Microsoft Tech Support Scams

My mum called a few days back... 

My dad is away on business, mum never uses the computer. The call had come in, and the 'Nice lady' on the phone from Microsoft told her to go upstairs and switch the machine on....

Not sure how she got her off the phone to call me, but she did. The PC was on, and my mum was sitting by it.

Mum is a 70 year old retired NHS member of staff who has spent her life helping everyone and anyone. Dad is a retired Army officer with a lot of service behind him. They are pensioners. 
Mum has survived a whole list of illnesses, and it's remarkable she's still with us, and we're so glad. They don't have much, but they are comfortable.

The thought that some irk would come along and strip them of that in the eve of their lives annoys the hell out of me. It clearly works - otherwise they wouldn't be calling. Something, other than legislation, needs to be done.

I feel your pain, it really annoys me also.  Sometimes I play along, other times, I tell them in no uncertain terms where to go.  Heck, they call us far far worse.  I got told to "go to h*ll" once, because the guy lost patience with me. (they don't like it if you start asking questions, but then I think they go off a script)

The police are slowly catching up with this, because there has been someone foreign (in the UK though), who has been arrested and done for employing people in India to make the calls, I forget when it was though.

And yes, you are right, it's the more senior people that I feel are caught out by it.  There was something on the TV about it recently, called Scammers (ITV I think), that featured this problem.

Yeah it's about time they brought out cyber crime teams and catch up with the rest of the world

Just tell them it's Linux not Windows and the line will either go dead or they'll sound astonished that you don't have a Windows PC and seek clarification and then the line will go dead .

They're not the politest people on the planet 

Originally Posted by mrb

“Just tell them it's Linux not Windows and the line will either go dead or they'll sound astonished that you don't have a Windows PC and seek clarification and then the line will go dead .

They're not the politest people on the planet ”

There's a few people that have told them that!  Quite a few youtube vids where people have recorded the scams taking place.

This sort of thing gets my goat! I would happily tell them 'good day and goodbye' but I recently found out my parents had a dodgy call and nearly went along with it. They only stopped when they asked for details. They are both really bright people but just a little bit too trusting. It disgusts me that they target older people especially. I am thinking of just ditching my landline as it only seems to attract crank calls but Virgin told us the monthly payment would go up by a £1 without it?! Bah.

I hate those people. Sad thing is its the elderly that fall prey to these scams.

I wonder if they are ramping up again? This scam is as oold as the hills, yet I've had 2 calls at home (which really winds me up) in the last week. I played along for a while being the dimmest user in the world, to the point he got frustrated and handed me over to a colleague.

nice trick I havent seen before, he claims he can prove he's from Microsoft as he can confirm your PC license number. It's all cobblers, he'll quote a standard string of numbers that is embedded on all windows machines. 

But it's a scam aimed at the unwary and vulnerable, it's still going because it's so lucrative and people still fall for it.

Wife took the second call and told then F off, a much cruder but more effective approach 

"to the point he got frustrated and handed me over to a colleague."
Yep, that's happened to me.

It's just the same stuff over and over again.

Reminds me actually, I once had a call (might of been couple of years ago maybe), where I had the scam call (indian voice, the usual), then moments after that, I received a call from a very well spoken man (sounded American), said he was from the Microsoft Fraud Dept or something similar, who asked me if I'd just been speaking to a scam caller.  Can't remember the exactly details of the call, but I might of gone into some detail.  The line then went dead whilst I was saying something.  Never head from him again.  Now that was funny!