Con artists phone saying they are from Microsoft

by MexicoPete Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:01 pm

I go to Seattle 3 times per year for a short visit. And when here, I almost always get a phone call from a call center located perhaps in India and the con artist phoning says he is from Microsoft and wanting me to let him connect to my computer so that he can repair the "terrible virus I have on my Microsoft computer.

Now I could just hang up. But these days I don't. Today I pretended to follow the tech guys instructions and kept him talking for maybe 5 minutes. finally when he couldn't hook up to my computer, I said. gosh, I knew I had a problem when I couldn't connect to the internet. Oh that's right, I forgot to pay this month . I don't have any internet.

I suggested he call back in about a week. I said that by then I should have internet again..

Other times I play other games. It's great fun

by Canada_Mike Sat Sep 17, 2016 9:30 pm

I usually say, can you hang on a minute? Then leave my phone while I get a coffee. Come back and they're gone.

Once I said, Does you mother know you steal from people? He got very upset.

by MexicoPete Sat Sep 17, 2016 9:33 pm

Great responses.

by Zedinmexico Sun Sep 18, 2016 7:20 am

When I had a parrot I use to put the phone in with the parrot. He would talk away and it took a surprising amount of time for the folks to figure out they were talking to a bird. Don't get any spam calls on my Telmex phone.

Z

by sir Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:00 pm

Doesn't take a genius: what country has a vast majority of outsourced contract tech call centers? Do you recognize the accents of these scam artists? Here is a hint: could they be from same country? Phone numbers, email addresses and other valuable info stolen from one call center and sold to scammers? Nice side income?

by suegarn Sun Sep 18, 2016 5:57 pm

MexicoPete wrote:I go to Seattle 3 times per year for a short visit. And when here, I almost always get a phone call from a call center located perhaps in India and the con artist phoning says he is from Microsoft and wanting me to let him connect to my computer so that he can repair the "terrible virus I have on my Microsoft computer.

Now I could just hang up. But these days I don't. Today I pretended to follow the tech guys instructions and kept him talking for maybe 5 minutes. finally when he couldn't hook up to my computer, I said. gosh, I knew I had a problem when I couldn't connect to the internet. Oh that's right, I forgot to pay this month . I don't have any internet.

I suggested he call back in about a week. I said that by then I should have internet again..

Other times I play other games. It's great fun

The problem with these guys, is they never give up! Even if you leave them hanging, they'll continue to call for months or years sometimes.

I used to get these calls at least 1-2 times PER DAY when I lived up north. I told them that I didn't even have a PC...I had a Mac, but they wouldn't leave me alone. I called Bell Telephone, and they said there was absolutely NOTHING they would do about it. They said that my only option was to continually change my phone number, which I told them was ridiculous!

by MexicoPete Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:04 pm

Over the last four or so years I'm at my Condo in Seattle several months per year. Regardless of what I say, like I don't have a computer, or I have a Mac or that I work at Microsoft, someone else calls back not several times per day but maybe twice per month.

by MexicoPete Mon Sep 19, 2016 6:16 pm

Update: Just got another call, I kept the guy talking for almost five minutes. When he asked me to push certain keys so that he could see my screen, I told him I was busy reading about something on Wikipedia and could he call later.

Well he called back later, I said that I was ready for him. I kept him busy for a short time and then said that I could help him look at my screen, he told me what to do and I pretended to try then I said wait a minute I know how to help you, a few seconds later I said OK I took a picture of my screen on my cell phone, give me your email address and I can send you a copy of my screen.

It went on for a while and he finally gave up.

by suegarn Mon Sep 19, 2016 6:38 pm

MexicoPete wrote:Update: Just got another call, I kept the guy talking for almost five minutes. When he asked me to push certain keys so that he could see my screen, I told him I was busy reading about something on Wikipedia and could he call later.

Well he called back later, I said that I was ready for him. I kept him busy for a short time and then said that I could help him look at my screen, he told me what to do and I pretended to try then I said wait a minute I know how to help you, a few seconds later I said OK I took a picture of my screen on my cell phone, give me your email address and I can send you a copy of my screen.

It went on for a while and he finally gave up.

Unfortunately, that'll never stop them. All you're doing is wasting your own time. Sure, you've wasted one employee's time, out of thousands of them, but it'll never stop until the telephone companies take responsibility for allowing scam calls on their networks! And they don't give a damn!
In Canada, the government set up a 'Do Not Call' list that you could sign up for. After the government got all the phone numbers and info of the people that didn't want telemarketers calling them, you know what they did? They SOLD the list to telemarketers!

by MexicoPete Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:58 pm

You are so right. But to me, when I am in Seattle and not in Mexico or Vancouver Island sometimes I get terribly bored and look forward to these calls.

My plan was when I got bored that I would pull the "What is your email address? I will send you a picture of my screen so you can see it" routine.

Another answer is, thanks anyway, I will ask my son to drop by and help me after work tonight. He works for Microsoft and will able to fix the problem for me (Microsoft headquarters is in a suburb of Seattle)

Understand that this is entertainment for me. If not, I could block his or their telephone number.

by MexicoPete Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:40 pm

You are not going to believe this. But I swear to God it is true. I got a call from a call center an hour or two ago. It was hard to understand because the call center had others talking, and I didn't have my hearing aids on. The lady, with an accent, said she was from the US Government or something to do with the government. I said (it was true) that I had a hard time understanding her. And asked her to speak louder

Rather than trying to deal with me. She simply hung up and I didn't have a chance to find out what the lady wanted. Oh well I'm heading south soon and won't have access to this telephone number.

by islandiver Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:34 pm

Zedinmexico wrote:When I had a parrot I use to put the phone in with the parrot. He would talk away and it took a surprising amount of time for the folks to figure out they were talking to a bird. Don't get any spam calls on my Telmex phone.

Z

Monty Python was also sold a dead parrot. (it's on YOUTUBE) as well as the following.

http://genius.com/Monty-python-dead-parrot-sketch-annotated

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