Telephone scam - 'your PC has a virus'

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martinbailey

martinbailey

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Jun 17, 2011
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  • #1
    I've had three calls in about two weeks where someone has called my home line (I work from home but have two lines coming in) and said 'We're calling from the technical support department and have detected that there is corrupt data coming from your computer'.

    These are scam calls. They often throw the word Microsoft in there so that you think they work for Microsoft, although last time they called me I got them to admit that they don't. The aim of the call is for them to connect to you via a service such as LogMeIn so that they can take control of your PC, download software 'diagnose' a problem that does not exist and then sell you software to fix it.

    The first few times they called I just hung up but last time I asked a few more questions. Next time I am going to have some fun :) I am going to run a Virtual Machine and let them connect to that. They can do what the hell they want to it - I'll just keep them busy so they can't get onto the next poor sap in the list. And I'm going to record the conversation/video and stick it on YouTube (with a link here) so everyone can learn how these guys operate and hopefully have a laugh in the meantime.

    Like any scammers these people prey on those that know little about technology who don't question the fact that someone got their phone number because of an allegedly infected PC...
     
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    Laurenpears

    Laurenpears

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    Apr 4, 2011
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  • #2
    martinbailey said:
    I've had three calls in about two weeks where someone has called my home line (I work from home but have two lines coming in) and said 'We're calling from the technical support department and have detected that there is corrupt data coming from your computer'.

    These are scam calls. They often throw the word Microsoft in there so that you think they work for Microsoft, although last time they called me I got them to admit that they don't. The aim of the call is for them to connect to you via a service such as LogMeIn so that they can take control of your PC, download software 'diagnose' a problem that does not exist and then sell you software to fix it.

    The first few times they called I just hung up but last time I asked a few more questions. Next time I am going to have some fun :) I am going to run a Virtual Machine and let them connect to that. They can do what the hell they want to it - I'll just keep them busy so they can't get onto the next poor sap in the list. And I'm going to record the conversation/video and stick it on YouTube (with a link here) so everyone can learn how these guys operate and hopefully have a laugh in the meantime.

    Like any scammers these people prey on those that know little about technology who don't question the fact that someone got their phone number because of an allegedly infected PC...
    Click to expand...

    Ha! Makes me laugh that people would actually set this up as a company! And i bet nothing happens to them either when theyre caught doing dodgy dealins!
     
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    M

    MancunianCreative

  • #5
    I do enjoy it when they call claiming to be from BT and I go oh really, I am on Virgin media. Then they tell me they can fix the virus I ask them what version of Windows do I have, they normally guess at one, then I tell them I am on a Mac and try someone else! :D
     
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    Tom McClelland

    Tom McClelland

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    Feb 10, 2008
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  • #6
    Interesting that someone else is seeing a big upsurge in these calls. I'd say that this particular scam is a big profitable business.

    I hadn't thought of letting them connect to a virtual PC set up for the purpose. That could be hilarious. If they call when I'm not otherwise busy I just try to waste plenty of their time by various ruses. "Oh, is that someone I hear at the door? I'll be back in a minute"
     
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    A

    andypowell

  • #7
    For a while my Skype number was being given out by one of these scammers as their own number for people to call back and verify. I'd guess it was a couple of digits different to their own.

    On one occasion I got a call from a very worried elderly lady, who desperately wanted me to get rid of the virus on her computer, 45 minutes it took me to convince her it was a scam and she still tried to pay me at the end of that.

    It did cross my mind that if I had just used Teamviewer to access her PC I could have probably got her off the phone quicker.
     
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    Y

    yourcreditmanager

  • #8
    I keep getting these tw*ts on the phone... they are almost relentless - apart from swearing at them the best way I could to stop them for a while was to ask them to ring "me" back on my "mobile"... the number I gave out was for a premium rate gay sex chat line at £1.50 a minute I got off of google... :) Oddly enough the calls to my number stopped for almost two months... I can't imagine why:D

    One variation of this to be aware of is the scammers often pretend to be a "survey" company who will call you incessently. Again it's almost some man or woman from Asia who will try to ascertain what sort of PC is and what your favourite place is, name of your dog etc, in order to try to work out what your password most likely is into to hack into our PC... Be aware.

