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Unsolicited calls concerning your computer |
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#51 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Chez Newda
Posts: 3,948
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Lol, love it! Keep it up
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#52 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Aberdeen
Posts: 147
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I had a call from the ISP aparently, local telephone number butter only 4 digits.I asked how they got my info and they said they are the ISP they have all the info.I said if you are the ISP how did you not know that computer wasnt on lol.
I said there was somone at the door and would be right back but i just put the down but never hung up and waited about 10 minutes then checked if the idiot was still there and hung up. The police would not do anything if you reported this as they are from outside the UK |
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#53 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Aberdeen
Posts: 147
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Give this a try.It says it will only let them dial once per day.
I got several calls a day from them untill i was quick enough to answer it as the phone only rang 2/3 times i could not answer it. http://www.ukdatait.co.uk/cgi-bin/sgAddNumber.cgi |
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#54 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 14,002
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Quote:
Just had one of these calls yesterday. He said I had a problem with my computer and he was from technical something or other. How come he knows my name?
Being 65 I said, "In that case I'll say goodbye". Indian guy said he was "from London technical department" and he was "aware someone had a laptop on premises that has serious viruses" They phoned twice, I didn't do anything but laugh at him and then he got narky with me. He had my name too, how do they get this? Does it do any harm to play along on the phone, as long as you don't do anything with your computer? I mean just on the phone pretending to press buttons. |
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#55 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Aberdeen
Posts: 147
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Quote:
I had that too!
Indian guy said he was "from London technical department" and he was "aware someone had a laptop on premises that has serious viruses" They phoned twice, I didn't do anything but laugh at him and then he got narky with me. He had my name too, how do they get this? Does it do any harm to play along on the phone, as long as you don't do anything with your computer? I mean just on the phone pretending to press buttons. Muhahahahahah lol |
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#56 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 53
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Quote:
Just had one of these calls yesterday. He said I had a problem with my computer and he was from technical something or other. How come he knows my name?
Being 65 I said, "In that case I'll say goodbye". I do actually have a small amount of privacy information that could be shown up should this become a problem. But someone telling me (an outsider of my network), I have what we call Snort in the Network security world an IDS (detection of instrusion) or IPS (protection against attacks). Going by pure logic though, think back to prior to getting these calls, you did not by any chance surrender your phone number to any companies did you? Or leave them on any websites? Just out of a sense of logic I have that is all, you just must be very careful in what you leave on various things across the Internet or someone willing to abuse the Data Protection Act, as that is very hard to get a conviction against. What you would have to prove in court is it came from a specific company. I mean for the people's doing this the fine they could receive is actually quite high, think it's in the region of around £20,000 should they sell your details to another company without your consent, but you as I said before have to prove it was them without any hesitation (which of course is extremely hard to do). |
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#57 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Chez Newda
Posts: 3,948
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Funnily enough, I haven't had anymore of these since I played along with them for a bit.
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#58 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: London
Posts: 5,858
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My dad got one yesterday.
He said "Thanks for letting me know. I'll get my son to take a look at it this afternoon".
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#59 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Wessex
Posts: 4,874
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I had a call this evening, again a heavy Indian accent.
Decided to play along as I wasn't busy. He explained that this was nothing to do with viruses but the far more dangerous junk files (?) He said that my IP address was flashing red on his screen. Enquired as to this IP address but he said that he was not allowed to give out personal information. I advised that my computer was already on. He asked if I could shut down any running programmes, complied OK. He asked if I could see the start button. No, can't see the start button Its on the left with S T A R T on it No still cant see the start button This was repeated a couple of times before he said "Never mind" We then spent a minute finding the windows button, via the left CTL key. Now I was to press the windows key and the R key I tried this nothing happened. A couple of minutes went by, he kept saying that I was doing it wrong I had to press them together. I was pressing them both together. Not being able to get a run box he said I was making a mistake. Getting bored I said that he was making a mistake as hadn't asked what operating system I was running and that this was a scam to get me to buy anti virus software. He didn't click at this point and defended that it was nothing to do with viruses. I told him that I was running Linux so that "windows key + R" does not give a run box. Ah so you are running Linux I am very sorry. Do you have a windows PC in the house I advised no and he tried to go. "But what about my IP address flashing red on his screen" I enquired I will send you the IP address in the mail he promised and hung up. Only 8 to 10 minutes this time, must do better |
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#60 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Back of the shed.
Posts: 14,029
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My nan had one of these calls a few weeks ago and the indian telesales guy started the call with "hello sexy" my nan said "excuse me?" he then repeated the same thing again, She asked him what he wanted and he said "we've detected a problem with your computer" and she hang up straight away.
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#61 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Herts
Posts: 17,002
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Quote:
My dad got one yesterday.
He said "Thanks for letting me know. I'll get my son to take a look at it this afternoon". ![]()
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#62 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: ♥Quaint Village♥
Posts: 9,370
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Strange Phonecall from Computer Virus 'Helpline'
I just received a call from a very strange sounding man asking if I was the person 'at the end of this phone number' (wtf??). He had been flagged that we have a slow working computer and he wanted to help me get rid of the viruses. I am very busy trying to sort out family problems so I said he will have to ring back later.
