Beware phone scam: We fix PC problems

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12 posts

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#717780 15-Nov-2012 15:59

I can see how people can be fooled into doing this. Especially with older non tech generation where they just don't understand the basics of how these thing work

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#717787 15-Nov-2012 16:02

chopcomputerrepairs wins award for pointless thread wakeup contribution.

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#717798 15-Nov-2012 16:13

gzt: chopcomputerrepairs wins award for pointless thread wakeup contribution.

PaulZA

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#718390 16-Nov-2012 17:14

These guys are back. They might have taken a little "Vacation" but they are back with a vengeance. I have received two calls from these guys this afternoon. Rather instead of listening to their bullsh!t, I gave them a few tracks from my Music collection then I politely hung up the phone.

Haven't heard back from them since but it might be too soon to say it worked.

If they USA want to shut them down, they need to do a better job.

freitasm

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#718393 16-Nov-2012 17:24

They are pretty good at shutting down Megaupload ;)

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P1n3apqlExpr3ss

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#718405 16-Nov-2012 17:42

Haha if these are the guys I think it is... I messed with them a couple of weeks ago, asked them to hold while just playing music via my phone while "I turned on my computer" and "went to the toilet". Managed to stall them for a good 12 mins. Only reason they hung up is because YouTube didn't feel like buffering Gangnam Style

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#718828 17-Nov-2012 17:27

My home phone number has been unlisted for years, perhaps that's why the indian scammers never phone here.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

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#718830 17-Nov-2012 17:41

I've been getting these calls now on a daily basis, so they are not slowing down. I think one solution maybe to ditch the landline, as they only seem to ring those, perhaps because they are free to call. I do think that phone companies should be doing more to stop them, as they are essentially phone spam, so I would have thought they could block the calls from entering their network, like email providers can do with spam filtering. I also would have thought that they would be causing a huge increase in their call volumes.

gregmcc

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#718831 17-Nov-2012 17:46

mattwnz: I've been getting these calls now on a daily basis, so they are not slowing down. I think one solution maybe to ditch the landline, as they only seem to ring those, perhaps because they are free to call. I do think that phone companies should be doing more to stop them, as they are essentially phone spam, so I would have thought they could block the calls from entering their network, like email providers can do with spam filtering. I also would have thought that they would be causing a huge increase in their call volumes.

what about legimiate phone calls, how would the phone company go about telling the difference?

mattwnz

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#718833 17-Nov-2012 17:52

gregmcc:
mattwnz: I've been getting these calls now on a daily basis, so they are not slowing down. I think one solution maybe to ditch the landline, as they only seem to ring those, perhaps because they are free to call. I do think that phone companies should be doing more to stop them, as they are essentially phone spam, so I would have thought they could block the calls from entering their network, like email providers can do with spam filtering. I also would have thought that they would be causing a huge increase in their call volumes.

what about legimiate phone calls, how would the phone company go about telling the difference?

Possibily the same way they can do it with spam emails and legit ones, with a scam database. I actually see that there is a website where people can now list scam call numbers. I presume that they are using VOIP with uses IP's so blacklisting an IP range, and using algorithms. Maybe it is a billion dollar idea. I didn't say it would be easy to do.
One of the scary things is that one of these Indian callers actually knew my name, and I have an unlisted number, so they must be getting the details from somewhere.

gregmcc

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#718836 17-Nov-2012 17:59

mattwnz:
gregmcc:
mattwnz: I've been getting these calls now on a daily basis, so they are not slowing down. I think one solution maybe to ditch the landline, as they only seem to ring those, perhaps because they are free to call. I do think that phone companies should be doing more to stop them, as they are essentially phone spam, so I would have thought they could block the calls from entering their network, like email providers can do with spam filtering. I also would have thought that they would be causing a huge increase in their call volumes.

what about legimiate phone calls, how would the phone company go about telling the difference?

Possibily the same way they can do it with spam emails and legit ones, with a scam database. I actually see that there is a website where people can now list scam call numbers. I presume that they are using VOIP with uses IP's so blacklisting an IP range, and using algorithms. Maybe it is a billion dollar idea. I didn't say it would be easy to do.
One of the scary things is that one of these Indian callers actually knew my name, and I have an unlisted number, so they must be getting the details from somewhere.

Quite possible that a goot percentage of voip calls comming from a voip provider are legit, so blocking according to ip address isn't possible, by caller ID, possible to filter out the obvious fake caller ID's like 1234 (yes we had a caller ID like that) but also had a called ID that looked like a valid USA number (but after closer inspection it wasn't) and also had a scam call that looked like it came from a 2degress number, in reality it's not possible for the phone companies to filter out the spam calls.

The best way we have discovered is that a day or 2 before tha spam call we get a dead air call and that's how they figure out if the phone nuber is valid.

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Athlonite

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#719030 18-Nov-2012 13:15

DarthKermit: My home phone number has been unlisted for years, perhaps that's why the indian scammers never phone here.

+1 I haven't had a single call yet since this thread was created

freitasm

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#792576 3-Apr-2013 18:03

You can read a good description of this scam here.

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#792592 3-Apr-2013 18:29

I've been home for the last 4 weeks during the day and its amazing how many people ring up trying to sell services to me.

- Q-Card insurance
- Double Glazing (I already have a new house with it)
- Hedge Cutting (I don't have a hedge and the area where I am is all looked after via residents society)
- Indian Scammers
- Webhosting Companies
- Power Companies trying to get me to switch over ( I actually did as they offered me rates about 2/3 what I was paying)

Most of them are getting my Name/Phone number out of the whitepages as they ask for my Wifes Maiden Name (which our phone number is under)

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#875050 10-Aug-2013 13:06

xpd: Notice how the geeks never get these calls..... :)

Yes they do. 8-)

I am normally very polite on the phone, but, when I receive phone calls from these scammers, I think they are glad to hang up on me.
I recently had to help a work mate who allowed one these scammers to connect to him. He even gave them his credit card number ($900 taken)
I reformatted his computer and reloaded everything, told him I would charge no more than the last person he let work on his computer. He saw the funny side of that, I think.

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