F**king Scammers!

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MarkD
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Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:59 pm

F**king Scammers!

Post by MarkD »

Saturday afternoon my wife answered the phone on a call from Denver, CO. The person on the other end (with a thick Indian accent) started telling her that he was with "Windows Support" and that there was a problem with our computer, it was sending bad data to their servers. A well-known scam to get you to load malware. She said "No thanks" and hung up. He called BACK (this time from Buffalo, NY) and said "Why did you hang up on me?" She hung up again, and when the phone rang AGAIN (Buffalo again) I answered (since I have a better grasp of profanity than she does, and it seemed profanity was in order). He started off asking AGAIN why I hung up, then realized it was a different person and said "Who is this?" I relied "You called me, who are you?" He started his speil again, Windows Support, bad data to the server, etc. I told him my computer wasn't even turned on at the moment, he said it happened when it was on, that he just needed me to go to my computer and he'd tell me what I needed. I told him I know this is a scam, to stop harassing me, he insisted that he wasn't going to ask me to visit a web site or anything. I just told him (in no uncertain terms) NOT to call me again and hung up.

We looked up the phone number on google and found a number of people who'd gotten similar calls, most of which described him as "abusive".

Scammers should be beat up with barbed-wire covered baseball bats, then f**cked sideways with a rusty chainsaw. Then covered in road salt. Then rinsed off with wood alcohol. Then set on fire. Then extinguished by being dumped into liquid Nitrogen.
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evan price
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by evan price »

I kept these fuckers on the phone almost 90 minutes by pretending to be incompetent to load what they wanted, visit web sites they wanted, and since they claimed to be from Microsoft, requesting that they get a Brother printer to work on my network. They kept transferring me to new guys to try to get the scam to continue. I left my BT on un my ear while weeding the garden and pretending I was at my computer.
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MarkD
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by MarkD »

evan price wrote:I kept these fuckers on the phone almost 90 minutes by pretending to be incompetent to load what they wanted, visit web sites they wanted, and since they claimed to be from Microsoft, requesting that they get a Brother printer to work on my network. They kept transferring me to new guys to try to get the scam to continue. I left my BT on un my ear while weeding the garden and pretending I was at my computer.
Tempting, but the problem with keeping him on the phone for 90 minutes is that I have to spend 90 minutes on the phone with him.
MarkD
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by MarkD »

I posted much the same rant above on FB, and my wife's cousin opined that I was being harsh, and wondered if I'd recommend the death penalty for the person who stole his drill from his garage. I replied that a drill can be replaced with fairly little fuss and expense, but malware can lead to identity theft, loss of credit, loss of bank accounts, etc. So IMHO such people need to be terminated with extreme prejudice as an example to others. Drone strikes are too good for them, unless we can arrange to drop Willy Pete on them.
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Rich
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by Rich »

Need to find someone with the programming chops to write a 'Eliza" for these situations. Primary purpose would be to keep the culprit on line, and secondary would be to make the culprit lose their temper.
A weak government usually remains a servant of citizens, while a strong government usually becomes the master of its subjects.
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Weetabix
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by Weetabix »

evan price wrote:I kept these fuckers on the phone almost 90 minutes by pretending to be incompetent to load what they wanted, visit web sites they wanted, and since they claimed to be from Microsoft, requesting that they get a Brother printer to work on my network. They kept transferring me to new guys to try to get the scam to continue. I left my BT on un my ear while weeding the garden and pretending I was at my computer.
I do that, but with a slight twist. I let them get fairly well into their spiel, then ask a simple-minded question about something in the first third of what they said. Then I start discussing other things in a friendly, stream of consciousness way. I've actually had some interesting conversations this way when I get them off script and get them talking about themselves. It's kind of therapeutic. I always feel much better when I get off the phone. Even if they hang up on me. As a bonus, whatever kids are in the room enjoy it immensely, too.
Note to self: start reading sig lines. They're actually quite amusing. :D
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Weetabix
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by Weetabix »

Rich wrote:Need to find someone with the programming chops to write a 'Eliza" for these situations. Primary purpose would be to keep the culprit on line, and secondary would be to make the culprit lose their temper.
I remember Eliza! It ran on a TRS-80 and loaded from a cassette deck. It was actually pretty fun. Is it still around anywhere?
Note to self: start reading sig lines. They're actually quite amusing. :D
BobbyK
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by BobbyK »

I'm not allowed to talk to these people. Pwning their networks and wreaking merry havoc has been discouraged by the lawyers.
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Netpackrat
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by Netpackrat »

BobbyK wrote:I'm not allowed to talk to these people. Pwning their networks and wreaking merry havoc has been discouraged by the lawyers.
Pity. Maybe there is some way to put the word out that they have the "smoking gun" emails from Hillary's server.
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MarkD
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Re: F**king Scammers!

Post by MarkD »

Weetabix wrote:
Rich wrote:Need to find someone with the programming chops to write a 'Eliza" for these situations. Primary purpose would be to keep the culprit on line, and secondary would be to make the culprit lose their temper.
I remember Eliza! It ran on a TRS-80 and loaded from a cassette deck. It was actually pretty fun. Is it still around anywhere?
Me too! I had. Trash-80 model 3.
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