Am I being a sh** ?

Pikeyp

Just use an answerphone and you can forget all about scam calls , they'll soon dry up and not bother you again ..

EdwardB

FreeBear wrote: »

Had two lots of phone calls from some Indian call centre - I'm sure you know the ones.... The conversation usually starts with "I'm from Microsoft and your computer is sending out viruses...". They've changed tact and are now claiming to be from BT and I have a problem with my router.

I play dumb with these idjits and usually string them along for half an hour or so.... Have just set up a user directory and planted a couple of files called bank_login.zip and passwords.zip - Both are zip bombs that will expand in the petabyte range. Also have several infected files that Lloyds/Paypal/Fedex/UPS have sent me via email that I could stash in the home folder....

Do you think they'll take the bait and curse me when their computer goes tits up ?

All they do is remote access your PC or virtual PC, they download a few things to trip malware and plant trials with their aff code.

Best fun you can have is to play along but play so completely dumb, put them on hold, speak another language, have difficulty following their advice, "the what button, start button you say, where is that, press the windows key, the key to my windows is in the kitchen draw, what has that got to do with my computer etc.

You can get them really angry by insulting them with politically incorrect questions, I do not really get such calls these days as I am off the grid but when I used to, it was quite easy to annoy them.

aardvaak

I usually play them along then after a while when I get fed up I say there is a big notice appeared on my screen saying "beware this is a scam" they then hang up sometimes with a lot of fowl language.

Boxman

aardvaak wrote: »

I usually play them along then after a while when I get fed up I say there is a big notice appeared on my screen saying "beware this is a scam" they then hang up sometimes with a lot of fowl language.

Do you mean they call you a clucking idiot?
:beer:

FreeBear

EdwardB wrote: »

Best fun you can have is to play along but play so completely dumb, put them on hold, speak another language, have difficulty following their advice, "the what button, start button you say, where is that, press the windows key, the key to my windows is in the kitchen draw, what has that got to do with my computer etc.

You can get them really angry by insulting them with politically incorrect questions, I do not really get such calls these days as I am off the grid but when I used to, it was quite easy to annoy them.

I'm currently using a Mac keyboard on an Intel box running Linux... Confused the hell out of the last b****r that called...

I also had several rounds of "can you gibber that again, but in English this time.... You can speak English can't you..."

Johnmcl7

Pikeyp wrote: »

Just use an answerphone and you can forget all about scam calls , they'll soon dry up and not bother you again ..

Those wanting to see what the scammers have done have used a VM in the past although some of the scammers now check if it's a VM first or will notice the build is too clean.

John

DCFC79

I dont bother with stringing these along anymore, I got bored of it, I just say I have an iMac orI dont have a PC.

psychic_teabag

FreeBear wrote: »

I'm currently using a Mac keyboard on an Intel box running Linux... Confused the hell out of the last b****r that called...

Yeah, I'm running with an ancient keyboard, and they seem to be completely thrown by the fact that I don't have a windows key. They can't understand that I just have a gap between ctrl and alt keys.

If I'm in the mood, I'll play along until they actually bother confirming that I am using windows.

rtho782

If you're going to do this, set up a virtual machine with virtualbox, connected via NAT not bridged, and let them play about in there.

Otherwise, even in your "other user account" they can cause issues.

I've done this before. You can even have various virtual machines ready to go. It's fun to get them to connect to random operating systems. Windows ME maybe? etc.

I know it's a waste of time but that's the point. If they spend 45mins to an hour on the phone to me, that's a couple of old people they are not scamming.

They also don't phone back as they don't like wasting time.