Miscellaneous Forum

hahaha, good one Pam!

As I am sure you know, this is a scam, wanting to obtain details of your computer for nefarious purposes. The real thrust of the scam is to obtain banking details. We have all sorts of wriggles on the same theme here in the UK - the usual reply, other than just immediately hanging up, is to say that the information they have is incorrect and then hang up.

Good reply Pam - and BTW is that you hiding behind those funny looking glasses and all rugged up on your pp?

Yes, I was very aware of what would come next: "your computer is under thread and we will talk you through the fix....." I surprised myself how convincing I was :-)))

Hi David, Well it's not me, but I'm seriously thinking of getting some of these to wear in my old car :-) You are the first person to say something by the way !!

Thanks Pam - as I was at a glasses shop last week and have to go to an eye specialist this week, those glasses 'caught my eye' - and yes they would look good with my helmet - LOL They also would be great when I'm working on Puffing Billy as at times I do get soot in my eyes.

I have had a few calls like that too Pam.I tell them in the sweetest voice possible that I have completed an advanced a computer course and will fix it myself. I noticed your new pp but was a tad scared to ask if it was you..now I know it isn't lol. :O)

I was hoping there'd be no question of it being me, my top lip hair isn't that prolific just yet hahahaha. Well I was just too mad to be nice, at the cheek of these people, the callers.

My Irish friend was actually caught with this scam....it was a late night call and he had had a Guinness or two.....think his computer went down and he had to call in his IT man to rescue the computer from destruction.

IP your mother is wonderfully 'onto it' still at her age. Bravo!! Marg, sorry to hear about your friend, this scam has done a lot of damage to a lot of people. It's so very galling!!

Ah, the "Microsoft" [allegedly] scam; caller i/d showed a New York number, (came at lunchtime in the UK, so sparrowf@rt there), despite the dialect suggesting somewhere in the sub-continent. Kept them talking for five mins before resorting to the usual suggestion involving sex and travel; see also planxty's recent thread On the subject on call centres, I received a fairly non-PC email the other day - I daren't reproduce it here as somebody is bound to object....

I had the same call and gave the same answer,the next day they again ! Unbelievable.

Thanks, Pam for sharing! Luckily, this has not started here but you sure kept your head. Bravo!

And I just got a text message telling me I'd won some "Apple" competition. Jeez, I'm being bombarded today!!

Anil I surprised myself hahahaha. The key is to recognise what is going on right away. And they seem to call at the most inconvenient time!!

Pam, Call your coumpter supplier help desk and say you cannot locate your computer and if they be able to help .... PJ

LOL :-)

I really, really, really DIDN'T think that the 'tache was yours Pam, I just thought you were going to a fancy dress gig.....

haha nah, but don't you love those goggles!!

By the way, it's called "Steampunk" - very zany :-)

I had the same call a while ago and despite finding it a tad annoying I followed what I had been told years ago and kept the person on the phone for almost half an hour...we have 8 computers in this house at some points in time so I kept on with the "Yes I understand but which computor do YOU mean?" question...and then filling in with lot of daft information about my medion 2009 and the kids lite 2020 and xtralite 2021 and acer perspire and microlitewave...and of course hubbys Apple Orange and Apple Blackberry with stationport which he needs for work...in the end the person said it was too difficult for him to see which computor it was because they were all running at once ( none were on) and he would get a higher level support to ring me back....

i haven't had any phone scams and I think that is because i only have a mobile and Skype but no home phone. I have numerous email ones in the last week and I have submitted at least four to the authorities (ACMA here in Australia) as they were new ones to me.

I hope you had someone call and have the call traced after all that time :-)

i had a call about our "poota" being riddled with viruses etc -- from "the computer shop" - david has a maintence contract with PC World - so I told em this and hung up - its the poor beggars who are not wise enough to realise its a scam that I feel for

I got one and said, "Wait a minute! How do you know about my computer?! It's never been connected to the Internet! Did you break in or something? ...I'm calling the police!" [Click!] Do these people have to pay long-distance charges somehow? Does keeping them on the line cost them money? ...Of course, they're probably long-distance phoning illegally somehow too.

It is now legal for marketing calls to dial cell phones in the US. So with that, I sometimes get calls for various reasons which is in itself annoying since I'm always international based. The two that come most frequently: 1- offers to refinance my home mortgage. When I ask which of my properties they are talking about they usually give one of two addresses. The first is a self-storage locker that was listed in some insurance papers a long time ago. The second is my mailing address, which is actually my company's address. It is a large campus with 8 buildings and 2000+ employees. 2- requests to put campaign banners and advertisements in my front yard. I usually say yes, just hoping they will call me back to explain the security hassles they went through trying to put political propaganda in my company's front lawn.