I was mean to a telephone caller today. Yesterday, I had had the same scam call,

[pnwmom]

Last edited Mon Jun 22, 2015, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

from someone pretending to be from Microsoft, telling me that I had a problem with my Microsoft computer that they could help me fix.

Yesterday I just hung up on the person.

Today, I said something like this:

"Do you know that I can hear you’re calling from a phone bank and I know you are lying to me? You are really truly pathetic -- that you are lying to me, and you know it, and this is the only job you can manage to get.

"Good bye."

I know it was mean, telling him he was pathetic. He's just a cog in the wheel. But he's working for some company that's hurting people, and he's doing it on purpose, and taking money for it. Screw him and the phonebank he's calling from.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2473953,00.asp

Microsoft is taking tech support scammers to court.

The company sued Omnitech Support, a division of Customer Focus Services, for the misuse of Redmond's name, trademarks, and service marks in conjunction with phony services.

According to Courtney Gregoire, senior attorney with the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, Omnitech Support staff have been cold-calling people and claiming to be Microsoft tech support. They then convinced consumers that their computer was infected with malware, and tried to sell unnecessary security services to "clean" the PC.

Omnitech sometimes went as far as to install malicious software like a password grabber on victim's computers, gaining access to personal and financial information.

[seveneyes]

1. Blood to dust is a short trip

[Mnpaul]

2. Tell them you own a Mac

End of conversation.

[RebelOne]

3. I own a Mac and I always tell those scammers that and hang up on the caller. n/t

[pnwmom]

5. I happen to own a Mac. But so what? I can also just hang up on them without saying a word.

But I'm sick of scam callers -- period.

While I was in the hospital recently, one of them got hold of one of my kids and terrified them with a phony arrest warrant scam. Someone in India or Pakistan is making a living scaring people here. Great. I'm sick of it.

[pnwmom]

4. That's what I did yesterday, and hung up. But then someone else

from the same phone bank called me today.

And I wanted to do more than end the conversation. I wanted them to stop calling me and everyone else they're calling.

[Mnpaul]

6. for those cases

I use "What part of the do not call list do you not understand?"

[pnwmom]

7. These people are calling from India or Pakistan. I'm sure they know they're well beyond

the reach of that law.

Actually, Microsoft is suing their employer right now, for impersonating Microsoft. But that hasn't changed things a bit.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2473953,00.asp

Microsoft is taking tech support scammers to court.

The company sued Omnitech Support, a division of Customer Focus Services, for the misuse of Redmond's name, trademarks, and service marks in conjunction with phony services.

According to Courtney Gregoire, senior attorney with the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, Omnitech Support staff have been cold-calling people and claiming to be Microsoft tech support. They then convinced consumers that their computer was infected with malware, and tried to sell unnecessary security services to "clean" the PC.

Omnitech sometimes went as far as to install malicious software like a password grabber on victim's computers, gaining access to personal and financial information.

[hobbit709]

17. The only callers that pay attention to the list are legit ones.

The scammers could give a rat's ass about a list.

[struggle4progress]

8. I'd say, "Wait a minute!" then put the phone down on a table and wander off to read a book

If you've got time to waste, you could try to have an extended conversation with them along the lines of "I'm so glad you called! My computer stopped working last week and rinsing it doesn't do any good" or "Could you tell me how to get onto the internet?"

If you just want never to hear from them again, you might try the old "Could you call tonight after six? My husband is the one who does all the computer stuff here, and right now he's still at work at the police department"

For heaven sake, don't ever say even one single honest word to them: it will only help them improve up their scam

[kentauros]

9. Or you could say that your partner

works for the NSA

[MADem]

15. I do the very same--and I leave the phone right in front of the televison speaker.

Tom Mabe ought to update his library with something along those lines, if he hasn't already....

No one jerks telemarketers' chains better than Tom Mabe:

[lovemydog]

10. Say 'Thank you for calling. Please take me off your list of people to call.'

That seems to work best.

