Hi, am calling from Microsoft. Your PC is infected

[yesterday 1,979]

25 minutes ago, keith2011 said:

 

 

 

I can except that but how come they keep calling the same numbers with the same tired old Microsoft scam,where people play tricks on them or tell them where to go, that means they are wasting a huge amount of time trying to find a needle in a haystack. If it was always the same scammers you would think they would have a means edit out the numbers where they are wise to them!

 

I thought there are differences in the scam model.

 

You have sections which collect lists of numbers and sell that list to other scammers who actually make the calls. This means you can get a call from different sets of scammers, and they are not talking with each other, so the callers do not known, that you were already called a week ago, by separate scammers.

 

Sure they mostly claim to be calling from Microsoft, but that does not mean it was the same person or persons who did it last week

 

I remember about 15 or 20 years ago, I had a series of letters over a period of 2 years, where I was told that, I had won the lotto in Nigeria, or somebody had died and wanted to give me some money or something like that, and to collect it I just had to send my bank account details. All the letters had different addresses, so I concluded it was different gangs trying to get money out of me. How I ended up on the list of gullible people I do not know, but it stopped after a while anyway.

 

That was how scams were done in those days, but by the fact the letters were all different, indicated to me that some lists had been given to different sets of scammers. It harder to conclude this if somebody just rings you up.

 

 

 

[fraufruit 41,947]

13 hours ago, john g. said:

A bit unfair on a well-meant post, oder?

 

No. I wasn't coming from a bad place. I fully agreed with what was said and it has been said many times and it is still true.

[keith2011 2,579]

33 minutes ago, yesterday said:

Sure they mostly claim to be calling from Microsoft, but that does not mean it was the same person or persons who did it last week

 

Precisely which is why my contention is that the telephone lists and infrastructure are regularly being sold off to various (mostly)  sub-continent scammers who are probably convinced it is a get rich scheme but given it is such and old hat scam I really doubt they get much out of it. Is there really anyone out there who has not heard the Microsoft mantra "We do not make unsolicited telephone calls"? This is a dead scam, newer and much cleverer scams are the ones that are working!

[trybefore 6]

We've had two of these shock calls recently starting with "your daughter has killed someone in Brussels" etc. Well we only have sons so that was easy!
I strung them along until I got bored and then we traded insults for a few minutes. They won because they cursed me in German, English and Turkish!!! More than I could manage...

They also told me that they knew where I lived, so I told them to bring it on as I have a big dog waiting for them. I do.

Anyhow we have a couple of relatively senior city police as personal friends and we've now been asked to get involved in helping create some kind of public awareness campaign.

It is quite awful to hear of an old lady being suckered for 300k by these b'stards.

[yesterday 1,979]

14 hours ago, fraufruit said:

 

Captain Obvious has spoken.

10 minutes ago, keith2011 said:

 

Precisely which is why my contention is that the telephone lists and infrastructure are regularly being sold off to various (mostly)  sub-continent scammers who are probably convinced it is a get rich scheme but given it is such and old hat scam I really doubt they get much out of it. Is there really anyone out there who has not heard the Microsoft mantra "We do not make unsolicited telephone calls"? This is a dead scam, newer and much cleverer scams are the ones that are working!

 

Not to be called caption Obvious 

 

But clearly Keith2011 thinks there is no more money on this scam. And the obvious answer is that they would not do it, if there was no more money left in this scam.

 

The scammers clearly think there is money to be made with this scam, even if Keith2011 thinks there is not.

 

I was trying to, and continue trying to be helpful, to explain this to Keith2011, who does not think its a worth while scam, even if its been posted else were on this thread.

 

And I am not trying to insult Keith2011 either, the whole thing seems to make very little sense to me either, but Captain Obvious would say there are clear reasons why this continues.

 

Lets face it, more and more things are moving to internet service only, Konrad, shut all its shops in Germany and is only an online platform these days for example, that forces more and more people on to the internet that otherwise might not know about these scams already, many of these people will be older people that never used a computer before, and are more likely to fall for this type of scam. I know some older people that never used a computer before, but feel they now have to use it for basic things.

 

One example would be my mother, who lives in a small town, the bank shut its branch in her town and then the next bigger town, she now has to go almost 10 miles to get to a branch, or lean how to operate the bank from the telephone or computer. These are the kinda people, who get targeted, in the Microsoft scams, before they would never have had experience in it, up until they got a computer. 

 

 

 

 

[keith2011 2,579]

14 minutes ago, yesterday said:

 

But clearly Keith2011 thinks there is no more money on this scam. And the obvious answer is that they would not do it, if there was no more money left in this scam.

