Surprise telephone call

[solbjerg]

Hi all

I just had a telephone call from a female that claimed that they could see that my computer was badly infected with various dangerous malware.

She spoke very very quickly and very badly English so I kept saying that I did not understand and at last she popped the question of whether I had internet connection on my computer.

I replied that I did not - which was why I could not understand how they had discovered that I was infected.

When she heard that I did not have any internet connection, she quickly said "Have a nice day" and hung up.

Depriving me of wishing her a "nice" day myself. :-)

Unfortunately she did not get around to telling me how to clean away all infections on my computer :-)

They must be getting quite desperate to try to use such a method!!

And the least they should do was to find someone capable of speaking easily understandable English. :-)

Cheers

solbjerg

[Scannan]

Hi Solbjerg

 

Did her number show on your phone. If so report it to your police fraud squad.

There is a big campaign across Europe by the police forces to track down and stamp out this kind of scam. They will appreciate the info.

A lot of people fall for these scams because they are not very technically minded and panic when they are told they are infected. Everything possible should be done to put these criminals out of business.

[solbjerg]

Hi Scannan

Unfortunately my home telephone is very old and does not show the number calling.

I find it hard to understand how anyone could fall for this kind of scam - the language was almost unintelligible and spoken at three times normal speed - the accent sounded like the far east perhaps China or India.

But I suppose that this is too meager information to give the police.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

Hi Solbjerg

 

Did her number show on your phone. If so report it to your police fraud squad.

There is a big campaign across Europe by the police forces to track down and stamp out this kind of scam. They will appreciate the info.

A lot of people fall for these scams because they are not very technically minded and panic when they are told they are infected. Everything possible should be done to put these criminals out of business.

[atailor1]

Hey Solbjerg,

 

Welcome to my world. During the months of November and December of last year, I was inundated with calls from these fine folks. First ones, I just laughed off, but then it became aggravating, so I just decided to have a little fun. Went into my "I can get stupid real fast" mode and would do everything I could to keep them on the phone until they would hang up in frustration. Though they have gone away (at least for the present), I do miss my daily chuckles.

 

A.T.

[Melvin_Deal]

Hi Scannan

Unfortunately my home telephone is very old and does not show the number calling.

I find it hard to understand how anyone could fall for this kind of scam - the language was almost unintelligible and spoken at three times normal speed - the accent sounded like the far east perhaps China or India.

But I suppose that this is too meager information to give the police.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

Hi all...

 

In response to this...

I find it hard to understand how anyone could fall for this kind of scam

 

There are a huge number of users that still equate a PC with internet connection to a toaster. That it is simply a machine that either works or it doesn't... some get infected and just go buy a new machine!

 

They(phone scammers) believe that through their scripted phone calls they will find them(the ignorant users) and they do. The ignorant ones correlate the phone call as a factor giving the caller (scammer) legitimacy(they must know what they are doing because they got my phone number). Most who fall for this are new or inexperienced users. Many victims are older and many are younger.

 

Unlike most of your contemporaries Solbjerg, you have stayed on top of tech evolvement and understand it.:grin:

 

Sincerely,

-Mel

Live long and prosper!

 

My Mom is so tech ignorant that she requires assistance with the cable box remote... if she were to purchase a PC and attempt to connect she would be easily drawn in by this type of scam.

[Cicely]

Hi solbjerg,

 

At times, IObit users write to us that they also got that kind of calls. Some emailed us before giving their money out. But some lost their money as they were cheated during that call. According to our users and customers description, they callers have a heavy Indian accent. I am not sure whether this is your situation.

 

There are many such kind of companies to earn their business in this way. So everyone on Internet should be cautions in these situation. And that's why we start the thread Telephone Fraud in the forum. But it has few help to those victims. :-(

[solbjerg]

Hi Mel

Must be a rather expensive method to achieve their criminal goal though.

In my case it was very easy to spot the malicious intent though

"Te lang wa rely bad" - this sentece was said in about two tenths of a second. Very hard to understand.

I suppose that when lying there is a phycological mechanism that makes you say the lie very quickly - that way you do not lie for long :-)

I further suppose that Cicely could be right about it being an Indian accent.

My mother - now dead - got her computer in her eighties and never really leaned to use it.

I bought my first computer shortly afterwards. (around 1995)

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

Hi all...

 

In response to this...

 

There are a huge number of users that still equate a PC with internet connection to a toaster. That it is simply a machine that either works or it doesn't... some get infected and just go buy a new machine!

 

They(phone scammers) believe that through their scripted phone calls they will find them(the ignorant users) and they do. The ignorant ones correlate the phone call as a factor giving the caller (scammer) legitimacy(they must know what they are doing because they got my phone number). Most who fall for this are new or inexperienced users. Many victims are older and many are younger.

 

Unlike most of your contemporaries Solbjerg, you have stayed on top of tech evolvement and understand it.:grin:

 

Sincerely,

-Mel

Live long and prosper!

 

My Mom is so tech ignorant that she requires assistance with the cable box remote... if she were to purchase a PC and attempt to connect she would be easily drawn in by this type of scam.

[sugarybliss]

I guess when someone is upset,he or she can do things truly caused by their negative feelings. The woman who called seemed to be so annoyed because she's maybe in a middle of something and to add wounds to the injury, she was not assisted due to "language barrier". Don't worry, it happens to all of us. This is truly not an isolated case.