My grandfather almost got scammed. What you need to know about scammers.

[weberdarren97]

Hello all,
I will begin by explaining the situation and explaining what is wrong with it. At the end of this post, I will recap by listing the signs of a scam that were expressed during this call.

It was 17:30, we'd just finished dinner. The phone rang and my grandfather answered it. He sounded confused so I picked up on a different handset. I heard them say that they found a problem with his computer and that they would shut it off if he didn't get the contagious viruses off of it. Here is sign #1 of a scam, a company that you don't know is reaching out to you.

They continued to explain that his computer would spread something known as a "Takedown Trojan" to all computers on the internet, causing a global catastrophe. Here is sign #2 of a scam, they make a big deal out of nothing to try to get you to pay attention to what they have to say.

My grandfather said that he had no idea what they were saying and put me in charge of the conversation. They said "OMG we've wasted so much time. Now we only have 25 minutes before the virus spreads." Here is sign #3 of a scam, you feel pressured to take immediate action. Here is also sign #4 of a scam (applies to US residents), the person on the phone has a deep middle eastern accent and does not speak proper English.

I responded with "Sir, I know this is a scam and I wish to be taken off of your list of people to call." He hung up on me.

They called once a week from then on and I would get an automated menu, so I would navigate through until I got a real person. Once I had a real person, I would hang up. At this point, I'm wasting their time, not the other way around. For these kinds of companies, time is money. Waste enough of their time and they'll stop calling you.

So let's recap with the signs of a scam that were expressed in this phone call.
1) An unknown company is reaching out to you.
2) They make a big deal out of something in order to grab your attention.
3) They pressure you into taking immediate action.
4) They are foreign and do not speak proper English. (this one mainly applies to residents of the US mainland)

Thank you to all that took the time to read this.

-Darren

 

[COLGeek]

This is a common method of scammer interaction. There are many others like this particular scam.

MS will never contact you.

Nor will the IRS, via a cold call.

Just hang up on these jokers. There is no reason to speak with or listen to them.

 

[Shaun o]

A scam only works, on the knowledge of the person they are phoning.

It`s likely that they target people of an older age, or select one because they have less knowledge on how computers work, and other technology we have these days.

Anyone who phones you in a situation like it, and then quotes that you need to make a payment to them of any kind
simply put the phone down on them, and get the number blocked.
Don`t even bother entertaining or engage in any conversation.

Simple as that.

 

[weberdarren97]

This is a common method of scammer interaction. There are many others like this particular scam.

MS will never contact you.

Nor will the IRS, via a cold call.

Just hang up on these jokers. There is no reason to speak with or listen to them.

I completely agree with these statements.

I like to entertain myself when work is slow... Often times I find myself here on Tom's, often times I'm on YouTube, sometimes I call back the scammers just to express my disappointment.

 

[faalin]

HAHA i love playing with these idiots, I like to play along till they get to the billing information and give them ether Microsofts or Apples Corporate address and then i have a list of test credit card numbers ( you can just google them off the internet). The first time through the card number i leave a number out, if they are good they will tell me i missed one and ill have them read the number back to me but ill change a few number and add one in, I can normally get them to go through the number a few times, after that ill just start saying something like, why is is it so hard for you to get the number right or how are you ever going to steal my money if you can get it right and just hang up on them.

Ill get 1 if not 2 calls a week from these idiots.

 

[rgd1101]

Don't answer call from unknown #, let it go to voice mail

 

[ex_bubblehead]

I used to get at least one of those calls a month until I started playing around with them. Now it's down to once every 3 or 4 months. I have several Honeypot VM's running XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 that I can bring on line in seconds and let them root around all they want, all the while playing the dumb user. I'm hoping to break the 2 hour mark (current record 1hr 52m). They really get pissed when I finally tell them that they aren't getting a dime and that everything's been recorded for later forensic analysis. It's great fun on a slow news day

 

[weberdarren97]

I used to get at least one of those calls a month until I started playing around with them. Now it's down to once every 3 or 4 months. I have several Honeypot VM's running XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 that I can bring on line in seconds and let them root around all they want, all the while playing the dumb user. I'm hoping to break the 2 hour mark (current record 1hr 52m). They really get pissed when I finally tell them that they aren't getting a dime and that everything's been recorded for later forensic analysis. It's great fun on a slow news day

You just gave me a crazy bad, wonderful idea. Thanks for the story.

