[Gill P]

I have recently had a different type of call. The woman said she was a local agent for Dyson and would I like to extend my warranty. I said that I never had a warranty for my old Dyson (at least 15 years old) and I doubt they would extend it! Then I put the phone down. The second call I just said I hadn't got one and put the phone down.

The calls saying that I must claim because I had a loan and would lose out if I didn't. She starts off saying that "as you are under the age of 60....." As I am 77 next birthday, I think they are way off!

Another way to get rid of the calls is just to lay the phone down on the table or somewhere and let them ramble on, then after ten minutes or so just put the handset back on the cradle.

[The 12th Doctor]

I got several of these phone calls. I just told them I didn't own a computer.

[Lowri]

Originally Posted by The 12th Doctor

I got several of these phone calls. I just told them I didn't own a computer.

When my 80 year old Grandmother did that, they accused her of lying because everyone has a computer! Luckily it didn't upset her too much but I was furious!
They reached my technophobic mum once claiming to be from Microsoft but luckily she said that she would pass on the information to me because she didn't know enough. I knew nothing of this sort of scam then but as soon as she said it was Microsoft that rang my first response was why on Earth would a multi-billion dollar company be concerned by our 5 year old desktop? They'd most likely be pleased if we had to buy a new one

[DANCE OF DEATH]

Why don't you get a unit called Truecall. I have this unit and it stops international calls as well as those that are withheld calls. I have mine setup so that it only accepts star listed calls which is calls I want to recieve from people and others get a a dead line tone all the time.

The unit costs £99.00, but after the first few months of peace and quiet from these scams and cold callers it really does pay for itself.

[The 12th Doctor]

Originally Posted by DANCE OF DEATH

Why don't you get a unit called Truecall.

Hmm...I wonder why not?

The unit costs £99.00

Oh. That's why not

[ftv]

Not the brightest of scams - I get regular calls saying ''This is Sky, do you still have your Sky subscription ?''

If they were Sky they would know

[Superwomble]

Originally Posted by The 12th Doctor

Hmm...I wonder why not?



Oh. That's why not

AS someone who recently bought a Truecall unit, I can say it was fantastic value. The phone now only rings when there are genuine callers and friends or family members. No more canvassers, PPI callers, scammers, double glazing, insurance salesmen, timeshare, 'youve won a free holiday', scam callers from India or Pakistan (or wherever), steam room salesmen.

We were getting up to 15 if these daily, and we are on the TPS list. Truecall is excellent, and it also acts as an answering machine.

[platelet]

Originally Posted by DANCE OF DEATH

...The unit costs £99.00...

BT's option BT6500 is somewhat cheaper, at least the single handset option comes in at £60

[killjoy]

Now down to £40

[JSemple3]

This does the same thing:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-KX...ref=pd_cp_ce_1

Can block up to 30 numbers (I got 1 of them) can't block withheld or unavailable though which is annoying

[max99]

Originally Posted by The 12th Doctor

I got several of these phone calls. I just told them I didn't own a computer.

Should have told them you didn't own a phone...

[Miss Anthropic]

Originally Posted by JasonWatkins

43 minutes. a new record

Gave me a big, big laugh though. It was the "CLSID" approach, so after a while, I said "You do realise that this identifies a COM Class Object don't you ?". He said "And how do you know this Sir?".

I said "Well I work as a computer programmer". He said "Well you may be a programmer but we are windows support - we have more knowledge than you".

I laughed out loud at that and hung up

This reminds me of when I told them I have a friend who is a PC Tech by trade and sorts all my computer woes out. They said there was no way he could possibly fix this error because he wasn't a windows tech like them.

[Doctor_Wibble]

I just had one of these (actuially visiting Mum for a couple of days, answered the phone to get this joy experience).

It was from "Online PC Care", 'affiliated with service of windows operating system' and my computer had apparently been sending error and warning messages to their global server.

They wanted me to switch on my PC but I kept asking what the messages were, so I got put through to the supervisor.
After some repeated questions from me he said he had to check the CLSID number and after some insistence he gave me his first so I could just go and check (I suspected a standard function code or some such). After boiling the kettle I told him I couldn't find the number and asked him again who he was and who he was working for. He then said he could prove he was OK by telling me the default gateway on my computer and gave me "127.0.0.1" at which point I told him I knew it was a scam.