 

The scammers clearly think there is money to be made with this scam, even if Keith2011 thinks there is not.

 

Again we are not in disagreement on this I think, what I am saying is that it looks like the scammers are being conned into thinking they will make money on this scam by the people who peddle the telephone lists and know how. Setting up a scam operation like this and paying people to run it is not without cost even, in the Indian sub-continent, and I suggest the profits are too small which is why we see it popping up then disappearing.

Yes I do accept that more and more can only be done on line which brings some very old people newly on to the internet but I suggest that most under 80 year olds in the western world are computer literate so the numbers can't be that high.

Sad about the Conrad shops but I doubt there are that many 80+ year olds who were customers for electronics and PCs in their shops who would now have difficulty purchasing over the internet.

[keith2011 2,579]

Latest police action against scammers and the infrastructure they use:-

Quote

Police to text 70,000 victims in UK's biggest anti-fraud operation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63736573

 

[yesterday 1,979]

On 15/11/2022, 18:02:51, keith2011 said:

It doesn't seem to matter though what tricks get played on these scammers. they continue to peddle the same old rubbish with their very annoying phone calls. I really can't believe there is anyone left anywhere in the world who would still fall for this, it is such a well known scam. I can only hope there are criminals out there making money from the scammers by periodically selling them lists of telephone numbers with promises they will make a fortune with the scam. That is maybe why we see a cyclic tendency with these calls, lots of effort and hope at first then giving up when they realise they have bought a lemon.

 

I guess if they made 48 million, then there quite a lot of gullible people out there. 

[keith2011 2,579]

25 minutes ago, yesterday said:

 

I guess if they made 48 million, then there quite a lot of gullible people out there. 

 

Reading the article it seems to be is a very different scam aimed at getting people to  disclose their banking passwords directly rather than via a hack in their PCs or ransomware. Could be the same infrastructure, telephone lists and server etc. it will be interesting to see if it stops for a while, but not it appears the same scam,so really not the same old tired Microsoft rubbish.

[yesterday 1,979]

33 minutes ago, keith2011 said:

 

Reading the article it seems to be is a very different scam aimed at getting people to  disclose their banking passwords directly rather than via a hack in their PCs or ransomware. Could be the same infrastructure, telephone lists and server etc. it will be interesting to see if it stops for a while, but not it appears the same scam,so really not the same old tired Microsoft rubbish.

 

 

I have only ever had the Microsoft one, but I am aware of other methods. I remember a big campaign a couple of years ago, where you were told that your bank will never ring you up and ask for your password. 

 

But again, its hard to believe  that anybody would respond to this request anyway. 

 

I know my bank, used to send me a number via SMS that I had to enter into the internet form, otherwise I could not transfer money. But a lot of banks have stopped doing this now, because its too expensive.My banks new system, is terrible, I just have to enter the same PIN for each transfer, that I used to enter the online bank in the first place.

[keith2011 2,579]

1 hour ago, yesterday said:

 

But again, its hard to believe  that anybody would respond to this request anyway. 

 

I know my bank, used to send me a number via SMS that I had to enter into the internet form, otherwise I could not transfer money. But a lot of banks have stopped doing this now, because its too expensive.My banks new system, is terrible, I just have to enter the same PIN for each transfer, that I used to enter the online bank in the first place.

 Agreed.

My UK bank still sends me an SMS code to enter when I login on my PC and for high value internet purchases with the DD card I have to confirm via the bank's app on my smart phone (fingerprint login), for low value purchases it just sends a notification, which I think is OK. To set up a new payee I still need to use the card-reader to generate a code! With the my  German bank I can do pretty much everything from their smartphone app, also with fingerprint login and I also have to confirm via another app when using my PC.

It all looks very secure so it must be down to the victims being persuaded to effectively be complicit in the scam and as they say there is one born every minute but again given the publicity the banks have put out on this!

[Dembo 496]

3 hours ago, yesterday said:

I remember a big campaign a couple of years ago, where you were told that your bank will never ring you up and ask for your password. 

 

Not exactly a bank but I remember Barclaycard ringing me and then asking me to identify myself - mother's maiden name and so on. Of course I said "You called me. You tell me my mother's maiden name otherwise how do I know you're really Barclaycard?". Which they wouldn't. It was actually genuine in the end, but I called them and waited an hour in a queue to find that out.

 

For years if not decades I've had the Barclays calculator thingy to generate a code. My account in Germany is with PhotoTAN which actually is pretty good I think. Only thing is if I lost my phone I'd be screwed and that might include not being able to buy a new phone without having a phone to approve the purchase.