Can anyone throw any light on this or have you also received a call like this? Is it some kind of scam
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#63 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Wakefield
Posts: 4,873
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Please read the thread pinned at the top of this forum.
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#64 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,838
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Had this call too a few months ago from someone claiming to be 'Michael' with a strange accent talking about viruses etc.
It happened on the day I purchased a new laptop, so I was thrown a bit at first but soon realised it was a scam and hung up. Glad this thread is here to warn people. |
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#65 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: ♥Quaint Village♥
Posts: 9,370
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Quote:
Please read the thread pinned at the top of this forum.
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#66 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 30,072
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Not plausable at all then?
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#67 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: ♥Quaint Village♥
Posts: 9,370
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Quote:
Not plausable at all then?
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#68 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 7,975
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Quote:
so I said he will have to ring back later.
Easiest thing to say is that you don't have a computer or that your operating system is Linux. Then you will be crossed off their list of people to call back. You can tell them to go forth and multiply if you like which should also get you crossed off the list. |
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#69 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Devon
Posts: 12,829
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Article in our local paper (Front Page) warning of local pensioners who have been hit by telephone scams.
Sadly people do pay out. Also a friend of ours was phoned by someone 'at BT' and the first question he asked was 'How old are you?' Our friend is 80 but fortunately has the faculties of a 40 yr old and told the guy where to go. |
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#70 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Crawley, West Sussex
Posts: 9,295
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Quote:
Easiest thing to say is that you don't have a computer or that your operating system is Linux.
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#71 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: ♥Quaint Village♥
Posts: 9,370
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Quote:
Article in our local paper (Front Page) warning of local pensioners who have been hit by telephone scams.
Sadly people do pay out. Also a friend of ours was phoned by someone 'at BT' and the first question he asked was 'How old are you?' Our friend is 80 but fortunately has the faculties of a 40 yr old and told the guy where to go. |
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#72 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,735
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I got a call like this and told the caller to p*** off as I knew it was a scam.
If they ever ring again I'm going to go along with them and pretend that I am switching on my computer and going through their instruction but then tell them that I'm getting all sorts of error messages. Just to waste their time as much as possible. I've also started telling those companies that ring me and ask for me by name "Hang on, I'll go and get him". Then shout my name and leave the phone off the hook. (Not that phones have hooks nowadays!) |
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#73 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 4,636
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I just had one these calls, I was putting my shopping away at the time so it passed 5 minutes while I did that.
Apparently he's an MS certified technician and he'd found me from some international IP virus detecting organisation (can't remember the actual name he used). He said that every time I connect to the internet they get a warning that my computer is infected and that's why it's running so slowly, because the viruses are taking up all my hard drive. I tried telling him it isn't running slowly but that reply obviously wasn't on his answer sheet and he ignored me. After he waffled on about getting my name and phone number through my IP address (oh really?) and refusing to tell me IP address because of data protection laws (ah the irony) he told me to turn on my computer and click on Start. Now I'm using Windows 7 so I told him there wasn't anything that said Start, his solution was to press the Start button - helpful. He then told me to find the search box and enter, you've guessed it, eventvwr (which he kindly spelt out 4 times in case I'm stupid) and press enter. I wasn't actually on my computer, but I've used the event viewer so I had a vague idea what I was supposed to be seeing (you would have thought he could hear cupboard doors opening and closing rather than keys being pressed, but apparently not). Next I was to click on Custom Views - Administrative Event and then be horrified by all those errors caused by all the viruses on my computer. I tried to point out that most computers (if not all) will have errors in the event viewer, it's normal, but apparently I was wrong and they're caused by all the viruses leaking my personal information all over the internet. I'd finished putting my shopping away by now, but the dog had gone outside for a pee so I had a couple more minutes to kill. He told me to open the task manager and take a look at the CPU usage in the performance tab, was it high or low he wanted to know. I went for 56%, and that's all I'll ever be able to use it seems because the viruses are using the rest. Next he wanted me to go online (after telling me at the start of all this that I wouldn't need to), but my shopping was all put away, the dog was back inside wanting a sweet, so that's when I said bye and hung up. |
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#74 |
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Guest
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 4,723
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I had a phone call for this oversea muppets saying that it was my ISP and that I had problems with my computer. I asked them can you tell me which ISP I was with and they said BT. I said wrong try again and put the phone down. They phoned up again 10 minutes later stating the same again and when I asked the same question again this time he said SKY. I said wrong again and put the phone down again.
I have not had a phone call since, so hopefully they don't phone back. |
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#75 |
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Guest
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 372
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I just had one of these calls from a lady with a thick Indian accent, claiming to be from windows user support, and that my PC had been flagged up downloading malicious code (as they claim to know my IP address), and then tried the winkey+R routine as described by dsnik above. They even tried to blind me with tech jargon by claiming they knew the CLSID of my machine!
After playing along for a few minutes, I told the lady in no uncertain terms I didn't believe she was who she said she was, and when I asked the physical location of her office she was evasive. I hung up on her. These calls are a worry because anyone who is not technically minded could be easily taken in. |
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