ForumGarden

Rather funny cold call in which you hear a few seconds of music then a person tries to speak English and claims to be calling you because there are a lot of problems with Windows programs and they are trying to contact PC owners to make sure their computers haven't been corrupted by online activity.

Now, I've had people walk me through processes to fix a problem, given other people instructions on how to fix a problem. I'm rather well versed with how to find files/folders/programs and I even do computer maintenance with the system tools from time to time. It should have been easy for me to figure out what they wanted me to do.

Not the case.

At one point I stopped to explain that I've never before been given such poor instructions from a company claiming to know about computers. I also explained that the problem was not my inability to find what I was supposed to find but in understanding what they were saying since their accents were so thick.

I told the girl I generally don't let anyone make any adjustments to my computer unless I can verify who they are. This usually involves them being a trusted technician I've hired or know personally, a company I've phoned up for help not one that cold calls me at home, or updates that come directly from microsoft.com

She assures me that they were hired to help people identify which computers have affected so they can help people to fix them quickly. I finally let her direct me to my event viewer and she is very relieved when I give her the news that I have, indeed, got errors and warnings in my event logs. She informs me that my computer is in grave trouble and I need their help. She asks me to wait to be transferred to her supervisor.

I get the supervisor who seems to be waiting for me to initiate the conversation so I tell him, after some "hey, hi, so... here we are..." segue "listen, I gotta tell you that that was the worst walk through of my computer I've ever been given. Generally people who know about computers only need to know your operating system and then instantly can tell you exactly what you see on your screen." Additionally, I fully expect that if I talk to them for long enough they will try to sell me something.

He stumbled a bit and said "uh, yeah, we... we're trying to help you fix a problem with your computer" So I asked him to tell me his website address so I could verify who they are. He started telling me how to open my browser. I cut him off and said "Listen. I know what a browser is. I have it open and I'm at google search waiting for you to tell me your website." So he starts telling me where to look to find the address bar. I inform him that I know what an address bar is and how to type one in. All I need from him is their website address. He hung up on me.

So I google searched them and found this awesome video of another bloke having fun with them... and he was trying to get me to type the "logmein123" thing as well so I suspect they actually try to hijack your system.

Oh, that is scarey to think of, couldn't outsmart you koan.

I felt rather clever after the call but watching that other guy playing with them was a treat. Now I feel like I should have made them suffer for longer. I don't think I outsmarted them so much as just got someone who just finished getting told he's a scam.

I'm sort of worried about other people following their instructions but they are just so bad at the walk through part I can't imagine they get many people who can follow their instructions.

I've just discovered another video where a guy lets them log him into their site and download crap onto his computer. He must be using a system that he doesn't care about having to fix.

I've spent a happy half hour being guided through their process while not actually having a computer in the room, it was fun coming up with plausible "what do you see now" answers. That was my ethical contribution for the day, stopping the caller from bothering anyone else for a while.

They're after your money, in exchange for which they'll capture your computer and suck you into needing their help in exchange for more and more payments. They're rather vile. It's fortunate that they're also inept at the help-desk level. As for the operator, I'm sure it was all that stood between a roof and destitution. It's the system designer who should be flogged and branded.

spot;1355629 wrote: I've spent a happy half hour being guided through their process while not actually having a computer in the room, it was fun coming up with plausible "what do you see now" answers. That was my ethical contribution for the day, stopping the caller from bothering anyone else for a while.

They're after your money, in exchange for which they'll capture your computer and suck you into needing their help in exchange for more and more payments. They're rather vile. It's fortunate that they're also inept at the help-desk level. As for the operator, I'm sure it was all that stood between a roof and destitution. It's the system designer who should be flogged and branded.


ha!

I wish you'd video captured it. I'm sure you had some good fun.

I realised that in explaining to them why they were really bad at their jobs I probably gave them a few tips that should have been left unsaid.

LOL love it Spot talked for 45 mintues without a PC or Laptop on perfect. I can't believe they cold called you Koan that's amazing. I hope they call me I will do a "Spot" on them also have them begging to hang up.

I don't suppose there's many people in the country who leech on the dim and ignorant to get rich themselves, but flogging and branding would be a rational response. I'd quite like to see the law changed to encompass it, nothing else properly expresses society's utter revulsion at the antics of greedy amoral people like that. Andrew Crossley and Terence Tsang spring to mind as obvious candidates.

