Crazy Scam Phone Call

[RolfGolf]

I guess this is old news out there on the internet, but I received a call today from an Indian lady in a call centre (supposedly in Melbourne) telling me that she was from the Global Internet Department(!) and that they had determined my computer was infected with some really bad things - not only that, but they could see my machine in Largs Bay and it was causing problems worldwide !

She got me to run some scripts - which was tricky until I'd done a google search and knew what I should be seeing if I was running them - then wanted me to log in to logmein123 . com, (I've spaced it so no-one goes and clicks it), so she could "run a program on my machine to clean it up".

The thing is, how can a company in India afford to make thousands of worldwide phone calls in the hope that some poor sap will let them take over their machine and pay them a couple of hundred bucks? - and why is this a legitimate business model for such a company? What of the ethics of the operators who make the calls trying to scare people needlessly? Are things that desperate where they live that they have no choice in order to make a living? Is this a decent job over there? Why are we looked upon as some kind of cash cow in "developed" countries?

I guess I'd read about this kind of thing, but I never really thought it was this organised or established - in the background of the call I could hear other operators doing the same thing ... It boggles my brain that someone is going to work each day to scam people - what about karma?!

Just needed to share this ...

[bigfoot]

i mate received that same type of call just a couple of days ago. he was onto them straight away and had some fun

It boggles my brain that someone is going to work each day to scam people

religious nut-jobs, 2nd-hand car salesmen, some tradies, pollies...the list goes on !

[velly_16v_cab]

a firend of mine was had on this the other week, it trashed her pc

my missus have had about 5 calls about this too, but they always ask for me (maybe because the internet is in my name!?)

[johnw]

The best thing to do when this happens is just to keep them on the phone while you keep doing your own thing (ie tell them "yeah I'm tying it in, takes a while" and just put the phone down).

This way it'll waste their time and keep them from the next potential victim. I do that to ALL telemarketers, say "oh! That's interesting, please explain..." leave it on and put the phone down until you hear the beep beep beep.

[Buller_Scott]

The best thing to do when this happens is just to keep them on the phone while you keep doing your own thing (ie tell them "yeah I'm tying it in, takes a while" and just put the phone down).

This way it'll waste their time and keep them from the next potential victim. I do that to ALL telemarketers, say "oh! That's interesting, please explain..." leave it on and put the phone down until you hear the beep beep beep.

damn straight. some of the longest conversations i have on the phone, are with telemarketers.

funny thing is, having done it as a job for a month before, it really gets their hopes up, the longer they have you on the phone for... the mentality is "if the customer is on the phone longer, then their objections are getting weaker and weaker, they're thinking more and more about it, and you're closer to a 'sale'".

it also pisses them off when you ask them for their "special offer" free stuff, not knowing what the stuff actually is. they usually hang up when you tell them that you dont care what it is they're giving away, you dont care about what their company does, you just want the stuff because its free....

[hazrd]

lol
i cant believe how some of these people can sleep at night

i took the last one that rang with me into the toilet