Yay! I finally got the Windows scammer call!

[mjr]

Unfortunately, I wasted the opportunity.

Problem is, I'm answering calls on my phone, because I'm expecting calls from job recruiters.

So this call was simply annoying. First, I could tell it was a boiler room call...and the guy had an accent of a certain type.

Then he goes into the spiel about my computer emitting error messages for the past couple of weeks.

I told him that was interesting because "my computer is off right now".

He actually had the balls to ask if I wanted to schedule a call-back.

So I told him my computer was off because the power supply was broken, and had been for a couple of days. His response? "Oh, my".

I think at that point he realized he was busted, but he didn't say anything. I told him I might not even use that computer anymore, and might just buy a new one. Then he thanked me and hung up.

I really should have jacked with him, but I wasn't in the mood, and I didn't want my phone tied up for very long.

[Blue Ginger]

My brother loves those calls but his number must be on their do not call list because he hasn't gotten one in a while. Longest he had them on the phone was about 2 hours. Because he is an evil little bugger and loves messing with people.

I just start yelling for the bleach to clean all the windows and ask if we have to do the inside and outside or just the inside. I don't move the phone away from my mouth because I'm loud enough to be heard at the other end of a cricket ground. And of course I use my full volume. They usually hang up after a bit of back and forth of them trying to explain that they mean the windows on the computer and me playing dumb.

[MadMike]

I told him I might not even use that computer anymore, and might just buy a new one. Then he thanked me and hung up.

My son likes to screw with those scammers. One time, he kept calling them back after they hung up on him, and they were begging him not to call anymore.

One time when he was tired and didn't feel like taking the time to seriously mess with them, he rattled a bunch of junk around, and told them, "Thank you so much for warning me! I threw that piece of shit out the window! I don't want it infecting my other appliances! I'm going to go out to Best Buy to get a new one!" He hung up on them as they were telling them, "Sir, if you plug it back in, we can help you fix it!"

[Sandman]

I've seen the videos (although I'm guessing they are fake) in which the scammers computer gets messed up.

[MadMike]

I've seen the videos (although I'm guessing they are fake) in which the scammers computer gets messed up.

It could happen if the would-be victim really knows what he's doing. After all, if they connect to your computer, that connection works both ways.

[wolfie]

A while back, I read in Reddit's "Tales from tech support" about a guy who serviced and installed PBX systems who got a call from a telemarketer. He recognized the noises when he was transferred from the dialer to an agent, and answered the phone "Tech support", told the agent that there was a problem with they system and that they needed to enter $key_sequence (what he remembered as default password and commands for that model of PBX). At the last step, the call disconnected (instructions he gave were to reboot the system).