    Michael
     
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    Swisaw

    Swisaw

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    Sep 24, 2010
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  • #9
    Would some one please pass me any premium gay numbers. I will use it to scam these scammers.

    I twice scammed unsuccessfully two nigerian scam junky millionairs. I made them to telephone for weeks. First I gave them fictitious bank account numbers. Later I informed them large amounts of money had been deposited in the account and asked them if they knew any thing about it. They replied it was their money and asked me to send back half of it. Later they would come to London to discuss to invest the other half. I kept them for over two weeks telephoning me days and nights. Later I told them the bad news. I told them the money taken over by fraud squad. The only way for us to get it back we had to go to the court. As the money was theirs, I gave therm two choices either they had to send me £5000.00 the cost of hiring a lawyer or they would lose their money.
    One of them, after a lot of calls, gave up. The other one threatened to send his boys after me in London as I was not telling the truth, I was taking all his money for myself, the fraud squad didn't take it.
     
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    D

    Dorkins

  • #11
    They are good for a bit of amusement if things are quiet, kept mine going for 45 minutes then asked him if he would rather continue the conversation or would he rather cut his losses and try someone else?
    his reply was "you're cool man, cool and then hung up!
     
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    G

    GoPD

  • #12
    We had several of these over a two week period last month. also had the same calls on our home number so presume they are just working there way through all the local numbers. Most of the callers sounded so bored and lethargic I nearly felt sorry for them.

    I do have an elderly relative who was taken in by one of these calls and ended up with a computer full of viruses after following their instructions so its always good to see the fact it is a scam publicised.
     
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    R

    Rhodes100

  • #14
    I have played with these guys and kept them holding on pretending that there is something wrong with my computer. Telling them that it keeps freezing up and that I have to reboot keeping them on the line whilst I am doing something productive. Great fun!
     
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    debbidoo

    debbidoo

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    Apr 10, 2008
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  • #16
    Last time I had one of these calls, I told them I didn't have a computer so I couldn't understand why he would be calling me. He was really puzzled - kept saying "really? you have no computer?" - then asked if someone else in the house had a computer, so I said no, there are no computers at all in this house. Such fun!

    I get the pretend surveys a lot too - I'd always assumed they were just trying to get info to sell on to other companies to target 'offers' etc - hadn't occurred to me these calls might be to get me to pass on info that could be used to guess passwords etc. I always send them away with a flea in their ear anyway, reminding them that I'm on the TPS and they have no right to call me. They're usually really argumentative, insisting it will only take a few minutes of my time, blah blah blah. In the end I just hang up on them :)
     
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    D

    DPMB-VIDEO

  • #17
    I seem to get several calls in the space of a few weeks and then nothing for ages. They used to try very hard even if you were sceptical but now they seem to give up at the first sign of resistance. Last week's was the shortest ever:

    Caller: I'm calling from technical support about your "vindows" pc. Are you the main user of your pc?
    Me: Are you by any chance going to tell me that it's riddled with viruses and only your very special anti-virus checker can help?
    Caller: <Click>
     
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    DPMB-VIDEO

  • #20
    This morning's caller assured me that it was perfectly safe to let her have remote access to my PC as she definitely wasn't going to harm it :eek:

    She then got very cross when I said I had plenty of anti-virus protection, demanded to know what I had and told me that I didn't know what I was talking about :D
     
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    S

    SamStones

    Free Member
    Mar 1, 2010
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  • #22
    Ok... Why am I not getting these calls? I feel left out.. I didn't even know of this scam until I read this thread... I feel like I've been forgotten about!

    I do like the whiste idea though ... Talk very quietly, then ask them to turn up their headset then blow the whistle! Ha ha ha
     
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    Ashley_Price

    Ashley_Price

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  • #24
    Erm... may I just point out that if you keep these people tied up on the phone for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, etc., then they are still stealing something from you - your time.

    How much money could you have earned in that time if you had been selling to a prospective customer or client or working? For me, someone taking up 30 minutes of my time is at least £15.

    Yes, having them keep calling is annoying (that's why clients hire firms like us), but hang up and move on - and advise your elderly/vulnerable friends and relatives that these are scams.
     
