Beware phone scam: We fix PC problems

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44 posts

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#627520 18-May-2012 20:39

We have just purchased an iPad for better or worse to be used mainly for Skype while I am in London with the laptop. My wife had a Skype call the other day - an american sounding gentleman - no video - who said she had a computer problem. She is not very computer savvy and has been having all sorts of problems with the iPad - then the connection fell over and she lost the call. Never called back. I'm pretty sure this is the same deal, but I had not been aware of it before....

freitasm

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#627531 18-May-2012 20:59

"We need to run this antivirus on your PC"
"I'm using an iPad"
"Same thing, let's do it! Start with your credit card number..."

keewee01

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#627545 18-May-2012 21:31

Ramboss:
keewee01:
Ramboss:

(sorry if this has already been discussed didn't want to read 14 pages just to put in my 2 cents in)

Do your time - read the thread like the rest of us!

Sorry but time is money and its 14 pages of reading and as i said i only put my 2 cents in, reading that much is way more than the 2 cents i wanted to put in.

Then obviously you don't value what we have written enough to read it!

This thread is well worth the read - just skim any boring bits and read the good bits. I only came into it 1 or 2 pages ago, but I have still skimmed thru the entire thing (when I had a spare few minutes of course), stopping to read the funny or informative bits.

speedy23

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#627615 19-May-2012 05:01

Yes, we've had a couple of phone call offers. I tried to get a phone number to call back on but obviously they weren't interested in that! It was the direct Skype call that surprised me.

gzt

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#627641 19-May-2012 09:56

gzt: What is the exact boundary before something like this is worthwhile to investigate and extradite the people taking the profit from these operations?

The scam must have taken total funds adding up to a large bank error by now.

Which one would you rather see media, police and diplomats spend huge amounts of time and effort on?

nexttothemoon: Obviously I think it's an issue that these entities are located in areas like India/Sri Lanka which have different rules and regulations and no government body here in NZ has any authority over them.

In the one I called back... they use a NZ phone number that routes back to India so they give the appearance of being in NZ but obviously they aren't.

There is definitely fraud going on and they are ripping people off but I just get the sense that the NZ government has chucked it into the too hard basket. If that's the case though they seriously need to educate more people through TV ads, radio, mailouts etc to just HANG UP when anyone calls you about anything to do with repairing anything over the phone. They need to make it clear that these people are criminals looking to con and rip people off. The message can't be getting through to everyone because some people are still falling for these cons.

gzt: Well given the amount of police time and diplomacy spent on chasing one single idiot for a bank error I don't think that is a valid argument at all.

fretasm: But a $10 million bank error is not like a $120 poor mom handing over money to these idiots retards bastards con artists thieves, is it ;) I mean, banks and all...

This is organised fraud on a massive scale. The call I had, had an unbelievable number of people in the background doing exactly the same thing. It was a massive call center. This is an organised crime.

freitasm

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#627646 19-May-2012 10:11

Yes, it's organised fraud. The problem is that one bank with $10 million error attracts the officialdom more than $100 credit card charges from thousands of individual citizens.

Wrong? Absolutely. But I don't think any police force would work on that. Politics...

Rickles

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#629928 24-May-2012 15:06

Folks,

A colleague of mine has returned from India where he had observed that many of these scam calls originating from there are being made by 'contracted' people' in their own homes .... they essentially work on commission when some unsuspecting sucker bites.

Talking to a couple of these operators he found out that most of them don't even know that the Company they work for is in the business of fraud ... some even pay for their own telephone/internet connections and time online, recouping such only if they make a "sale".

R.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

tedzart

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#629943 24-May-2012 15:32

It is not fair when the scammers themselves are being scammed! They need a Union!

keewee01

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#629952 24-May-2012 15:45

tedzart: It is not fair when the scammers themselves are being scammed! They need a Union!

They're hardly being scammed! Given how many people tell them they are scammers and what they are up to they must know, sooner or later.

kiwitrc

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#629990 24-May-2012 17:15

I always play this track to them while I go do something else.

tedzart

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#630004 24-May-2012 18:05

Well I feel sorry for them and always end up giving them more telephone numbers.

Virgil

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#630009 24-May-2012 18:37

Well, they are still going and still trying ...

I just managed to keep one in the line for 10 1/2 minutes while he tried to convince me that he was providing me with my unique computer licence number so he could not possibly be a scammer.

Then he got all confused when I told him I was using an Apple.

I presume the 32-character "unique licence number" he quoted my is not unique at all, but a common file name on all windows computers or something like that?

Lurking ...

freitasm

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#630203 25-May-2012 10:03

Something I wanted to do for a while, but never got a call: a security researcher got called, and recorded everything:

Full report here.

keewee01

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#630232 25-May-2012 10:47

freitasm: Something I wanted to do for a while, but never got a call: a security researcher got called, and recorded everything:

Full report here.

What would have been funny would be if he rolled back the VM machine to it's previous saved state during the reboot! Wonder how the scammers would have reacted to that???

alexx

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#637846 8-Jun-2012 14:57

Got another call a few minutes ago and the voice quality was very bad and it was difficult to understand her, so I said...

"The windows have all been cleaned just recently"

She continues with her prepared lines, so I tell her.

"no, they came around and cleaned the windows on all the apartments last week".

So she says> I'm talking about the windows on the computer.

She lost interest after I told her I had a Linux computer.

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