[pnwmom]

11. Nope, that hasn't worked at all. I've been called probably a half dozen times

in the last few months about the same scam. I've cited the Do Not Call List, I've just hung up, I've said I didn't own a computer, I've told them not to bother me . . . and then today I tried humiliating the scammer.

[lovemydog]

12. Damn. That sucks.

I hope you can find something that works!

[pnwmom]

13. Usually I just don't answer the phone. But they fool me when they appear to call

from a state where I have relatives.

Which also makes me kind of paranoid. . . . can they figure out where my other phone calls come from?

[lovemydog]

14. I don't know.

Maybe someone else will know for sure. Good luck.

[hobbit709]

16. I usually mess with them as long as possible until they hang up on me.

I figure that's at least 10 minutes they're not bothering someone that might fall for it.

[AwakeAtLast]

19. I do, too

"Oh, really? I had no idea. Let me go get my laptop......................................Are you sure I have the right one? We have three. Let me get the other ones just in case..................................."

I think my record is 14 minutes.

[csziggy]

18. I hope Microsoft gets every penny those people will ever own!

They ripped off my elderly Mom right after Dad died - charged thousands on her credit card and it took my sister months to get the charges off Mom's card.

My sister (who is computer illiterate and a MAC owner) got a call from them last week at Mom's house. She let them talk her through all the steps from turning the computer on, following all their directions, pushing all the buttons - but she was play acting and not doing a thing to the computer. Every step she made them wait, asked for help doing the directions, delayed, pretended to be stupid, just to string the call out.

Finally, they needed her to read something off the screen to them. She kept asking them what they needed, which part of the screen to read, then said she thought she understood what they needed to hear.

Then she said, "It says FUCK YOU, scammers!" The guy on the other end asked her to repeat it so she did word for word. Then he got indignant, "You can't say that to me." She repeated, "FUCK YOU, scammer!" He ranted at her in some language and hung up.

She estimated she wasted at least fifteen minutes of his time and she got a lot of satisfaction out of it.

[progressoid]

20. Excellent!

[csziggy]

21. I've been telling them that their warnings worried me so much

I replaced my Windows computers with an Apple. Not true, but it pisses them off and they haven't been calling as much.

[progressoid]

22. I listened to one for a while. Kind of stringing him along.

Finally, I said "we don't have a computer" (we have three).

Long pause.

"But we're getting a security warning from your address".

Me, "from my home address?"

"No, your computer address."

Me, "we don't have a computer."

"Someone there has a computer!"

Me. "OK, let me check."

I wait thirty seconds.

Me, "Nope, nobody here has a computer."

**Click**

[csziggy]

23. I like that one!

I'll have to tell my sister to use it.

If the FCC could force phone companies to control phone number spoofing and to block robocalls, most of our unwanted calls would stop.

I can't not answer the phone - half the time calls come when I'm in the middle of something else and don't have my glasses on to check the number. Checking the number would do no good - several times I have picked up on odd numbers or blocked number calls to find out they are from an insurance company that we needed to talk to about claims. I figure they are hiring these calls out and the callers are blocking their outgoing calls to protect their personal number.

In addition with a 94 year old mother who is getting home care, I always worry a call could be from one of her caretakers. Since they change regularly and they all use their personal cell phones, there would be no way to keep track of their phone numbers.

So when I'm in the mood I like to yank the chains of the real people who call. Robocalls on the other hand get nothing from me but complaints to the Do No Call list with a note all in caps that it was a robocall.

[pnwmom]

26. Her response was the best I've ever heard of. Thanks for sharing.

[IBEWVET]

24. I tell them I have two

a Mac and a HAL 9000 which one is infected. He said it was the HAL 9000 and I said I can fix it by opening the pod bay doors and then laughed and hung up

[Special Prosciuto]

25. Reminds me of the calls I used to get from one "Darryl Rose."

Anyone else remember this dirtbag?

[Special Prosciuto]

27. Back in the 1980s I had an 8mm blanks-only firing revolver.

Very loud, just as loud as the real thing. Scam callers on the land line were treated thusly: hold phone receiver at arm's length, put gun right to mouthpiece, and fire. Made them shut up and hang up rather promptly.