was CERTAIN my computer had this Windows virus and needed immediate attention. I told him I wanted an extra large with extra olives then hung up.

I run elementary OS...

 

[LegionX]

How do these scammers get so lucky with randomly calling people who have problems with Windows?

I work in a small Computer Shop doing repairs/etc... honestly... most people that come in here after having been caught by this scam are so clueless that they give access even when they had no problems with their PC at all. The scammers manage to convince them otherwise..

It still surprises me how gullible some people can be... the one that takes the cake was a couple that came in saying I needed to check the PC and write a report for the police because they had been hacked. Story ended up being one of these cold calls... where the person on the line got them to log in to their internet banking while he had remote access... and.... he drained their account... According to them this was being hacked... According to me this was them being amazingly dense....

90% of the time I find nothing on the machines though, most of the scammers in this area seem to just try to sell some monthly service contract thing and just use the remote access to scare people with event viewer, rather than install malicious software.... mostly...

Still never been called my them myself though!

 

[Harpuia]

I've always wished I got called by one of these shmucks just to mess with them. Though I'd imagine they'd stop trying soon as I don't let them remote connect to my PC.

 

[Patryn]

How do these scammers get so lucky with randomly calling people who have problems with Windows?

Most Windows systems will have some errors in the event log, but it's generally not anything serious and does not affect the performance of the machine in many ways. If a program crashes even once, you have an error logged.

The scammers just take advantage of this fact and ignorant people who don't know what they're looking at.

 

[lawful]

Are scammers hacking the Gibson now?

 

[adamsappel]

Because many people run Windows and many people have the same problems under Windows.

Last quarter I got one of these calls, and this guy was CERTAIN my computer had this Windows virus and needed immediate attention. I told him I wanted an extra large with extra olives then hung up.

I run elementary OS...

I was just being facetious. Everyone has a problem with Windows at some point. I always just told these scammers that I had Macs, not much they can say to that.

 

[bagandscalpel]

Ah, remember I got one of these about a month and a half ago.

First thing the caller mentioned was that he was to fix a Windows issue and needed me to immediately follow his instructions. When asked whether he or his company were associated with Microsoft, he kept defaulting back to: "No, we are working with and are partners with Windows."

After going around in circles like this for about 5 minutes, he got tripped up when I (falsely) admitted to having a mac and then laughed loudly and racously into the phone as he was trying to bid me farewell.

 

[Dougald]

This video is a good watch on the process of what these scammers do to get you to fork out

 

[Murrah]

Heaven help my grandparents if they ever get a call like this. Got a call last year from my gramps that he had "been hacked" and someone on the phone said they could fix it for $150. I tried to ask him what was wrong, and he was saying that it wasn't letting him log on to AOL to check his email (yes, at least one person in the world still uses AOL) and that someone must've changed his password. Went over and all it was was that AOL had redesigned their site and moved the button leading to emails to the other side of the screen, and he didn't understand that concept.

Still have no idea who he talked to on the phone about fixing his computer though, since gramps made it sound like he himself was the one who made the call.

 

[terrisus]

he was saying that it wasn't letting him log on to AOL to check his email (yes, at least one person in the world still uses AOL)

This is what I still use for my email:

 

[Metalmarc]

How do these scammers get so lucky with randomly calling people who have problems with Windows?

they don't always, case in point they randomly rang a friend of mine from work. He's 51 years old

He told me it went something like this

Fake tech guy on phone, "There is a problem with your p.c sir, windows is not updating correctly, i am just going to talk you through a few steps to solve this issue, there will be a fee"

My friend "err no you won't, no thank you"

Fake tech guy "what do you mean sir, i can see your computer from here, i am connected remotely from our servers, reads off some numbers supposedly motherboard serial numbers"

My friend " i don't own a P.C sorry, goodbye"

My guess is two versions of this scam

1) they are cold calling with similar info maybe 4/10 times they'll stumble cross someone who actually has a computer problem, and they are probably are hoping the person they called are slightly clueless when it comes to technology as they will be easy victims.

2) actually installing malware/trojans and getting the targets data from there.

 

[IISANDERII]

I just got this call. He knew my name.

I played dumb and told him my computer was very bad and slow. I couldn't even tell him what browser I am on, that's how bad my machine is and how dumb I am. Told him when I try to go to any site, I get redirected to porn and thought out loudly if I should click on the link with the special lady who's only 6km from my location and is waiting for me to chat with her. Spent 30min just trying to reboot my computer, telling him I often get a disk error and have to try to reboot again.

Wasted 90min total of his time while I played Call of Duty exo survivor trying to get trophies.

He says he'll be calling back in 20min, by that time he hopes I've had finally gotten to "www.windowshelpsupprt.com"

Suggestions?

 

[Rktk]

Had the call, they tried to give some number that identified my computer but I asked them what version of Windows I was running and they couldn't tell me.

 

[zeemumu]

My parents almost fell for something like this a long time . I could hear the guysay "my god" every time my dad answered a question. I think the guy's name blew his cover. He had an incredibly thick Indian accent and his names was something along the lines of Mike Johnson.

 

[terrisus]

I just got this call.

The calls are coming from inside the house...

He knew my name.

 

[Aureon]

Please note that simply visiting a website can't pass any malware or anything like that, in the slightest.
However, if you installed any software, don't even bother to try to track it down. Reformat the damn thing.
If they made you write anything in the command line with admin privileges, also reformat.

 

[Muskieratboi]

You are Already Hacked.

(Kenshiro.png)

Please note that simply visiting a website can't pass any malware or anything like that, in the slightest.

Actually, there are quite a few vulnerabilities that allow just that. it's one of the reasons chrome et al has site blacklists.