Warning - Phone Call saying we have a computer virus

kindlefan

Same here! My h/b was talked into paying £49-99 on Paypal to get PC 'Viruses' removed. Luckily Paypal refunded us when we discovered it was a scam, but the Indian guy sounded really convincing, claimed to be from Microsoft and we fell in because we have been having problems with our PC and we thought it WAS Microsoft responding to 'send error report'!! Easy to fall in!

ChiefGrasscutter

Swipe wrote: »

Whenever I answer the phone where there's a slight pause then an Indian voice comes on the line I hang up immediately. If it's concerning anything important they'd write to you.

...or it might be your credit card fraud centre trying to get hold of you

scheming_gypsy

Swipe wrote: »

Whenever I answer the phone where there's a slight pause then an Indian voice comes on the line I hang up immediately. If it's concerning anything important they'd write to you.

I can just imagine the letter


Dear Sir,

Could you please confirm your address as our driver is unable to find you.

Please accept our most sincere apologies if your takeaway is cold



Regards


Taj Mahall Indian Takeaway

SingleSue

My parents have received two calls in the last week, the first one, the caller got rather irate with my father when he said he would get his daughter (me) to check out the laptop...apparently it needed the caller to do it and no one else. Mum told him to put the phone down as the caller was shouting at him and being really quite rude and bombastic as he was insistant that I had to look at it first.

The second call was much nicer but went along the same lines "Your computer is sending viruses" etc, the caller was again informed they have decent antivirus and that it is checked regularly and that if there was any problems, then their daughter would sort it. This one, although not shouty, was still very insistant that he had to look at it and could he please go and switch the laptop on and didn't take nicely to being told can he ring back when I was there please as there was no way he was going to touch anything on the laptop, led by the caller or not! (He has a tendency to begger things up and get confused very quickly)

Mum realised he was struggling with a very determined caller and took the phone off him and put it down...then called me.

My parents are not very PC savvy, mum can just about surf the net but no matter how many times I have tried to teach them about the security on their laptop, it just leads to glazed faces, so I always have to make sure everything is updated, firewall up etc and running smoothly. Dad, since his strokes, is very vulnerable to determined calls and will scare easily...luckily mum prefers to run everything by me first if it is computer related before committing themselves.

It still freaked them out though.

letsbehonest

HOW DO THEY KNOW YOU HAVE A COMPUTER? Think about it!

Lady_K

This problem seems to be getting worse

I have started getting these everyday now and what bothers me more is they seem to be working together as a group of the same people and nothing deters them. They have now changed thier tactic by first introducing themselves by name, one is called John, saying they are from BT and asking if I have noticed my computer working slower lately because it needs to be checked for spyware and microsoft want them to help me protect myself while on the computer.
Even though I have said I know its a scam and put the phone down they call back, either straight away or a while later then the next morning and throughout the day, they do not give in.
They have started trying the softer option of a woman which some people may fall for. The last call came just after the woman called me and I put the phone down, it was 'john' again he went straight into persuading me that he was not trying to con me, that he was working hard to prevent people from doing just that and that is why he was calling me again because it was so important. He said his phone number was 020 etc etc and their website was www.peoplepolicepal.com just to try and gain my confidence to start the computer, he was still ranting down the phone as I put it down again. I feel sorry for some people who will fall for this

googler

Lady_K wrote: »

This problem seems to be getting worse

I have started getting these everyday now

So let the ansaphone/voice mail/answering machine call-screen them for you..... anyone genuine will leave a msg, these guys will move on to speak to real people.....

CCFC_80

letsbehonest wrote: »

HOW DO THEY KNOW YOU HAVE A COMPUTER? Think about it!

I used to get loads of these calls and often wondered. My theory is that when I bought it over the phone From Dell going through an Indian call centre they sold on my details including phone number to these A**holes.

Like a previous poster has said, as soon as I pick up my phone and then there is a Slight delay and hearing an indian accent I will just hang up.

Abbafan1972

These have been going on for ages and people are still falling for it.

I haven't had the misfortune of having one of these calls yet.

Luckily, I am quite computer savvy. God help me though, if my parents ever get a computer!

fiddiwebb

letsbehonest wrote: »

HOW DO THEY KNOW YOU HAVE A COMPUTER? Think about it!

No real mystery.....they know that most people will own a PC/laptop much as the TV licensing know that most people own a television.

As the poster above has said this scam is nothing new, it's been ongoing for the last 2-3 years at least.