He spent a couple of minutes trying to persuade me that this was the correct value for a gateway before giving up. I was getting bored and my coffee was getting cold so I started speaking louder and louder each time I told him it was a scam. Fortunately he lost his temper when I called him a con artist and started using quite offensive language, telling me how rude I was, and then he hung up.

First time I've not just said "no thanks" to one of these, and I do feel that it was a rewarding experience though I probably won't bother again.

To the novice the call will sound complicated and technical and I can see how someone might be taken in by this.

FWIW the CLSID was indeed a standard registry component/function ID which looks like it was chosen because it's the last in the list and therefore visible on the screen. Found an exact match here : http://www.welivesecurity.com/2011/0...id-not-unique/

[Andy2]

Just had another this afternoon. After the usual pre-amble about being MS experts etc, he asked me if my computer was on, to which I replied yes.
Then he asked me if it was a 'Windows computer'. After playing dumb and asking him for several repeats ("it's a bad line to India just at the moment..") I said 'Oh a WINDOW computer?...no, it's on the desk near the stairs'.
Now you'd think that after a comment like that they'd realise I was taking the p!ss, but he just carried on.
It took me several attempts to tell him that the screen was showing:

BBC Microcomputer model B
32k
DFS
Disc Doctor ROM fitted.

Thankyou very much sir!

[killjoy]

///////

[Paddy C]

Ever since pretending to be another call centre the calls have practically stopped, and we used to be getting 3 or 4 a day.

Simply state you are BT and ask for their customer account number to enable you to continue the call. No matter what they say just tell them they are through to BT Customer Services and you will terminate the call if they don't give you their account number. They just hang up in frustration and flag your number up to not be called again. Finally, some peace and quiet!

[panic room]

Had a call from India an hour ago with the "I am phoning from Microsoft and you computer has been hacked" spiel. I informed the man that we were in the middle of clearing snow from paths and I did not have the time right now, he responded with a rather angry tone telling me he was here to help me and to go and turn on my computer so he could sort it out, I said no the snow clearing came first so he mumbled somthing about phoning later and hung up. I can certainly see how some people would be sucked in with this crap and be scared enough to part with money - bloody scamers.

[sima]

Had one the other day saying my pc was going slow & I asked for my ip address and she gave some long answer as why she couldn't give me my ip address so I then asked if she had any nickers on (she didn't get that)

next time I'm going to say pc is broke as I took advice from someone on phone that my pc was going slow

[JSemple3]

I said in this thread before that we got new portable phones somepoint last year and the day we got them we had our first fake support call.....................not had any ever since

[Ian_Rundell]

Originally Posted by rhumble

the strangets internet scam iv seen is the PCeU scam,,,,,as a virus it puts a program in your star up box,,,,everytime you boot up your computer you get ascreen saying your computer has been locked by PCeU due to child porn or violent content or terrorist activity (this happens even if you haven.t been doing illegal stuff as it is a virus). Nothing works to get out of the screen not even Ctrl alt del.
The screen goes on to say that your computer has been locked and frozen until you pay a fine of £100.
The real PCeU have put out a statement saying they would never do this. The only way to get rid of this is to start up in safe mode go to your start up folder and delete the strange .exe file (it usually has lots of numbers.exe) make sure you do a virus boot up scan and your computer should boot up as normal.
DO NOT PAY THE FINE AS IT IS A VIRUS AND A SCAM

This is what my mate has,and the reason I came on to find out more about it,It also took a picture with his webcam.saying it is proof of his illegal activity

[alan1302]

Originally Posted by Ian_Rundell

This is what my mate has,and the reason I came on to find out more about it,It also took a picture with his webcam.saying it is proof of his illegal activity

Advise him to stay away from dodgy sites

[JSemple3]

Not listened to it yet but:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...1/malwarebytes

[Sick Bullet]

I play along with them sometimes, then just hit them after wasting 10 minutes of their time by trying to scare them saying this phone call has been recorded and on it's away to the local police office and the number has been tracked, it's funny listening to them trying to reason with you when busted

You can tell by the caller instantly if it's a scam or virus.

[JasonWatkins]

Just looking at that link from Wired, and this made me laugh, after the operator left a message on his PC saying "bye asshole" and he asked why he was called that ..

A male voice replies that the "technician is always correct. If he is saying that you are something then you must be. He cannot be wrong."

[Taiko]

Played one for two hours on Thursday night. Was nothing on TV, and had nothing to do so thought "Why not?". Eventually got bored of them...