 

[Ralston18]

In agreement with all of the above. I used to play around with those scammers to the point of keeping track of the names and then throwing the last used name (fake) under the bus by telling the next caller (male or female) that I had secretly agree to directly send money to one of the previous used names.

All in all what happened is I kept getting more and more calls. My telephone number was "live".

Stopped playing with them, ignored the calls, and set up my telephone number(s) with Nomorobo. Free FCC sponsored system to block scammers.

Works very well and you should consider setting up your Grandfather's number to screen calls via Nomorobo. May depend on his telephone service provider but you still may be able to set up his number. I.e., I did it by using an iPad at another location away from my telephone provider.

AgaIn free, easy, and effective. May take three or four weeks to become effective. Scam calls to my number have dimished greatly. Tend to come in batches now - trying to determine the pattern/causation for that.....

 

[James Mason]

Hmm, I just don't have a landline, and i've also had the same cellphone number for probably like 13 years now.

 

[ssddx]

sorry to say but nothing new here. if you had posted this in the 90's it would have been fresh, relevant and need to know information but scammers have been doing the same thing for the past 20+ years. if anyone falls for these scams anymore it is because they are not being safe.

i've received the IRS you owe money scare tactic scam. the irs would never cold call you and you would receive plenty of notices and contacts about the matter.

i've received the india microsoft tech support scams multiple times. microsoft doesnt care enough to call or contact you about such things.

i've received verizon cell phone scams. verizon will never ask for your information in a call

heck.. i've even seen the brown box speakers in a van at a shopping center scam and the one where they sell cleaning fluid while scoping out your place to steal later. its sad, but there are some folks in society who want to steal.

generally this:

if you receive a phone call from a company that seems important and you have affiliation with never give out any personal information and never make any decisions. look up their number, call them and speak with their customer service to deal with the problem or question. this is the only way you know for sure who you are speaking with on the phone.

as stated before most scams are fear tactics. ignore the calls or blacklist the number and go on with your day. speaking with them will only make them call you more generally.

 

[mjslakeridge]

sorry to say but nothing new here. if you had posted this in the 90's it would have been fresh, relevant and need to know information but scammers have been doing the same thing for the past 20+ years. if anyone falls for these scams anymore it is because they are not being safe.

i've received the IRS you owe money scare tactic scam. the irs would never cold call you and you would receive plenty of notices and contacts about the matter.

i've received the india microsoft tech support scams multiple times. microsoft doesnt care enough to call or contact you about such things.

i've received verizon cell phone scams. verizon will never ask for your information in a call

heck.. i've even seen the brown box speakers in a van at a shopping center scam and the one where they sell cleaning fluid while scoping out your place to steal later. its sad, but there are some folks in society who want to steal.

generally this:

if you receive a phone call from a company that seems important and you have affiliation with never give out any personal information and never make any decisions. look up their number, call them and speak with their customer service to deal with the problem or question. this is the only way you know for sure who you are speaking with on the phone.

as stated before most scams are fear tactics. ignore the calls or blacklist the number and go on with your day. speaking with them will only make them call you more generally.

Even though there is nothing new here as you say, I think the thread is still helpful, as I am sure there are many new users here on Toms every day, and to some people this may be the first they have heard of this type of scam. I read a few days ago that Tom's is in the top 20 of all websites in terms of web hits.

It is easy to say when you are still young that "I would never fall for that", but as Darren said, his grandfather got the call, not him. We will all be old someday (if we live that long), and the scammers will only get more sophisticated. It is just a good reminder to tell your older relatives/friends that if they get such a call, either hang up or reach out to their younger relative/friend before taking any action.