CARLA;1355631 wrote: LOL love it Spot talked for 45 mintues without a PC or Laptop on perfect. I can't believe they cold called you Koan that's amazing. I hope they call me I will do a "Spot" on them also have them begging to hang up.


oooooh. you'll probably get the call at some point though it seems to be the UK, Australia and Canada that they've focused on so far. I'm having fun watching videos of other people playing games with them. They hang up if you tell them you're a computer technician.

These losers called me again today and gave me the exact same speech. I told him to wait while my computer turns on and went for a smoke. Then got a call back number in case we get disconnected. Then told him I was going to call the police and report them as a scam. He started fighting with me and still trying to get me to turn on my computer. So I told him what he was going to try and get me to do. That I wasn't going to do it and they would end up hanging up on me again. The reason I didn't hang up on him was because I wanted to make sure they don't call me again tomorrow.

Amazing who are these people ...

It was a different person than yesterday. This one claimed to be named "David"

He was very interested in arguing with me after I mentioned reporting him to the police but did still actually try to get me to continue turning on my computer. lol I paused for a moment to ask him why he was arguing with me... informing him that I was arguing to prevent a recall.

He also lectured me on how I should be more focused on enjoying the life God gave me. So it was also a religious house call. He wouldn't promise they wouldn't call me again as he didn't actually know how they got my phone number.

oh, I did point out that I had been enjoying my God given life until they phoned yesterday and had returned to enjoying until they called me twice again today. He was actively interfering with God's good plan for my life.

I'm pretty sure it was these guys who finally got fined.

CRTC fines telemarketers for do-not-call violations - Business - CBC News

Tormenting Tele-Scammers - YouTube





;)

been happening here for ages .

It's nothing new... gmc and myself did threads on this ages ago...

The best was from my husband who upon picking the phone up and realsing It was them again said:

" I could be better.... I just lost my job, my wife left me for another man, my house Is about to be re-possessed, the balliffs have taken all my furnature, I just wrote my car off and my dog has just been run over........In fact, I'm thinking of suicide... now.... do you have time to talk?

Never heard from them again.

oscar;1406607 wrote: It's nothing new... gmc and myself did threads on this ages ago...

The best was from my husband who upon picking the phone up and realsing It was them again said:

" I could be better.... I just lost my job, my wife left me for another man, my house Is about to be re-possessed, the balliffs have taken all my furnature, I just wrote my car off and my dog has just been run over........In fact, I'm thinking of suicide... now.... do you have time to talk?

Never heard from them again.
This thread was from a year ago, the CRTC charges happened yesterday, which makes it "news". And I rather think the guy in the OP video was funnier than your husband's ploy. I just like seeing them made to talk in circles over and over again trying to avoid facts.

I think we've all had them and we can all pat ourselves on the back for out-smarting them.

I used to just be as belligerent as possible...

Hello, your PC has been running slowly

Nope

It's taking a long time to download

Nope

etc etc

Just recalled.... my neighbour got rid of one rapidly after asking him 'What are you wearing'?

I had about 12 calls from these people despite having forced them to hang up on me every time. Reported them to the fraud site immediately (over a year ago now) I even had one of their call people trying to contact me personally while he was at work so I could help him figure out how to find a better job. He had to keep hanging up though because they monitor the callers on regular walk bys. He only had about three minutes per call to try and talk and spent most of it asking me if this was a good time to talk.

Ultimately, what we want is to have the organizers of these operations charged with fraud... which is what the news is indicating may happen. That's a kind of "happy maker" and they seem to be addressing why it took them so long to be able to fine the jerks.

What's sad is that for every one of these gotcha moments, probably hundreds of folks are being had.



I regularly have employees whose home computer is telling them it found all these errors and that they need to 'click here to fix'. some actually fall for it and buy and the others end up bringing me their machine to fix for them, once it asks for payment information.

flopstock;1406745 wrote: What's sad is that for every one of these gotcha moments, probably hundreds of folks are being had.



I regularly have employees whose home computer is telling them it found all these errors and that they need to 'click here to fix'. some actually fall for it and buy and the others end up bringing me their machine to fix for them, once it asks for payment information.
The article I linked states

"Tracking down individuals and companies who violate telemarketing rules is a global problem. The coordinated actions taken by our agencies today send a strong message that telemarketers cannot use national borders to evade detection or pursuit by enforcement agencies."

The CRTC is warning Canadians about the dangers of providing personal information over the phone and encouraging anyone that receives these types of calls to file a complaint immediately.

