I was working from home today, and the missus had a bit of trouble getting her laptop to work properly. So I had a look and sorted a minor problem.
About an hour later, and by coincidence (it's what they rely on), my wife took a call from someone claiming to be from Windows Technical Department, calling about problems with her computer.
She handed the phone to me and I knew as soon as he spoke that it was a scam call. It was like those "dear valued customer" emails, with none of the detail that they would know if genuine. I've been hoping for one of these calls for ages (a colleague had great fun teasing them along for ages) but I had a meeting to attend, so just had to tell the guy to foxtrot oscar, and hung up.
But my wife did admit she might have been suckered in, mainly because her laptop had played up earlier.
Scam Call
Moderators: slparry, Gromit, Paul
Sadly these calls happen all too often, they usually get you to allow them to take control of your pc/laptop and then proceed to show you where all the "problems" are by showing you the error reporting page, and then ask you for your credit card details so they can "repair" it for you 
Thieving bastard scum that they are, will often take control of your pc whenever they feel like it, installing keylogger sw and mining it for info.
Steve
Thieving bastard scum that they are, will often take control of your pc whenever they feel like it, installing keylogger sw and mining it for info.
Steve
Well-weathered leather
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware
We've had a few of these over the weeks but instead of it being annoying it's now turned in to a bit of a game...
'Hello sir, I'm Gary (usually with an Asian accent) and we'd like to help you with a problem you're having with your computer etc etc...'
This then carries on for 5 mins or so with my asking 'Gary' what operating system I use, and what version of it. He always comes back with 'Windows' but no more. Next question is 'surely if you know I have a problem with my PC then you will know what OS I'm using?'
Etc etc for another 5 mins...
I'll pretend to give in, stating I have no knowledge of computers (which is true!) at which point he asks me to re-start the computer. I then ask 'there's this little Apple logo at the top l/h side - do I have to click on that?'
The last time this happened 'Gary' actually said the F word and hung up.
'Hello sir, I'm Gary (usually with an Asian accent) and we'd like to help you with a problem you're having with your computer etc etc...'
This then carries on for 5 mins or so with my asking 'Gary' what operating system I use, and what version of it. He always comes back with 'Windows' but no more. Next question is 'surely if you know I have a problem with my PC then you will know what OS I'm using?'
Etc etc for another 5 mins...
I'll pretend to give in, stating I have no knowledge of computers (which is true!) at which point he asks me to re-start the computer. I then ask 'there's this little Apple logo at the top l/h side - do I have to click on that?'
The last time this happened 'Gary' actually said the F word and hung up.