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Just received a call at 6am this morning telling me my Windows computer is badly infected with a virus and is sending errors to the Microsoft servers. This person went on to explain with a heavy Indian accent how they were a "service provider" for Microsoft. Having been the head of the network Antivirus dept for a corporation my alarm bells started going off so I played along and these suspicions were confirmed when he did 3 things. 1.When I asked if he knew what time it was he told me he was in San Francisco and it was 8am.
2.He wanted me to open a command line box and start digging in the process list.
3. Wanted me to go to showmypc dot com and give them remote control to "fix" it.
The thing that really almost made me laugh as I was playing along and doing what he asked was I own a MAC and followed his directions from memory of how windows works.
This was the second call, my wife told them off and hung up a couple of days ago.
I would highly suggest you either hang up or if you have the time just string 'em along for a while by telling them your computer is slow, please hang on then check back in every couple of minutes telling them you have to restart. This call is most likely from India (you can hear other people doing the same thing in the background) and is definitely costing 'em money.
To end the call I just informed him that it wouldn't work because I tossed out that piece of cr#* and bought a Mac. Do not do anything they tell you to do it will not come out well.
I also received this call last week. What is it they are hoping to achieve, if you give them permission to "fix" your computer?
The guy that called me was stumped when I asked him how he knew my phone number if he was calling because my computer was sending errors? He said "when you registered your microsoft product you provided your phone number". When I told him I was using Linux and wasn't using a microsoft product he then said he must have the wrong number and hung up.
Got the same call sometime last year, strung them along for about 15 minutes, they were really excited when I told them I wanted to buy the xtended package for all of my computers!! I actually have fun stringing them along....
They call everyone, I'm from Canada..
Actually, I usually don't hang up. These guys have called me several times. I love keeping them on the phone and seeing where they will go with the call. Pretending to log on and then ask them why they can't see what I am doing. They get all mad and then I tell them how I am not very computer literate. it's just as much a waste of their time as it is yours but it's an interesting experiment to see if they can figure out that you already know it's a scam.
Thankfully I have not yet received this call. I do however receive robo calls and telemarketing calls, and my response depends on my mood. My favorite is what I call my "jibber jabber language" with which I carry on a conversation with the caller with nonsensical words. Usually they will eventually hang up but a couple of responses were priceless. One man, finally in an exasperated voice, said 'dude can't you speak English?', and the other, a man decided after asking several questions, that if he spoke very slowly I would be able to understand his question. He finally hung up.
Most of the time though I write down the calling number and file a complaint with the Do Not Call Register. Even that does not fix the problem because they only change numbers and continue calling. "Fix your credit card debt" is the main problem here and our Attorney General has filed suit against some of them and a couple days ago when I talked to the AG Office they agreed that the only effect they were having was causing the caller to change numbers.
When I go through my jibber jabber routine and if my wife is listening while this is going on, she almost becomes hysterical laughing.
Unfortunately no, I got the dreaded "credit card debt" call on my cell yesterday.
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