Posted on 10/01/2018 5:03:10 AM PDT by alloysteel
I just got a phone call saying that my Microsoft 10 account has been compromised by any of several foreign sources, and that I should contact the phone number they have to set up a firewall against it being taken down or loss of all information they have on the cloud under this account.
I small a rat.
Log in to my computer? Press the enter button? How do you do that? Why was it so complicated?
I just couldn't seem to do what they wanted me to do.
They got angry at me for wasting their time.
I was so upset I had to hang up.
Rule # 1 When it’s a call it’s a rat.
Did the caller speak with a South Asian accent?
Get the call at least once a week. Been going on for a couple of years. I just tell them the must be mistaken because I don’t own a computer. They hang up real quick.
When I get a sales call, I quietly put down the phone while they're talking and let them talk.
Then they start with, 'Hello? Hello? Hello?'
It totally confuses them and throws them off script since there's no one there to respond to their questions.
One thing I don’t miss about living in the USA: telemarketers and scam callers. They are absolutely illegal here. My phone is blissfully silent.
Ask them how this is possible since you are running Linux.
HA-Ha —I did that too.
The guy called over his Supervisor __?
after a minute of me acting clueless about my computer
The guy started swearing and calling me every 4 letter word
he could think of —
I told him I was sorry... could they start from the beginning again?- they finally hung up but I wasted
10 minutes of their time
One thing that is fun to do is pretend it’s someone you know. Say something like “Ahhhh, it’s you! Drunk again? Call me back when ya sober up!” An Irish brogue helps.
Send the $100 for the license to me and I will see to it that Microsoft gets it.
If you don't know or recognize a number, do not pick up. If it is important enough, they will leave a message.
FWIW, I made a “ringtone” that was one second of nothing, and I’ve made that the default ringtone. Anybody in my phone’s phone book gets a real ringtone.
So any time somebody calls me the first time, I never hear it and it goes to voice mail. If they become somebody I want to talk to, I put them in my phone’s phone book and they get a real ringtone.
That’s sort of how I do email. I couldn’t sort out the junk so I switched to sorting out the expected emails. The ones remaining in the In Box were likely junk emails. It made it much simpler than figuring out all the ways scammers get past my filters.
Let me guess... he had a thick foreign accent but said his name is Bob. :-)
Did the guy who called tell what the weather was like outside on the streets of Nairobi?
Yeah, Microsoft cares so much about you that they would place a personal call to you. Sounds like the Microsoft that I know.
So, I string him along, laugh at him, ask him questions, (like, "why are you offering a Windows solution for my Mac?
> When they called me I was so flustered I had difficulty following their complicated instructions. <
An anti-scammer on Youtube has created the Lenny bot. Lenny is a recorded message that does what you said there. It’s done so well the scammer thinks he’s talking to a real person.
There are hundreds of “Hello, this is Lenny” calls. Here’s one. Take a listen. It’s a hoot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWrkDOt_IfM
That’s too much work.
Instead treat it as a gift and a chance to be creative.
Ehh? Hold on, sonny, let me get my hearing aid....
Ehh, what’s your name again?
Oh yeah, didn’t we meet down at the Five and Dime a few years ago?
Oh yeah, but it’s in the shop now. Funny thing is, the Ford dealer said they needed to replace the window computer. (Lot’s of chances to develop a story thread about cars here).
That reminds me of when my son James, you remember him, right? (Insert funny child story here.)
Always have an inane or illogical question, and be hard of hearing, and seem stupid but compliant. Yet yield no real information. My record was wasting 35 minutes of their time, all the while reading Free Republic.
Finally, they will either just hang up, or more likely very politely beg off.
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