It makes sense that it took longer to catch them because they were operating outside their call areas. They only managed to do so because of the people who reported the calls. So that's important.

At the same time I'm celebrating an end to the calls from India I'm wondering about how efficient our fraud detectives are. I deal directly with MoneyGram fraud on a regular basis and instead of increasing the chances of catching criminals they've reduced the amount of info retained. It's really frustrating. Most of the MoneyGram fraud I know of in Canada originates in Montreal and there is no sign that they've used the available information to catch them. Hopefully there will be news of a crackdown in that arena sooner than later. We have the means to catch them. We really do. They target seniors with cold calls claiming to be a relative in desperate need of money. They let the senior give them their name. I respect that privacy laws exist for a reason but I can't believe they couldn't track the ID used by the receiver.

koan;1406737 wrote: I had about 12 calls from these people despite having forced them to hang up on me every time. Reported them to the fraud site immediately (over a year ago now) I even had one of their call people trying to contact me personally while he was at work so I could help him figure out how to find a better job. He had to keep hanging up though because they monitor the callers on regular walk bys. He only had about three minutes per call to try and talk and spent most of it asking me if this was a good time to talk.

Ultimately, what we want is to have the organizers of these operations charged with fraud... which is what the news is indicating may happen. That's a kind of "happy maker" and they seem to be addressing why it took them so long to be able to fine the jerks.


Why would he need to hang up every three minutes or so?

All cold callers have a script of some description or an opening gambit. The length of time taken per call Is not an Indication of how many successful hits they get. A successful hit or transaction will take anything up to a good 15 minutes, maybe more to reel that punter In and close the deal. You say they moniter the calls by regular walk by's ? If a supervisor Is doing a walk by, she can only hear what he Is saying and not the person on the other end of the phone. If the opening line of any cold call Is ' Is It a good time to talk '? then all he has to do Is repeat that line when his supervisor Is walking past. This applies to head sets and hand held sets.

If the recipient of the personal call Is aware his supervisor Is walking by every so often, they will understand when he repeats the opening line of his script. The supervisor will have no way of knowing he has not just connected with a new call.

Even If the supervisor has phone sharing facilities, they can only check one line at a time and If reeling In a punter takes an average time of 15 minutes, then the supervisor still has no way of knowing It's a personal call.

What is your point oscar? You don't believe me?

I don't understand how your last post serves a purpose other than to sully the thread.

I don't have the patience as some of you seem to--I just hang up. This group under discussion have been calling for over a year now. The most words I've ever exchanged was the last call I received--I muttered into the phone 'crook' & the guy with the Indian accent was pleading "No, I'm not a bad man. I'm a good man". Must say that made me chuckle. Anyone falling for these calls must be a can short of a six pack.

The worst scam I ever received I actually reported to the FBI & police--it was an email from a person claiming to be a hit man, that he was paid to kill me, & if I paid a price he would cancel the hit. :yh_sweat

koan;1406776 wrote: What is your point oscar? You don't believe me?

I don't understand how your last post serves a purpose other than to sully the thread. Who's said I don't believe you ?

I was a marketing manager for many years and I ran large call centre's cold calling.

The guy had no need to hang up every three minutes. I'm just wondering why he believed he had to.

Even with walk by's and even with the latest technology of a screen showing the supervisor the number he's talking to, he only needs to repeat the opening line of his script when his supervisor walks by.

The only way I caught out those making personal calls was If when I had a suspicion about some-one, I would check numbers called by that operator on a daily basis to see If the same number was coming up again and again.

Apparently, my husbands won a billion In a Nigerian Lottery. All they need Is his bank account details and passwords and the money will be deposited forth with,

oscar;1406607 wrote: It's nothing new... gmc and myself did threads on this ages ago...

The best was from my husband who upon picking the phone up and realsing It was them again said:

" I could be better.... I just lost my job, my wife left me for another man, my house Is about to be re-possessed, the balliffs have taken all my furnature, I just wrote my car off and my dog has just been run over........In fact, I'm thinking of suicide... now.... do you have time to talk?

Never heard from them again.


oscar;1406733 wrote: I think we've all had them and we can all pat ourselves on the back for out-smarting them.

I used to just be as belligerent as possible...

Hello, your PC has been running slowly

Nope

It's taking a long time to download

Nope

etc etc

Just recalled.... my neighbour got rid of one rapidly after asking him 'What are you wearing'?


oscar;1406754 wrote: Why would he need to hang up every three minutes or so?

