Joss Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Just had a phone call from someone claiming to be from my broadband supplier and saying that I had a major terrible fault with my computer. I spent a happy five minutes tricking him by getting him to guess which company I get broadband from (he tried five different ones), asking what type of computer I had (he got that wrong three times), and finished by telling him he was a criminal and a fraud and when I got hold of him I would plant him in a very deep hole indeed – I made the latter bit last several minutes and did not repeat myself once. He eventually hung up. However he did try very hard. He said that he was from a Pakistani company set up by the UK Government to deal with problems. He tried to tell me that If I did not let him help me they would have to shut down my computer remotely and it would delete all the files (I was a danger to the system) and a whole pile of other scare tactics. He was very convincing, or would have been except I recognised this as a fraud immediately for a couple of reasons: 1. If you have viruses or anything else on your computer, your broadband supplier won’t know and are really not interested – it won’t affect them and they see it as your problem. 2. If your broadband supplier needs to contact you because they are doing work, they will either post a letter to you or, more likely, not tell you at all and you will find your service is interrupted for a while as a surprise. Suppliers have hundreds of thousands of customers, it is not practical to phone them! 3. The chances are that your broadband supplier will NEVER phone you – just like your phone supplier never phones you. So the odds are that it is a scam. Ah, that was three reasons. So, if anyone calls claiming that they have detected a problem on your computer, do one of two things. 1. Hand up immediately (the best thing to do) 2. Give them a really nasty lecture on what a complete low-life they are and how if there is a god they will go to hell. It will get rid of several days worth of frustration and stress and make you feel lots better! I wonder if I can get him to phone me weekly? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwakad Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 On the other side of your pond, we have troubles with callers from italy - claiming they have an offer thats very interesting. How-ever, some people reported - If you wait more then 5 minutes - they take over your phone line and the next month you end up with a big bill ! But I must admit, these people sometimes have luck making someone believe this is real. We might think they are stupid, but they will collect sooner or later on type of scams you mentioned. Just in case: you better reformat your harddisk. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joss Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 Yep, I have just started reformatting now, it will only take a couple of minu... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruMeditation Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 The UK Government line seems to be their latest trick. I had a phone call two days ago regarding my boiler. They told me it was part of a government scheme to replace it (which I knew was a load of balls). I'm not sure what they planned to achieve? maybe they were going to ask for a deposit? Either way, I didn't give them much time as I simply blew my air horn down the phone 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazzyweb Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 There is a lot of this going on recently in the UK. I know someone recently that had an almost identical call and got tricked into downloading some software so that the caller could 'fix the problem on their computer'. Luckily he called me on their other phone asking for advice while in the middle of this process and i put a stop to it before any real damage was done. Even the most street wise seemed to get conned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joss Posted March 26, 2014 Author Share Posted March 26, 2014 This is very true - they just have to get you when you are distracted.... It is ironic that the principle these scammers use when it comes to number crunching and the likelyhood of getting away with it is identical to that used by direct sales companies. The internet may not have created the conman, but in its attempts to be this wonderful, free world that Tim Berners Lee dreams of, it sure has given them an easy ride! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwired Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 It's called social engineering. Happens even worse off line. Can leave a bad taste in your mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joss Posted March 26, 2014 Author Share Posted March 26, 2014 It's called social engineering. Happens even worse off line. Can leave a bad taste in your mind. Oh, not so sure about that. At least if they knock at my door I can weld their face onto the front of my fist. (honed to a nice hard surface by near on 50 years of piano and guitar and weekly trips to my allotment) Online, anyone can have a go, and stay more or less untraceable to the majority of people. If you are going to try and con me, at least have the guts to do it to my face - even if I do resemble Hagrid .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwired Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 It can be a friendly face or voice. The smarter they are, the more triggers they find inside your very own mind, making you buy into their shit. When you wake up, it's already too late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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