Annoying Phonecall ...

[Bagpuss]

I had a phone call this morning, the same one i get every week, it's a very bad line, a foreign sounding gentleman, possibly Indian, asking for "Mr Adam", when I ask him what company he is calling from he says "Windows Operating System" ... and there's a "problem" with my PC... I used to get annoyed but now i just play along, asking him to speak up a bit, leaving long silences between words etc., just to wind him up, then i start to raise my voice and ask him why he is calling me , after a while he hangs up. A minute or so he rings me back ?? I ask him why he is bothering me and he says "if you can just shut your mouth I will tell you ! " ??? I then ask to speak to his boss, he hangs up... It occurred to me later that this might actually be legitimate, he may well be ringing from a call centre on behalf of Microsoft because of errors logged centrally by my PC ? Imagine if his job was for real and he had to make these phonecalls to Windows users and 99% of people just told him to p*ss off or took the mick out of him ? : ) Does anyone else get these calls or is it just me ?

[CanvasChris]

This is defo a scam....

Had a client recently who has been experiencing their PC running slow.

They received a random email supposedly from 'Microsoft' that said your PC is running slow click this link to find out more.... they did. 1st mistake.

Then the phone rang... your story starts here>>> they said they were from 'Microsoft'

Unfortunately by clicking the link it gave them access to their PC... they take over and it is now being accessed by them....now runs slower...2nd mistake

After 2 hrs on the phone PC miraculously bursts into life and they want paying.... £843.56... yes... that much!!!

3rd mistake... they gave them their card details over the phone.

Card company won't refund as they gave the number and it wasn't cloned/stolen or the like.

This is real.... honest.

Client felt a chump and was devastated...

Beware!!!

[tasadam]

Yes, heard of similar things in Australia.
My mother in law received a phone call, someone identified a problem with their computer and wanted to help them fix it.
It's a scam. They'll get into your computer and download anything useful they can find re saved passwords, bank details, whatever they can pilfer. Identity theft, robbery, whatever they can do they will.
And they will charge you for the honour of doing that under the pretence of fixing something.

Best policy - hang up on them.
If they persist, call them some VERY rude names and hang up on them.
Worst case, see if your Telco can block their number, or whether your country has a place to report such things. Good luck with t hat option though.

[Steve Goodall]

I had this - 3 times - a couple of months back. The Windows bit, rather than microsoft made me think it was a bit funny - not to mention the Peter Sellars accent.

On the third ocaasion I told them I didn't have a computer & they politely said thank you & haven't rung back since.

[stcstc]

we get them all the time

my wife decided to have fun with them after ignoring them for ages

the person started asking about problems with her computer

she said which one

they said your one

yea she says but which one there are 7 in the house


the guy eventually just got frustrated and hungup

[Jonny2morsos]

I had the same call yesterday as it happens.

Realised it was a scam especially when he asked me to go and turn on my computer.........there are three here and they were all switched on!

There is another one doing the rounds where a window pops up which look like a genuine Microsoft message, all the right logos etc. as soon as you click on it it appears do do a scan of your system and then asks you to register to pay for a clean up tool. The moment you click the link you are doomed as your system locks up totally.

My wife fell for this one and it cost me £40 to get the bugs out of the system and that was at mates rates.

[Graysalchemy]

I say I am putting them on hold and put the phone next to my speaker and turn the music up. That usually gets rid of them.

I also play the satellite delay game where they say 'hello' and you wait long enough for them to start talking 'My name is..........'
and then say 'hello '. If you wait for the awkward silence they usually start talking off their script, when you can but in again with ignorance 'hello hello it appears to be a bad line can you speak up'. You can have quite good conversations with them like that.

[prospero]

The other day I had one of those extra-annoying recorded calls. I usually just hand up, but I 1471ed them. Got another mssage saying something like - "That was a sales call. If you want to stop these calls dial such and such a number or go to suchandsuch.com". Well I went to suchandsuch.com and discovered I could add my number to a list to maybe stop the calls. Started filling in the form. Wasn't until I got to the end that I found that this was going to cost me 40 quid.