All cold callers have a script of some description or an opening gambit. The length of time taken per call Is not an Indication of how many successful hits they get. A successful hit or transaction will take anything up to a good 15 minutes, maybe more to reel that punter In and close the deal. You say they moniter the calls by regular walk by's ? If a supervisor Is doing a walk by, she can only hear what he Is saying and not the person on the other end of the phone. If the opening line of any cold call Is ' Is It a good time to talk '? then all he has to do Is repeat that line when his supervisor Is walking past. This applies to head sets and hand held sets.

If the recipient of the personal call Is aware his supervisor Is walking by every so often, they will understand when he repeats the opening line of his script. The supervisor will have no way of knowing he has not just connected with a new call.

Even If the supervisor has phone sharing facilities, they can only check one line at a time and If reeling In a punter takes an average time of 15 minutes, then the supervisor still has no way of knowing It's a personal call.


oscar;1406785 wrote: Who's said I don't believe you ?

I was a marketing manager for many years and I ran large call centre's cold calling.

The guy had no need to hang up every three minutes. I'm just wondering why he believed he had to.

Even with walk by's and even with the latest technology of a screen showing the supervisor the number he's talking to, he only needs to repeat the opening line of his script when his supervisor walks by.

The only way I caught out those making personal calls was If when I had a suspicion about some-one, I would check numbers called by that operator on a daily basis to see If the same number was coming up again and again.


oscar;1406787 wrote: Apparently, my husbands won a billion In a Nigerian Lottery. All they need Is his bank account details and passwords and the money will be deposited forth with,


These are your contributions to this thread, oscar. You start out belittling me, claiming it's all old news, then turn and pick apart my description of the contact I had with a caller questioning my integrity and honesty, denying that you've questioned my honesty while following it with an explanation indended to show expertise on whether or not my story could have happened, then you reverse the claim that it's boring old news by adding your own stories.

You are harassing me and pissing all over my posts and threads with personal attacks. I fully expect to be called a pseudo intellectual next, now that you've learned a new word, and hope you don't think your "Intellect" thread is fooling anyone as to the intended targets. Go ahead and call me vain now.

Wow... I'm sorry you feel that way Koan.

What can I say? I certainly had no Intention of belittling you If that's what you think I set out to do.

If you feel that strongly, please by all means delete my posts and I'll stay out of your threads. Only, as you contributed In my thread, I didn't think I was barred from posting In yours.

However, I am certainly not going to argue... It's your thread.

"logmein123" was the code that's supposed to give the caller remote access to your computer. And you're correct. They were actually trying to hijack your system.

Although some scammers are just obviously trying to scam, be aware that there are scammers out there who are really good at lying. I got a call like that before and the caller almost had me believe he was legit. Said he was from PC Solutions and that they detected a hacker into my system and that was how they got my phone number. I didn't really think he was telling the truth but I could have sworn I almost believed him. He talked well, sounded very professional and no hint of trying to scam me. He was talking about my firewall not effective enough and all.

But as much as I wanted to tell the man I knew who he was and what he was up to, it didn't feel right so I just said "I'm not interested," and hung up.

And I was right when I suspected he was a scammer. I Googled his phone number and it came up at several consumer complaint websites. And guess what? From Report Phone Number to CallerCenter.com, about 15 people out of the 18 recipients he called fell for his scheme and paid him money.

My general rule is that I pass no information whatsoever and refuse to engage in any way with people who cold call. They may seem legitimate, like my bank, a charity, Sky TV, whoever, the rule is, sorry this is not appropriate. I do not buy, order, confirm. If I want double glazing, I will seek a company of my choice. If I want to reduce my utility bills I will do in under my own volition and not as a request from British Gas or NPower. I'm not interested in prizes won from a competition I haven't entered and I dont want to do a survey.

I am usually polite but very firm and don't give them time to respond. I have been rude on occasions (especially with a Sky TV operator who wanted to convince me to "come Back" ) and a few times have had a bit of fun with the pc scammers. Just refuse to engage with them. Say thanks but no thanks and hang up !

Its time for tougher regulations. None of us require cold calling. It's not essential to us in any way and only serves the companies that condone it, even the legitimate ones. It's a nuisance.

The practice of selling our personal information needs to stop

blue;1406988 wrote: And I was right when I suspected he was a scammer. I Googled his phone number and it came up at several consumer complaint websites. And guess what? From Report Phone Number to CallerCenter.com, about 15 people out of the 18 recipients he called fell for his scheme and paid him money.


