So, "Microsoft" called me ...

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Swampthing
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So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by Swampthing »

It was the usual scammers from India calling me and they have for a couple of days now.
My Windows computer apparently messaged them that something was wrong with my computer.
You probably now all this.
This time I decided to waste some of their time and played along and played a bit confused.
They guided me over to anydesk.com and wanted me to install that program.
I "realised" I was using my Linux computer and got redirected to his "supervisor" and he was asking me if I used Ubuntu or Debian.
Then I told him I was using a Mac and he hung up immediately.
At this point I got a bit curious, is Linux not as secure as MacOS?
I know that the weakest point in computing is the user.
And I have studied net security, but it chilled me that he wasn't intimidated by I was using Linux and not using Windows.
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lsemmens
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by lsemmens »

Unusual. Normally they hang up on me when they finally work out that I am running Linux. And, Yes, I string them on as long as I possibly can. :D
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by Pjotr »

Swampthing wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 4:27 pm My Windows computer apparently messaged them that something was wrong with my computer.
It did no such thing. Those criminals simply dial random phone numbers.
Swampthing wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 4:27 pm it chilled me that he wasn't intimidated by I was using Linux and not using Windows.
Possibly they have created an Ubuntu installer with their malware as well, in the hope of tricking a particularly stupid Ubuntu user into downloading and installing it. :lol:

Tip: keep a referee whistle at hand and produce a deafening whistle close to the microphone, next time those bastards call you. Or just give a howling yell into the mike. Pop their eardrums.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by RollyShed »

lsemmens wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:34 am Unusual. Normally they hang up on me when they finally work out that I am running Linux. And, Yes, I string them on as long as I possibly can. :D
It takes them a bit longer if you don't go near the computer, which is off, and they can't find you despite you saying you are looking at what ever they want you to look at.

A bit of extra time can be added while you tell them you are having trouble getting it going, all while you sit reading a book, coming back to them every minute or 3 saying it has crashed again.

One lot hung up in a huff when I asked if they had someone who could speak English.

The record for keeping them waiting? 1/2 hour? 1 hour?
rene
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by rene »

For those who like that sort of stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76EotjAMxwM. Note; "hacking" even scammers might be illegal in your jurisdiction so make sure before you get inspired...
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by cliffcoggin »

rene wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 6:19 am For those who like that sort of stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76EotjAMxwM. Note; "hacking" even scammers might be illegal in your jurisdiction so make sure before you get inspired...
Here's a Youtube channel in which Jim Browning traces and identifies the scammers, rather than simply retaliating in kind. He has even sometimes intercepted and restored payments to victims. It's good to know there are people like him in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNG0o ... cZZ3ic84vw
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Pierre
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by Pierre »

Pjotr wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 5:29 am Tip: keep a referee whistle at hand and produce a deafening whistle close to the microphone, next time those bastards call you. Or just give a howling yell into the mike. Pop their eardrums.
there is an Automatic Level Control on most Modern Telephony Systems,
& in order, for the Telephonist to *not* get any Loud Noises in their headset.
- - this has been the case, for some decades .. ..

Pierre2 wrote:
rank bunch of amateurs in my book:
- – the call only lasted 94min – - not long at all.

still using Teamviewer ? that was surprising, for sure.
- – it wasn't an computer scam, this time

they were fishing for an Internet Banking .. ..

their spiel is using "poor internet speed "
from the NBN ?
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by Hoser Rob »

Swampthing wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 4:27 pm ...At this point I got a bit curious, is Linux not as secure as MacOS? .....
Actually, no, it isn't as secure. Flame away ...
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by KBD47 »

Am I the only one who never answers a phone unless it is a number I recognize :) I figure if it is important they can leave a message. I'd hate to think how much time I'd waste answering sales and scam calls, which seem to be the majority of calls today.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by BenTrabetere »

KBD47 wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:51 am Am I the only one who never answers a phone unless it is a number I recognize :)
Nope. For all intents and purposes my cell phone is an answering machine - my default "ring tone" is silent, and only a handful of people have earned an audible ring tone.