[fraufruit 41,947]

Quote

People who receive a text message in the next 24 hours will be directed to the Action Fraud website to register their details as officers build cases against suspects.

 

Who would click on that link from an unsolicited text message, I wonder?

 

4 hours ago, yesterday said:

I know my bank, used to send me a number via SMS that I had to enter into the internet form, otherwise I could not transfer money. But a lot of banks have stopped doing this now, because its too expensive

 

My bank does this and a code is also sent when I log into my son's Xfinity account in USA. It is fully automated so I don't know how expensive it could be. Just another layer of security.

 

[keith2011 2,579]

21 minutes ago, fraufruit said:

Who would click on that link from an unsolicited text message, I wonder?

 

Difficult indeed particularly if it goes to a questionnaire asking for your name and bank details.

[HH_Sailor 3,532]

Had a machine like voice call me, showing a non German number.

Told me it's about Paypal authorisation.

 

If I pressed '1' I would talk to an operator. To hang up would mean that I authorized the payment.

 

Cheeky buggars

 

I don't have PayPal, I don't give out my landline to companies.

 

No serious finance company would ask for

authorization in such a way

 

If it looks like SCAM, sounds like SCAM,

then...

 

 

[toBnruG 1,152]

I'm glad this scamming is being discussed here. It reminds me that I need to teach my child some ground-rules for answering our house phone.

I'm glad to say that, since going x-directory, I don't get nuisance or scamming phone calls any longer. I did, however, get a random call on my mobile phone last week and when I asked the caller how they got my number they told me that it was randomly generated by their computer and that they had no idea if the number they were calling was in use or who it might belong to. So, I assume the same could happen on my landline number and I need to prepare the child for shielding unwanted calls without giving away any information.

[fraufruit 41,947]

1 minute ago, toBnruG said:

they told me that it was randomly generated by their computer and that they had no idea if the number they were calling was in use or who it might belong to.

 

They can't say how they actually got your number as in who they bought it from, etc.

[kiplette 8,676]

18 hours ago, keith2011 said:

they say there is one born every minute

 

Yup. I'm married to one.

 

He is an ex-policeman even, but the instinct to trust is so strong 

 

Nightmare.

 

I had that 'we know you have porn on your computer, the police will be informed unless you pay x and we will make it go away' thing about 10 years ago. Your whole screen goes bright red with this huge message and it is truly scary. So I immediately took the battery out of the laptop to completely kill it and switched off the router, and then started it all back up again, and lo and behold it was gone.

 

Few months later I go visit my dying Pa in SA, and the same thing happens while I'm gone. The kids tell their Dad what to do, but he panics, won't do it and takes it to a computer shop who charge him 80 euros for goodness only knows what.

 

He has used a paid service for a name change thing in the UK (which you can do on the back of a fag packet with no official involvement required at all there) which I cancelled as soon as I heard - he tried to use a paid link to get his online Führungszeugnis here, luckily I spotted that one before he went with it, the list goes on and on.

 

He is not an actual idiot, but he just is preprogrammed to fall for any scam which doesn't come with a signpost saying 'I AM A SCAMMY SCAM', having said that even he doesn't fall for the microsoft one, mostly because he has a Mac 

 

There will always be scams because my husband is not alone, essentially, and he and his kin will keep falling for them unless those of us with half a clue are there to stop them. Unfortunately.

 

Luckily bis jetzt he has only gone with the low level unnecessary service level of scam and not a full blown nick all your money one, but I do live in fear that a worse one will get him. Hey ho.

[Eric7 538]

Sounds like you need some sort of "parental control" on all his devices.

[Guest]

My mum was a victim a confidence scam. I highlight the words in an attempt to shift the blame from the victim to the criminal. I do this also for my sake. After she called me telling me what happened, in my head I immediately started blaming her for being so stupid, gullible, naive etc. for accepting a call from her "bank" at face value and giving them access to her computer to do whatever they wanted. But I need to remember that these are sophisticated scams usually intended to induce fear in the victim, to cloud their judgement, and cause them to make poor decisions.

 

When I asked how she gave them access, her response was simply "I don't know". Perhaps she was embarassed and ashamed of falling for a scam that she didn't want to tell me. Some may attribute it to her being "old" (70), however she had been using computers since the 90s (I even found her European Computer Driving Licence recently), so she wasn't tech unsavvy. I think the criminal just got lucky that they called the right person at the right time.

 

After this happened, I gave myself Administrator privaledge on her machine, and gave her reduced rights which prevented her installing any software without my knowledge.