I've been called by some "Windows support" three times during last month. The first time I didn't have the time to talk to them but the second time I took the time to do so.<p>Somehow, even though I don't have a windows computer, I was able to fake it for about 10 minutes that I am following his instructions and doing what he tells me. First I had to press Win+r, which I didn't really know what it did, but I suspected it opened the CMD, so I told him that a new window opened, a black one. Then he spelled to me what I should write (I don't remember what, I didn't have anything to write with me).<p>Then he asked me if I had Chrome installed, I said yes and he spelled a website url to me. I told him that it loaded and there was a "Download" button and asked if I should click it. He said yes. Then he talked me through how to install it, from his description I got that it was TeamViewer.<p>He told me to start it, bare in mind that this was painfully slow for both of us because I had to come up with plausible mistake to make and had to think of some plausible but generic answers on the way because he always asked me what I'm seeing on the streen now. After I "started" it I had to tell him that in fact I didn't have a computer in front of me, but I only was playing along with his script.<p>He stopped for a couple of seconds and then he asked me:<p>"How is this possible ...? Why are you waisting my time??"
Dell support has a similar issue. Relatives of mine have been contacted by people claiming to be from Dell support soon after the person actually opened a case with support (so someone has ongoing access to the Dell database). The scammer had the tag of the computer, which I confirmed was correct.<p>They basically said to check the error log of Windows with instructions. There are always some benign errors, which they'll tell you are proof there's something wrong, and then try to get you to download software to fix it.<p>Edit: see <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/01/latest-tech-support-scam-stokes-concerns-dell-customer-data-was-breached/" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/01/latest-tech-support...</a> and <a href="https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/dell-to-customers-report-service-tag-scams/" rel="nofollow">https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/dell-to-customers-report...</a>
Key point - because they outsourced a call center to India, the customer data of TalkTalk was stolen along with their customer care scripts. This was then used to setup a fraudulent call center in India that has been scamming their customers - brutal:<p>> In 2011, TalkTalk outsourced some of its call-centre work to the Kolkata (Calcutta) office of Wipro, one of India's largest IT service companies.<p>> Last year, three Wipro employees were arrested on suspicion of selling TalkTalk customer data.<p>> A source in Kolkata, who did not want to be named, alleges the same data was obtained by a criminal gang, with USB sticks full of data trading hands at parties.
My wife used to be a Talk Talk customer in the days of dial ins. Anyway 5 or so years back they suddenly started billing her credit card again monthly for the service she had cancelled years before. We couldn't stop this online as their system claimed no knowledge of her so I had to call the support numbers listed on the Talk Talk website. These went through to the usual Indian call centre but what went on there was very unusual. The first operator wanted my wife to post him her VISA statements to his home address (as they would get lost in the post if we sent them to Talk Talk). Another call brought an operator who said he could only trace what had happened if my wife gave him her VISA number and CVV over the phone !! I tried to call their Fraud Prevention office but got another Indian who wanted a VISA number before we could proceed.<p>After multiple calls one day a call was answered by an Irish voice who was very apologetic and arranged a refund which arrived a few days later. Attempts to tell Talk Talks UK office about this went no where as all calls seemed to go to the same Indian call centre.<p>Since I have read that Talk Talk had closed their Irish call centre for reasons of cost and now all support is from their Indian call centres. Avoid this company at all costs.
Someone tipped me about "Lenny": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ToaoDotNet/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/user/ToaoDotNet/videos?view=0&sort=p...</a> I'd love to know if it is possible to route calls from outside the US to him!
I've been repeatedly called with 'Support Scam' where they trick you into installing sw that lets them monitor and control your computer. I don't remember this being as prevalent as before. Clearly it is profitable and they are finding enough targets to warrant operations.
I'm a TalkTalk customer, and was on the receiving end of this scam last year. I'm savvy enough to know that all the machines on our network were unlikely to be suffering from the problems they tried to describe (only one Windows laptop, and that was dual boot with Linux and carefully used).<p>The most annoying thing (for us) was that they repeatedly called the home number at random intervals through the day until we actually picked up, and then you'd get complete silence most of the time. When they finally managed to get someone on the phone on their end it was easy enough to tell them they were scammers and get rid of them, but I can see how those who are less confident around technology could easily be taken in by them.
So yeah, I knew someone who worked at a place like this in their previous job. For him, it was just a job that paid really well. He frequently made more than Rs. 1 lakh per month, which is kind of a big deal in India when you're just a year or so out of an average, run of the mill college.<p>Generally, these 'call centres' train employees to think that Americans are really stupid people who can be scared & fooled easily. Given the commissions he made, they were damn good at it, specially with the older people who would pay fairly large amounts every month or so to keep their computers virus free.<p>He never thought he was in some scammy company though. For him, the callers were 'virus' hit users who were calling to get their computers repaired, and these guys just had to make quick, easy, FUD driven upsells.<p>Oh, and these guys are unhappiest when they are made the manager, who get a very small commission from their team's upsells. I guess this meant that no one was looking for 'career growth'.
I wonder is not it bank's responsibility to refund the money that were stolen from customer's account? And don't they use SMS messages to confirm outgoing payments?<p>But this case shows also that Internet banking UI are too complicated for some people and they don't realise what they are doing when following scammers' instructions.
I got called by these guys last month. It was immediately obvious something was amiss as the line quality was absolutely dreadful, like virtually inaudible.<p>The lady on the other end said i had been identified as someone from TalkTalk who would be having problems with my internet speed and they could help.<p>She then asked me what OS i run, when i said OS X she hung up.
I happened to have the 400 series http errors open when one of these chappies rang up. I think I got to 'Request, Time Out' before he twigged.
TalkTalk need to do more to fix this issue as they were responsible for not keeping customer information secure. Admittedly they did give out free stuff last year as a sort of compensation. However if this annoyance is not resolved soon TalkTalk's reputation will slide further.
I can't believe how these companies do not get busted ever ? Englang is really unfair country for small business owners. More bigger corporation, less they pay tax, less they care of customers, less they protect your data...
We need to find this place, and issue drone strikes as soon as possible. If that is the only thing that Trump does with the rest of his presidency, he will go down as a better president than Obama.
Tech scamming is an interesting phenomenon to say the least...<p>I have been binge watching scambaiters on youtube recently. I can highly recommend it if you want an introduction to how these scammers work.