Once upon a long time ago when rotary dial telephones ruled, a student in a class taught by one of my favorite professors complained about how she, the professor, "like never answered his phone, even when she was in her office!" This professor could wilt flowers and scare children with a stare, and she directed the full force of that stare on this whiny bowhead and said, "Supreme Court Justice William O. Brennan once said 'A telephone does not have the Constitutional Right to be answered'."

I doubt Justice Brennan ever said that, but it was one of the more memorable 'watch them die inside' moments. Miss Bowhead died inside a second time when she realized it was a week passed drop date and she would have to complete the course.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by KBD47 »

BenTrabetere wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:23 am
Once upon a long time ago when rotary dial telephones ruled, a student in a class taught by one of my favorite professors complained about how she, the professor, "like never answered his phone, even when she was in her office!" This professor could wilt flowers and scare children with a stare, and she directed the full force of that stare on this whiny bowhead and said, "Supreme Court Justice William O. Brennan once said 'A telephone does not have the Constitutional Right to be answered'."
I see people jump every time their phone makes a sound. I refuse to be a slave to my technology :) Nothing that phone does is important enough to keep me distracted. But I'm old enough to remember not even having a phone for many years when I was a child and a phone was not a big part of our lives growing up.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

When i was growing up in the 50s and 60s we kids were not even allowed to use, let alone abuse the "phone".

Back then, i remember you only had to "dial" the last four numbers then years later, "progressing" to "dial" the last 5 numbers to complete a call during the very few times when we did have permission to use it to call grandparents etc.

Ahhh, The old "rotary" dial days...lol.

Now you have to "input" 10 and 11 numbers to complete a call.

My mothers favourite expression about phones was,
"Alexander Graham Bell, should have been strangled in his cradle with his own telephone cable".
If only she was alive now to see and hear "robocalls", "scamcalls", as well as a flood of "donation" for some cause or another as well as a plethora of political robocalls, and lets not forget "surveys" phone calls, etc. that we are all plagued with these days...lol...DAMIEN
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by majpooper »

BenTrabetere wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:23 am
KBD47 wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:51 am Am I the only one who never answers a phone unless it is a number I recognize :)
Nope. For all intents and purposes my cell phone is an answering machine - my default "ring tone" is silent, and only a handful of people have earned an audible ring tone.
My wife does the exact same with here cell - she says she refuses to be on an electronic leash.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by cliffcoggin »

I take the view that if a missed call is important the caller will ring again later; if it isn't important I have not missed anything. However my wife is such a slave to the telephone she will jump out of the bath to answer it.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by RollyShed »

The best bit about the really old phones, (there was a small crank on the side to do the "dialling" in Morse code on a party line) was they used a couple of large 1-1/2 volt batteries. When the P&T changed our batteries we kids got the old ones and had a power source for operating buzzers or relays and lighting torch bulbs. Possibly why I ended up in electronics for a life-time.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by lsemmens »

I used to Install and fix the things, then moved on to Telephone Exchanges. I "retired" in 1990.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by RollyShed »

lsemmens wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 7:35 pm I used to Install and fix the things, then moved on to Telephone Exchanges. I "retired" in 1990.
Varnished wood box and a bakelite handpiece?
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by Moem »

DAMIEN1307 wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 12:43 pm If only she was alive now to see and hear "robocalls", "scamcalls", as well as a flood of "donation" for some cause or another as well as a plethora of political robocalls, and lets not forget "surveys" phone calls, etc. that we are all plagued with these days...lol...DAMIEN
No, we're not. This seems to be pretty much a US American phenomenon; over here in Europe, political calls and especially robocalls are rare.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by RollyShed »

Moem wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 3:52 am
DAMIEN1307 wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 12:43 pm If only she was alive now to see and hear "robocalls", "scamcalls", as well as a flood of "donation" for some cause or another as well as a plethora of political robocalls, and lets not forget "surveys" phone calls, etc. that we are all plagued with these days...lol...DAMIEN
No, we're not. This seems to be pretty much a US American phenomenon; over here in Europe, political calls and especially robocalls are rare.
You are lucky in the Netherlands then as the rest of the world gets them. Britain gets them too though whether you class them as Europe depends on what happens in a few days with Boris.
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Re: So, "Microsoft" called me ...

Post by rene »

Oh, they'll still be Europeans. Just possibly/likely not members of the European Union.
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