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Old 11-06-2011, 15:06
stud u like
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I told him that work did not have a computer. That made him put the phone down. No apology! How rude!
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Old 16-06-2011, 11:08
flagpole
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interesting story about this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06...rt_scam_calls/

some highlights
-16% of people have received these calls (26% in ireland)
-79% of those tricked suffered financial loss – the average loss was $875 (£542)
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Old 21-06-2011, 22:29
call100
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My father in law received one today...Luckily he put them off and phoned me to see if I knew whether it was genuine or not....He didn't even finish the sentence before I told him it was a scam. I left him giving Google a bashing to read up on it.
If only more of the older folk were that careful.
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Old 24-06-2011, 21:07
Shaun2k5
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I had a call literally 2 hours ago. Strung them along and didn't even turn laptop on.
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Old 25-06-2011, 23:11
bigluke1970
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i had this call today and thought it was genuine. I was on firefox at the time - I closed firefox. Couldnt understand what file he was asking me to locate and did not get directed to any websites so I am lucky. I did not give him any financial details and also luckily he got cut off. Now realised I could have been scammed and feel very lucky. I now know about this and hopedully these guys can be stopped. I also thought that it was a wee bit bogus as he told me that my Kaspersky Anti Virus software did not work properly.
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Old 25-06-2011, 23:14
bigluke1970
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The article mentoned

More than a fifth of those who received such a call, or 3 per cent of the total surveyed, were tricked into following the crooks instructions which ranged from allowing remote access of their machines, downloading dodgy code or in some cases giving credit card information in order to make purchases.

To allow someone to get remote access to your machine what do you have to do. Do you have to click on a website.
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Old 26-06-2011, 11:42
stud u like
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The article mentoned

More than a fifth of those who received such a call, or 3 per cent of the total surveyed, were tricked into following the crooks instructions which ranged from allowing remote access of their machines, downloading dodgy code or in some cases giving credit card information in order to make purchases.

To allow someone to get remote access to your machine what do you have to do. Do you have to click on a website.
You can remote access from your computer. It is funny to see someone move a cursor about without you doing it.

Jolly useful if you want to fix something for a family member or friend.
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Old 27-06-2011, 12:27
Tadpole
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Just had a call from a company called "Online PC Care". The audio on the line was tinny, caller ID was "out of area", and the caller had a distinct Asian accent, ie sounded Indian or Pakistani. Asking me of my PC was going slow. Ended up telling him where to stick his questions.
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Old 29-06-2011, 19:10
xxtimbo
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the scary thing is that they know your full name... telephone No etc

Ive had 2 or 3 calls and they say they are from microsoft... or a company working for microsoft.

I always ask for an e mail address and say ... lets communicate by e mail and you can tell me all about the problem , I can then verify things etc

They always seem perplexed at this question and I never seem to get an e mail addy out of them.
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Old 30-06-2011, 21:41
brillopad
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the scary thing is that they know your full name... telephone No etc

Ive had 2 or 3 calls and they say they are from microsoft... or a company working for microsoft.

I always ask for an e mail address and say ... lets communicate by e mail and you can tell me all about the problem , I can then verify things etc

They always seem perplexed at this question and I never seem to get an e mail addy out of them.
Apparently some might even work for Microsoft.

A giveaway is him getting you to run CHKDSK and asking if a warning appeared....it will...without parameters CHKDSK will say 'warning F parameter not specified'.
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Old 04-07-2011, 10:33
Tadpole
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So my Indian theory cheked out (June 27th). The website for onlinepccare.com appears to be hosted in Calcutta, provider is tataindicomextra.in. Not sure if Trading Standards would be interested in offshore fraud targetting UK consumers in this way. Their website appears to have 3 UK phone numbers, one each in London, Cardiff and Birmingham.
Registration Service Provided By: SIFY
Contact: +091.4422540770
Website: http://www.sifycorp.com

Domain Name: ONLINEPCCARE.COM

Registrant (also administrative and technical contact):
Onlinepccare
M.K.Shah ()
P 835, New Alipore
Kolkata
West Bengal,700053
IN
Tel. +091.3340101614

Creation Date: 12-Aug-2009
Expiration Date: 12-Aug-2012

Domain servers in listed order:
pdns.sifytech.net
sdns.sifytech.net

Billing Contact:
Sify Limited
Sify Limited ()
Second Floor, Tidel Park
No. 4 Canal Bank Road,Taramani
Chennai
Tamil Nadu,600113
IN
Tel. +091.04422540770
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Old 04-07-2011, 12:39
RobinOfLoxley
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Nice job Tadpole.

The authorities don't take action because of lack of resources, jurisdiction etc.

