I have now had four calls saying I had a virus, they were from Microsoft and they could fix it.
On the last call I managed to keep them on the line for 15mins.
The guy was not very happy when I told him I had kept him on the line to stop him bothering others.
He tried to tell me I was paying for the call which was international. I wasn't as I've checked my bill.
I must get a whistle but are there any other devices that could be more annoying.

Say you going to put them on hold for a couple of minutes whilst you turn your PC on, then play the birdie song down the line on loop

Hi I saw the link here from Advice and was wondering if I've been prey to this.

An English guy phoned up he was from Talk Talk and that my broadband was slow. He then said they were called another company name and could get a broadband engineer out to fix it. I was very suspicious as they did no security regarding my address etc yet knew my name and that I was on Talk Talk.

Anyone else had a similar experience? Funny as I was going to call Talk Talk themselves to see if it was genuine. What were they going to do anyway? Burgle my house?

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Last edited by Dom McGlinchey : 03-08-2012 at 16:48

My sister fell for this, she lost what she paid as the bank couldn't stop it as it was based in Dubai. She had to change her bank details and kept getting calls from them which she ignored.
But then............,she got a cheque from the company for the amount less bank charges???????
Can't really be a scam then, can it?

Most are scams.

Never heard of a legitimate Dubai based company offering remote 'repair' services but why not?
A company that has a secure system regarding access to your confidential data and a no-quibble refund policy, could be viable. Although they would have severe difficulty differentiating themselves from the scammers.

I am not sure of trading laws in Dubai these days. But penalties against fraud can be severe. You can be imprisoned for bouncing cheques (even inadvertently) until the debt is repaid. Anything outstanding and you stay in jail.

Maybe that's why the money was repaid?

I just received one of these calls from "Microsoft Security Centre" and that they can help me remove the malware which is sending viruses to them etc. I waited till after they rambled on to ask where they were from again, to which they repeated.

I said it's a bit funny that since I have a Mac so I find it hard to believe how I'd be sending virus reports to Windows, to which they said oh you have Mac?

Pretty much told them I know it's a known scam and you're wasting people's time so you can just hang up now because I'm not going to fall for it. The line went quite, then they hung up.

I'm usually quite quiet in person aswell so I must say I had fun with these scammers

My aged Mum has a Mac Mini. I needed to get VNC access so I could help her out. I got a friend in the UK, who is also a teacher and Mac expert, to go to Mum's house and do the necessary.

While he was there, the phone rang. My Mum answered it then passed it over. "It's about the computer."

My friend took the handset. A voice said: "hello, this is Microsoft Security Centre. We've detected a problem with your PC."

"Oh, dear," he said. "Can you wait a minute while I go downstairs and switch it on?"

He put the handset down and continued to install the software for me on Mum's Mac.

I got a similar call earlier today.. I didn't say anything until the person stopped talking.. I then said ''keep going''.. they repeated themselves, then stopped talking.. I then said ''don't forget you phoned me''.. they started repeating themselves a third time at which point the line went dead..

What I find particularly bad about this nonsense, is that HM Gov seems hell bent on watching every move all of us make on-line, and yet can't seem to manage to kick BT's backside into gear with regard to blocking such calls.

I once asked a BT representative if I could have all calls from India bloked to my line, and was told that this could not be done. I still don't see why, its a line I'm paying for, and I can block British numbers.

Need to try something like this with the next scammer who calls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBfsdkGeMc8&sns=fb

that's hilarious..

I could not agree with you more. It should be quite simple to block calls from India with the technology as it is today, or any country or counties for that matter.

These people and companies who try these telephone sales are no more than pests, they intrude on people privacy and there should be a way they could be exterminated. When I answer the phone depending on the time I have and the mode I am in I either string them along of tell them where to go, but whatever I treat them with contempt, nasty horrible dross companies.

The latest one is energy saving and solar panels. if I have one call from them I have had 20 in the last couple of months.

My mum nearly fell for the security scam until she remembered what I had told her about the calls. She just said That she would talk to her daughter who is a computer programmer who has been writing business soft ware for the last 10 years (untrue), the scammers couldn't get off the phone fast enough. We had a good laugh about that.

My Mum, now retired, always says "I know computers. I audited the security for my Company"

But she accepted a cold call for Home Insulation a couple of years ago. I was furious ('ish) with her.

"Oh but they are genuine, they had a Switchboard and put me on hold and everything".
(anyone can fake a switchboard)

In fact, they were genuine, but I am still cross that she contracted them to do the Cavity Walls. (no charge - she is a pensioner). So all's well that time.

What do I do when she really loses her marbles? That's the nub of the matter.
All very well saying "Only idiots fall for these scams"

Another scam doing the rounds, they claim to be "Quantam PC Support" based at "12 Park Street, London SW12 ?JT" (I asked them!!).

Obviously a scam, they claimed to be a "major international IT services company" and told me "your computer has been infected by malicious software on the internet routing system".

They couldn't tell me anything about my computer or internet connection, so after listening to their pathetic english and cock-and-bull sales pitch, I just hung up.

I've had one recently, who, like all the others said had I had any problems with my windows.
When I started to say 'my windows, there...' he cut me short and said 'your pc windows, not the ones in your house' very sharply
So for a few minutes I played along, saying there was absolutely no problem, and if there was, how would I know? Would I get informed? What type of problem would I have?
He informed me my pc was infected and he could sort it out.
To which I informed him, I didn't have a pc, I don't run windows, and he was obviously ignorant about my set up, so he could go and call someone else. He hung up.
I usually don't answer the phone, but I was expecting a call and thought it was my friend. Should have let it go to answermachine - they always hang up.

I had one of these calls at work. An American woman said she was calling from New York but I could see the number she was calling from was 1321 (taking off the international prefix which is 00 in the UK and most of Europe), which I knew was not New York (which would have been 1212).

I asked her why she was not calling from a New York number and she hung up.

1321 is actually Florida so why didn't she say Florida? She wouldn't have sounded so dodgy then. Mind you we don't have IT support in the USA where I work, we have our own IT team!

How can you have been paying for the call if he called you?

Also, maybe you could ask him to hold for a bit and then call the police on your mobile and ask them to trace the call while he is on the line? That way you can see where the call is coming from and then inform the relevant authorities. If it is a UK call (which in these circumstances would be rare) the police could easily nick them.

I think that was because I heard this old man got a call like this and he kept them on for a while, not knowing what it was really all about.

He never used a computer in his life let alone owned one and he thought they were talking about the windows in his house.

One thing I heard was that if you get an unwanted call DO NOT blow a whistle down the phone as this will let them know they've got to you.

If you get someone dodgy on the line just keep them on for as long as you can. This will annoy them and delay them calling others who may fall for it. See how long you can keep them on for.

A friend of mine got a call saying his computer had a fault and that he could repair it.
They said " What type of fault,?"
The caller replied "We checked your computer online, and found you had a virus."
They said " That's remarkable, I don't have a computer "

I want another call - i managed nearly half an hour with my one and only call so far, largely by insisting I had windows 3.1

I had my first one the other day. They didn't say they where from (didn't mention Microsoft but he sounded indian) but I still enjoyed their company for a few minutes until they hung up on me!

Hmmmmmm, after you have kept them on the phone as long as possible, a parting gesture — http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=por...hop&prmd=imvns