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“I am calling you from Windows”: A tech support scammer

242 点作者 chinmoy超过 12 年前

24 条评论

bradleyland超过 12 年前
Having done my time in the tech support trenches, I do one hell of an "end user" impersonation. I held one of these guys on the line for 1 hour 20 minutes one evening, then told him my phone was dying and that I'd need to call him back. I called back two days later and tied him up for another 20 minutes before he finally cracked and hung up on me.<p>Yes, it was a terrific waste of time, but boy did it feel good. I consider it volunteering. All the time I spent on the phone with the scammer was time they couldn't spend targeting vulnerable individuals.
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akharris超过 12 年前
Got the call from these guys a few weeks ago - actually about 20 calls. I finally picked up and kept the guy on for about 10 minutes asking him progressively dumber questions. Finally, I told him I was running OSX, which led him to call his manager. The manager had a really hard time understanding that I wasn't running Windows. It did not sit with his worldview at all.
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simonsarris超过 12 年前
What is most bizarre to me is that someone could actually do this and do it more than once.<p>Why wouldn't people feel bad about scamming someone like this? You have to talk to someone, get them on your side, and then scam them?<p>I could maybe imagine myself in an alternate universe doing something like this, perhaps enjoying a sort of "heist" feeling like when you're playing poker and no one's aware that you're totally prepared to take the table. But if I succeeded (at the scamming call) I'm sure I would feel devastated that I just did that to someone.<p>Maybe I'm just supremely naive, but it seems hard for me to imagine anyone I've ever met in my life scamming someone like this. It seems so completely incredible that it could ever happen on such a large scale.<p>--------------<p>Is there something in a culture (besides wealth discrepancy per se) that makes this sort of thing more OK?
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nicholassmith超过 12 年前
If I get them I generally just put the phone down immediately, or I'll wind them up asking stupid questions about their qualifications. However, my nana has had a few recently who've been super aggressive about it, I told her not to do anything they say and to call me if she's unsure, but apparently saying 'no' and putting the phone down gets you repeat calls if you sound like like a good mark.<p>Edit: I'll point out, this happens in legitimate call centres as well. I worked for a fairly well known a credit card company and left not long after I heard a top seller say "Focus on old people, scare them enough and they'll always buy".
jiggy2011超过 12 年前
I've had these calls too, now and again but never had the patience to keep them on the line.<p>So , they want to install some kind of remote admin software on your PC? I'm going to assume it is something based on VNC or RDP.<p>In that case if you really wanted to troll them it might be fun to figure out which protocol it was using and implement a custom server that you can run when they call you.<p>Any fun ideas as to what that could do?
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JimmaDaRustla超过 12 年前
Had it happen to many people I know. They only were successful with one person I know - they replaced her OEM Windows XP license with a pirated/fake one...then stole the original perhaps? Can't imagine how useful an OEM XP license to a Acer POS netbook would be valuable.<p>If you get one of these calls, just screw with them - pretend you are following their instructions for as long as possible before saying "Ubuntu doesn't have that."
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jiggy2011超过 12 年前
I wonder how these guys are organised. Is it just a bunch of people doing this from home who have heard about the scam from a friend and have tried to imitate it?<p>Or are there actually physical call centres with rows of desks of scammers doing this as a 9-5?
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Pezmc超过 12 年前
I have also had this happen to me and a friend. We have both calls recorded and the numbers logged, is there anywhere we are supposed to send these reports?
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eckyptang超过 12 年前
We get these in the UK all the time. Usually either try and hold them on the line as long as possible (if bored) or tell them to "fuck off" straight away.
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16s超过 12 年前
I won't answer when the caller has masked their phone number. I have too many things to do. They can leave a msg if it's important. They never do.
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debacle超过 12 年前
Back when I was a BOFH, I would string these calls on all the time. Usually I could manage 30-40 minutes before the Indian would get tired of it and hang up. Occasionally I'd get one that would last for over an hour.
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kevinalexbrown超过 12 年前
The most effective way to troll these types of scams is to let them convince you, but repeatedly tell them that your computer froze and needs to be restarted. If they feel certain you're willing to pay, they will wait for the 20 minutes it takes to "restart" your computer. The more you "restart" your computer, time they invest in you, and the less costly that 20 minutes will seem.<p>That said I don't think I'd have the patience to do it more than once. And I suppose there are better ways to help humanity than trolling scammers.
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patrickdavey超过 12 年前
If you've not seen it... <a href="http://www.itslenny.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.itslenny.com/</a> you can forward VOIP telemarkers to "lenny" - an automated bot who will happily chat with them for ... ever..<p>There are some classic mp3s to listen to.
mnazim超过 12 年前
I couldn't help but read it in the Russell Peters style Indian accent. It wasn't until the middle of article that I noticed the subconscious act.<p>(DISCLAIMER: I belong to the same part of the world and probably have the same accent)
slashedzero超过 12 年前
Ugh. A friend's mother fell for this exact thing. Spent a couple days "disinfecting" her computer. A few hours later, it finally dawned on her that she had been scammed (when someone asked her how the people could have known she had viruses), but she was too proud to talk about it/fight with the scammers.<p>Very smart though, targeting home phones, as they're just the right generation to fall for this type of scam.
garazy超过 12 年前
I had exactly the same call with someone, I wish I'd thought of the VM idea but I didn't, however I did record it -<p><a href="http://soundcloud.com/gbrewer-1/microsoft-telephone-scam/s-ezcsf" rel="nofollow">http://soundcloud.com/gbrewer-1/microsoft-telephone-scam/s-e...</a><p>I felt a bit sorry for the guy it's clearly a boiler room with high expectations.
navs超过 12 年前
Ah such tales are so entertaining. There was a brief period here in New Zealand when I'd receive a few of these kinds of calls. Folks in my Computer Science class considered it a badge of honor to receive a call and troll the scammer. It's been a while since I received any calls and I guess thats a good thing.
darkstalker超过 12 年前
I would answer him "Sorry, I use Linux".
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kevinbluer超过 12 年前
Potential idea for a hackathon! A 419eater.com for tech support scammers.<p>Some of them are amazing: <a href="http://www.419eater.com/html/samuel_eze.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.419eater.com/html/samuel_eze.htm</a>
devsatish超过 12 年前
The pitches for these sites can be seen on day-time tv, and late night tv, sandwiched between infomercials. I heard these on radio too. ex: doublemyspeed.com , totallyfast.com
CaioAlonso超过 12 年前
The scam site: <a href="http://windows4pc.webs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://windows4pc.webs.com/</a><p>EDIT: Webs.com has just frozen it.
zapt02超过 12 年前
This is interesting but the article is really sub-par and they ended too soon.
btilly超过 12 年前
These guys call me every month. I hope the FTC does do something about it.
lampe超过 12 年前
haha nice post!<p>can someone call me like this?<p>i got windows xp only in a VM :D