Bizarre calls from 'my computer maintenance department' 6 April 2009 at 2:22PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Phones & TV 67 replies 36.5K views

macman

Charlieboots wrote: »

I have recently had several calls from these people, the number they ring from is 02538020308. I checked this out and I believe the number originates from Djoubouti in Somalia, always a foreign voice but a name such as Michael or Roger.
I turned my computer on this morning and within 15 minutes my machineI had a call from this number from a man who said he knew I had my machine on. I put the phone down but now I am worried as I do internet banking and I was wondering if they can access my account while I am looking at it. Any ideas anybody? I am registered with the TPS but it does not vet overseas calls.

No he doesn't. Think about it-he has a 50% chance of being right about it being on-that does not mean he can access your account! The TPS cannot do anything about calls originating overseas.

ianmjones1

I received a call this morning and I chose to listen to them whilst having a look on the internet for information about the "Computer Maintenance Department". Good to see so much on this Forum, which was really helpful. I decided to play along with them for a while just to waste their time before telling them where to go (not politely). Thanks to everybody for taking the trouble to write about it.

RicardoGonzalezIII

I've just received my second call in a week.....this time I cut it short :mad: but last time I strung them along....I'm regretting cutting this guy off now. Next time they ring I'm going to divert the conversation to see if he can 'help me get the traces of pornography off my computer before my wife finds it!' :rotfl:

Turn the negative into a positive and have a laugh doing it!! Just don't click on anything or let them take control!

JimmyTheWig

RicardoGonzalezIII wrote: »

Next time they ring I'm going to divert the conversation to see if he can 'help me get the traces of pornography off my computer before my wife finds it!'

I don't think that would phase them. See my post #33.

shegar

I seem to get these "maintenance calls" every other day , always a foreingner, always in the afternoon,always international, out of area, so I play along with them, I always say to them how much will this cost me, they always says its free, so I act excited and say " cor thats good of you".........I play along with them for quite a while, staring at a blank screen , they telling me to press this button and that button , until they start the questions to me like "what message have you got on your screen." Then I talk to them loudly and say , THIS IS THE F...... BIGGEST SCAM EVER NOW WILL YOU F... OFF, I put the phone down and laugh at what ive just said to them...ha ha ....they will get fed up with me.........like I am with them.....

twiddles

I've had 2 of these today, lost count of how many over the months. I have huge fun with them. Put them on speaker phone, carry on working, act dumb, get them to repeat everything and pretend you're doing what they say. Then tell them you've fired up the mac by mistake. The longest I've kept them on the phone is a little over 8 minutes - I'm trying for 10 but I can't stop laughing long enough to keep them on the phone. It's incredibly satisfying when they put the phone down on you.

j2011

The longest I've kept them on the phone is a little over 8 minutes

You need to try harder, Ive had Benjamin on the phone for 48 minutes and because he couldn't fix my problem he phoned back another 8 times.

Crisp_£_note

I fell for this once Then my desktop crashed and became unrepairable (well cheaper to get a new one) :mad:.

I now have a laptop so when they call I simply say I dont have a computer, either way its not a lie Often they are quite flummoxed :eek:

Anglichanin

It seems they are still in operation. At some point in the past someone with the name Mr Frost must have had my (recently-allocated) land line number, and those details sold to scammers, as I get the odd call asking for that name.

'Alex Morrison' from 'Computer Maintenance Department' called me today, claiming to be based in Birmingham. I'm a programmer so twigged immediately that it was a scam and decided to play along a bit, agreeing that I was Mr Frost.

I pretended to follow the script as far as the event viewer part (though not actually at my computer at the time) and then decided to give a long, preaching speech to Mr 'Morrison' about how he was living a criminal life and, if he had kids to feed, perhaps he could do it by means other than trying to steal financial details. To be fair to him he wasn't rude and listened to my preaching for five minutes before finally hanging up. The temptation is just to let fly, or whistle as loud as possible down the phone, but as a friend pointed out to me, these are probably desperate people doing dodgy things to feed families.

Anyhow, to anyone who has had these calls, don't worry- they know nothing about you other than your phone number, are banking on you having a computer hooked up to the internet (as most people do nowadays) and won't be able to touch you if you don't tell them anything and ignore their silly spiel.

CrimsonSkull

I just recently got a phone call from them and knew instantly that it was a scam. But i played along because its fun and its nice to see how each one does it.

After a few mins of messing around in event viewer, i got bored and decided to tell him that he was scamming me and i will admit that i did swear at him because i don't like people trying to scam me.

After he realized that he was not going to convince me, he then took it upon himself to swear at me and say how he would like to have sex with my mother and how she came to him and how it only cost him 1 pound and that i like to have sex with horses and so on.

Very entertaining conversation and i look forward to more conversations