Since you have done some of the donkey work, and in case Trading Standards don't read this thread, why don't you forward to them. And maybe SOCA, your MP, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, BBC Watchdog, ITV Tonight, C4 Dispatches etc.

People may scoff at how anyone could be so stupid to fall for these scams, but they do. Particularly the elderly. It's a disgrace nothing is done.
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Old 04-07-2011, 13:08
Tadpole
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Have notified Watchdog, don't have that much evidence as I smelt a rat within 15 seconds of the call starting and told him where to go. So I don't know what the crap they would have come out with. Also found this page (link) from another intended victim.
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Old 16-07-2011, 23:48
elmondo
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this caught my eye http://youtu.be/VE55R7_0E-k
I think the call was dealt with perfectly!!
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Old 20-07-2011, 14:00
Andy2
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I've just had an AMMYY (this one from 'online PC masters') call, so I strung him along and after about 10 minutes of farting about I gave him my "oh wait, a warning notice has appeared. It says 'the person you are speaking to is a F***ing criminial who wants to taqke control of your computer! NOW F*** OFF you dirty criminal scum!'

Would you believe he phoned back? I just gave him the silent treatment.
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Old 20-07-2011, 14:28
Tadpole
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I find it odd that McAfee Siteadvisor rates the OnlinePCCare web site as OK with provisos, whereas Web Of Trust warns to avoid like the plague.
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Old 20-07-2011, 16:03
LooieENG
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just got this call

put the phone down and he range back saying "sorry about that" so I just told him to f**k off and put the phone down again. not had a call back yet

I wish I would have played along though now
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Old 20-07-2011, 18:55
CABLEDUDE
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I once had one of these calls, so my Dad passed the phone over to me, and the guy with a thick Indian accent said 'What operating system do you use?' so I said trying to act coolly 'Windows 3.1', the best was his reaction, he turned almost hysterical and shouted 'Windows 3.1?11', then it suddenly went quiet.
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Old 24-07-2011, 11:21
RobinOfLoxley
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Just catching up on local paper.

Elderly local couple just got a call "from the DVLA" requesting debit/credit card details to renew the guy's driving licence as "it has expired".

Fortunately they refused but were upset and don't want to be named.


Maybe this sticky should be in every forum?
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Old 25-07-2011, 20:12
ClarkF1
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It took the guy 5 times to say Microsoft today...he got as far as "Micro" and started again. When he said "Support" I hung up.
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Old 26-07-2011, 11:38
barnsleykeith
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Just got one of these. Knew straight away it was a con but had to Goggle to find out what it was all about. I told him I hadn't got a PC or Laptop and he hung up.

It sounded like he was in an office because I could here other people in the background talking as well. So it looks like it's well organised and not a one man operation.
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Old 27-07-2011, 13:06
JasonWatkins
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I'm on the phone to one now and i'm really trying not to laugh.

If anyone reads this in the next 2 minutes, give me some ideas for things to say
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Old 27-07-2011, 13:28
JasonWatkins
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Bugger. Got 26 minutes out of him. Had the usual nonsense about the red and yellow warning signs, so played along but I was really struggling not to burst out laughing.

Directed me to the showmypc site and I said "Will this work with Windows 3.1 ?". He said "Yes, yes of coure it will work with all windows". I said "But will it work with 3.1 ?".

That's when he directed me to the logmein123 site and gave me the code to enter (which I didn't..). Said nothing was happening and he said to me "What browser are you using?"

I said "Netscape Navigator" ..

Kept playing along and said the browser had stopped working so i had to try again.

Then I asked him how he knew my PC had a problem. He said that it had sent errors through to the support department so I said "So what IP address do you have for my machine then?"

He said "Yes, yes we have an IP address for your machine"

I said "So what is it then?"

He said "25.25.25.0" and I couldn't help it - i just exploded with laughter and he hung up
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Old 27-07-2011, 17:39
jzee
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I find it odd that McAfee Siteadvisor rates the OnlinePCCare web site as OK with provisos, whereas Web Of Trust warns to avoid like the plague.
That is because is Mcafee Site Advisor is completely useless & has been known to be so for some time.
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Old 28-07-2011, 17:52
100andthirty
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I had one of these calls today from an Indian sounding (gentle)man who insisted he was in Oxfordshire. He gave me a number "44 207 099 0930" and seemed non-plussed when I told him it was a London number. He said I had a number of viruses on my computer and I asked him "which computer?" which caused another pause in the script. he did seem to indicate he was from Microsoft. Eventually I told him to go away.

the number is live and has a foreign sounding ring ,is answered and when asked...... Are you Microsoft, the response is no, we're a technical support operation.
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