Welcome to FG blue.

My friend has had a call in the last couple of months.

Wouldn't it be nice to think that there is no chance of any more of these types of calls, I somehow doubt it though.

Snowfire;1406992 wrote: My general rule is that I pass no information whatsoever and refuse to engage in any way with people who cold call. They may seem legitimate, like my bank, a charity, Sky TV, whoever, the rule is, sorry this is not appropriate. I do not buy, order, confirm. If I want double glazing, I will seek a company of my choice. If I want to reduce my utility bills I will do in under my own volition and not as a request from British Gas or NPower. I'm not interested in prizes won from a competition I haven't entered and I dont want to do a survey.

I am usually polite but very firm and don't give them time to respond. I have been rude on occasions (especially with a Sky TV operator who wanted to convince me to "come Back" ) and a few times have had a bit of fun with the pc scammers. Just refuse to engage with them. Say thanks but no thanks and hang up !

Its time for tougher regulations. None of us require cold calling. It's not essential to us in any way and only serves the companies that condone it, even the legitimate ones. It's a nuisance.

The practice of selling our personal information needs to stop Cold calling If dome well and respectfully without hidden cons that Insult the Intelligence of the receiver Is rewarding to companies.... My company In the 90's was making 80 million a year from 40 branches In cold calling.

We used to buy our data In but we also used to whittle It down. If a caller got say, a very elderly person, we would offer to remove them from the data base... It makes no sense anyway calling someone who Is not going to buy. Anyone who also requested that we didn't ring them got removed. We had no hidden agenda, no con and no tactics... It was a straight forward ' Will you be considering this product In the future' No > OK Thanks for your time... end of..

If anyone Is being pestered by cold calling you can register with the Telephone Preference List and It will all stop.

I dislike even the legitimate companies that use cold calling. They can be intimidating and make vulnerable people feel they are obliged to take up their offer. The most honest of companies unfortunately employ aggressive salespersons. Sales by it's very nature needs an element of agression.

The guy from Sky who tried to persuade me to return to them was rude. When he asked what I missed not having Sky - I had the full package - I told him, " the sports channels. I dont miss the film channels because I find all my needs on line." When I wouldn't answer him on what site I used, he implied that I was downloading illegally, although I am not. Sky will never get my business ever again

Utility companies are always amazed that I don't want to change to them. "But we will save you money !" I don't care, it's my decision and I will choose when and where. If you are rude, you will never get me to sign up with your company.

Double glazing tele sales gasp in disbelief that I'm not impressed by the offer that "we are looking at houses in your area to use as showhouses for our product".

Too many innocent people are taken in by people on commission and are "gently" persuaded to buy something they would not have even considered had their phone not rung.

Just to be safe,lets not discriminate the bad from the good companies and dismiss all cold calling outright.

I do dismiss all cold-calling outright. Of course, I'm now on the fed Do Not Call list, so only the most dedicated scammers call me.

Snowfire;1407009 wrote: I dislike even the legitimate companies that use cold calling. They can be intimidating and make vulnerable people feel they are obliged to take up their offer. The most honest of companies unfortunately employ aggressive salespersons. Sales by it's very nature needs an element of agression.

The guy from Sky who tried to persuade me to return to them was rude. When he asked what I missed not having Sky - I had the full package - I told him, " the sports channels. I dont miss the film channels because I find all my needs on line." When I wouldn't answer him on what site I used, he implied that I was downloading illegally, although I am not. Sky will never get my business ever again

Utility companies are always amazed that I don't want to change to them. "But we will save you money !" I don't care, it's my decision and I will choose when and where. If you are rude, you will never get me to sign up with your company.

Double glazing tele sales gasp in disbelief that I'm not impressed by the offer that "we are looking at houses in your area to use as showhouses for our product".

Too many innocent people are taken in by people on commission and are "gently" persuaded to buy something they would not have even considered had their phone not rung.

Just to be safe,lets not discriminate the bad from the good companies and dismiss all cold calling outright. In my company, the cold caller would get a lead. Then I'd phone them back half an hour later and confirm their details, this gave them a cooling off period. An hour before the sales rep was due to go out to them which could have been two days later, the sales manager would call and ask them if It was still Ok to send that rep. It gave them two chances to cancel so the cold caller made no milage by harrassing the recipient In the first place.