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    A

    Andrew46

    Free Member
    May 20, 2011
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    London
  • #25
    I have had a number of these calls to my home, just another one a few minutes ago. They are claiming to be Microsoft Technical Support. I got them talking and obtained a number to call: 0203 090 5664.
    Our number is registered with TPS. I have reported the calls both to TPS and Microsoft who were aware but not very interested.
    Can nothing be done to stop these people?
     
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    D

    Deleted member 61074

  • #26
    Whilst these calls are a pain, they will stop. We had them consistently for a month then they stopped, I suspect they work through one phone book for a given amount of time then move on.

    TPS is for unwanted sales calls not any old call you dont want to receive additionally TPS can only follow up calls that originate in the UK.
     
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    Fred_the_frog

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    Jan 30, 2011
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  • #27
    Swisaw said:
    Would some one please pass me any premium gay numbers. I will use it to scam these scammers.

    I twice scammed unsuccessfully two nigerian scam junky millionairs. I made them to telephone for weeks. First I gave them fictitious bank account numbers. Later I informed them large amounts of money had been deposited in the account and asked them if they knew any thing about it. They replied it was their money and asked me to send back half of it. Later they would come to London to discuss to invest the other half. I kept them for over two weeks telephoning me days and nights. Later I told them the bad news. I told them the money taken over by fraud squad. The only way for us to get it back we had to go to the court. As the money was theirs, I gave therm two choices either they had to send me £5000.00 the cost of hiring a lawyer or they would lose their money.
    One of them, after a lot of calls, gave up. The other one threatened to send his boys after me in London as I was not telling the truth, I was taking all his money for myself, the fraud squad didn't take it.
    Click to expand...

    This reminds me of a guy who was selling a laptop on eBay and someone wanted to buy it from him outside of ebay. The buyer was a scammer and the seller posted the story on a forum. The buyer wanted the laptop sent in a certain way so he didn't have to pay tax and wanted to be paid via some special bank. I can't remember it in detail but it ended up with people on the forum joining in- the buyer said he wanted to meet at an internet cafe (that was owned by the buyer/ scammers friend) so someone who lived near the cafe on the forum actually went to the cafe to see what the guy looked like.

    I'll post the link if I can find it

    EDIT- Found the link quicker than I expected. Here it is: http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/index.html
     
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    S

    serendipitybusiness

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    Jun 27, 2008
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  • #30
    easiprint said:
    My father in law loves these calls. He gets them quite often. He can keep them on the phone for over 30 minutes before he tells them he hasn't even got a computer. :D
    Click to expand...
    Ha ha love it, I am going to do that one next time. It depends on what mood I am in and whether they have interrupted me whilst programming as to how I react to them, the first time I just kept firing technical jargon and questions at them quickly, the absolute tosh they come back with is quite amusing. They still keep coming back for more though!
     
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    D

    Dorkins

  • #31
    If you don't mind spending a bit of time with them, they can be a bit of fun! I had one who got so irate he was going to cancel all my Microsoft software keys(he could do this as he worked for Microsoft) he was then going to access my computer and remove any Microsft products!
    Another, who also worked for Microsoft, had no idea who I was talking about when I said I was going to write to his boss - a Mr William Gates, to complain of his pushy attitude, they are unbelievable.
     
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    O

    onlinevideo

    Free Member
    Jan 14, 2013
    20
    1
  • #32
    martinbailey said:
    I've had three calls in about two weeks where someone has called my home line (I work from home but have two lines coming in) and said 'We're calling from the technical support department and have detected that there is corrupt data coming from your computer'.

    These are scam calls. They often throw the word Microsoft in there so that you think they work for Microsoft, although last time they called me I got them to admit that they don't. The aim of the call is for them to connect to you via a service such as LogMeIn so that they can take control of your PC, download software 'diagnose' a problem that does not exist and then sell you software to fix it.

    The first few times they called I just hung up but last time I asked a few more questions. Next time I am going to have some fun :) I am going to run a Virtual Machine and let them connect to that. They can do what the hell they want to it - I'll just keep them busy so they can't get onto the next poor sap in the list. And I'm going to record the conversation/video and stick it on YouTube (with a link here) so everyone can learn how these guys operate and hopefully have a laugh in the meantime.

    Like any scammers these people prey on those that know little about technology who don't question the fact that someone got their phone number because of an allegedly infected PC...
    Click to expand...

    Don't you just wish their was a way to track these people down!!
     
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