Now is it me or is this not a million miles away from a good old protection racket?

No doubt if I had dialed the number, It would have been a 1.50 a minute one.

[tasadam]

Australia has a free Do Not Call register - https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

I found this one in the UK - http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html
It says
The free opt out service enabling you to record your preference on the official register and not receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls.
Sounds similar to the Aus one, except the Aus one is run by the Gov't, legislated. I don't think it works with overseas callers, but you never know.

Maybe there are others with a bit of googling.

[Not your average framer]

I let my wife answer these. It does not matter what they say or ask, my wife's reply is always, "why?" My wife can be very annoying, if she wants to be.

The conversation usually starts with call I speak to Mrs Lacey and her reply is, why? And so it goes on! These people must be a bit thick because they just keep on trying. On the odd accasions that I answer one of these, I immediately recognise the electronic noise at the start of the call and the delay while the equipment connects me to a real person, then comes the asian accent.

This is where I give one of my wind-up answers, such as "Air sea rescue service", or "Yello Hoo flung dung chinese take away". These people are so think that they still carry on trying to say that you computer has a fault. If I answered as "Hoo flung dung", I can then say "Wok are you saying", or something similar.

If they phone the shop, I just say that we don't sell computers and that usually gets rid of them.

[Gesso&Bole]

Ok, so how should I deal with this one?

I am signed up for the TPS which works fine if it is a real person calling you - you ask them who they are so you can tell the TPS - haven't been bothered by this type of call recently.

But what about the recorded message calls - we are getting a couple each day, about my credit cards, or compensation for injury etc. There is no person to talk to?

[prospero]

Wizard Wheeze. Next time someone rings up and asks to speak to the Managing Director, I shall ask to speak to their MD.
I'm sure he would like to hear my special framing offer of the week.

[Steve N]

Had one a few weeks ago ( from India, by accent) asking who was responsible for paying the phone bill and try to get me to change suppliers, it went a bit like this.

Me "Sorry I don't have a phone"

Them "What!"

Me " No I don't have a phone"

Them " How am I speaking to you then"

Me " Dammed if I know?"

They hung up then
Not heard from them again (famous last words)

Another way to get on their nerves is just give them the same answer to every question like " I don't know"

Ive got all my numbers registered with the TPS a lot of these companies just don't care, you can't do much if they with hold their number, you can't report them, so I just wind them up now, at least if they are on the phone to the are not pestering somebody else

[prospero]

Before they go into their spiel, ask for the billing address of the company they represent. Then say that any further calls will incur a consultancy fee of £ thinkofanumberandtripleit. Plus Vat. And mention you are recording the call (for training purposes. ) Even better, send them a letter. If they refuse to disclose, then tell them that all information on my companies suppliers is strictly confidential. Which thinking about it, it is.
Would you ring a business and ask casually where they brought their materials/services/whatever from? They would tell you politely to get stuffed and quite rightly.

Never done this, but I would be interested to find out what would happen.

[Not your average framer]

They phoned again today. This is the windows help desk and there a problem with my computer.

I told them that the problem must be with their computer, because I use Unix, not windows. My wife was laughing her head off and the caller hung up.

Do you think that the next call will be from the Unix help desk?

[Not your average framer]

Now I think of it, I've never tried to ask them what they think is wrong with it and can they tell me which error message this problem will cause. Could be a good one!

[mikeysaling]

why not get caller display - its not expensive

[Keith Hewitt]

I got one yesterday

I said hang on a minute the door bell just rang.

Left phone down for maybe 2 mins - then was surprised he was still on the line

Told him the police had come to take me away

That shut him up !

[JohnMcafee]

Nice one, Keith

Here's another one: -
[youtube]2Yhn2NyK34Q[/youtube]

[Roboframer]

This is from a real call - v bad language alert

[youtube]RLUexMKVZ50&src_vid=Yj2oXMdZ4sk[/youtube]