I got this call a month ago while home sick. I held the east Asian-accented fellow named 'Gary' on the line for better than 10 minutes as I asked him questions like "What are cookies?" and "What does the wheel on my mouse do?" He hung up on me.

But the Nigerian Prince told me it was alright...

Boy could I have some fun with these guys.

Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

Bob_Laublaw: I got this call a month ago while home sick. I held the east Asian-accented fellow named 'Gary' on the line for better than 10 minutes as I asked him questions like "What are cookies?" and "What does the wheel on my mouse do?" He hung up on me.

That's sounds like a better approach than lying to them or being confrontational, which is what I've done in the past.

I wish there was a way to route spam phone calls away from my phone.

Yeah, got this one too. Sounded like a mid-african accent. Told me he was calling from some service center and that my computer was sending them error messages. I asked him what my IP address was right now, and he started swearing at me. *chuckle*

No shiat my computer isn't working properly. It's an e-Machine from 2004. I ought to get a new computer. But that cuts into my money to spoil Mrs. Smurf with booze, dancing and new clothes.

offacue: Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

They called me twice. The second time I kept trying to tell them that they'd called me already, also that I don't run a Windows system but they're going by a script. I then proceeded to insult them very nastily. Scammers are scum.

I love the online scanners. I do it just for kicks sometimes to see how many registry problems I have on my Mac.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law fell for this. Scammer even set them up with a payment plan so he could do "monthly checks". *sigh*. They didn't understand why I told them to change all their banking/credit card info.

/not-so-csb
//not getting a kick

These folks called my parents a couple of weeks ago when I happened to be over there for dinner. Mom gave me the phone. I told the concerned gentleman that he was correct; the computer was broken and wouldn't even power on. He hung up on me.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: JasonOfOrillia: Bob_Laublaw: I got this call a month ago while home sick. I held the east Asian-accented fellow named 'Gary' on the line for better than 10 minutes as I asked him questions like "What are cookies?" and "What does the wheel on my mouse do?" He hung up on me.

That's sounds like a better approach than lying to them or being confrontational, which is what I've done in the past.

I wish there was a way to route spam phone calls away from my phone.

My dad's approach:

1. Sound gullible and eager
2. Tell them that there's something you need to attend to immediately (say, the oven), but plead with them to stay on the line until you get back in a few minutes
3. Do whatever
4. Make it a contest to see how long the person on the other end of the line will wait until they finally hang up (I think he's got up past 15 minutes, maybe longer by now).

My record is 21 minutes. The trick is, you have to return every 4 minutes, so I have a little timer at my desk.

offacue: Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

At 8 bucks a month for Caller ID? Me.

Appliance repair is a scam on its own. No set price for anything, charge what you think that you can get away with.

MrGuy: My mother-in-law and sister-in-law fell for this. Scammer even set them up with a payment plan so he could do "monthly checks". *sigh*. They didn't understand why I told them to change all their banking/credit card info.

/not-so-csb
//not getting a kick

If they fell for something this transparently fraudulent, they would probably just spend the money on something viciously stupid anyway.

FirstNationalBastard: What if someone calls and tells me that there may be Royalty trapped in some kind of a container?

Shouldn't I let them out?

By all means do. They might not know that their refrigerator is running!

My partner got one of these calls a few months ago. She was quite amused to inform them that it was impossible for them to be seeing "Windows errors", since there were no computers running Windows in the apartment.

offmymeds: FirstNationalBastard: What if someone calls and tells me that there may be Royalty trapped in some kind of a container?

Shouldn't I let them out?

By all means do. They might not know that their refrigerator is running!

Love it,simply love it.

offacue Quote 2011-10-22 03:39:24 PM
Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

Not me. I love caller I.D. Hell, I won't even answer my doorbell if I don't feel like it. My conveniences, paid for by me. Now stay the fook off my lawn. Not yours, you can't have.

My sis asked me about this yesterday - gotten several calls from them over the last few days. Explained it was a scam. Wish they'd call me... I'd enjoy messing with them.

sobernutz: Appliance repair is a scam on its own. No set price for anything, charge what you think that you can get away with.
That and replacement plans.

I've had a few of them as well. It's always guys with Indian accents claiming to work for Microsoft. The problem with these sorts of scams is a) you can reach hundreds of marks in a single day and b) there's zero risk for the perpetrator. Honestly, I'm surprised they aren't more common.

aagrajag: If they fell for something this transparently fraudulent, they would probably just spend the money on something viciously stupid anyway.

Most technologically unsophisticated people have probably had many tech support calls where they had a problem with their computer and someone with a foreign accent and a script talked them through fixing it. I can totally see them answering the phone and thinking "Oh, my spouse must have had a problem earlier, and this is a callback". It only has to work 1% of the time to be enormously profitable.

I get this call a couple of times a month.

It's quite amusing to me, since only one machine in the house runs Windows - my own, and I'll know pretty damned quick if it's farked.

My mother gets in on this too - she's better at playing the helpless newbie, whilst I generally start asking questions like, "Which error?" "How are you recieving this traffic?" and the always classic, "In that case, what's my IP right now?".
Mum tends to go for stuff like, "What's a start menu?" and the like - doubly hilarious, since her laptop is a Debian system. We'll even tag team if we're both about - waste as much time as possible.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: JasonOfOrillia: Bob_Laublaw: I got this call a month ago while home sick. I held the east Asian-accented fellow named 'Gary' on the line for better than 10 minutes as I asked him questions like "What are cookies?" and "What does the wheel on my mouse do?" He hung up on me.

That's sounds like a better approach than lying to them or being confrontational, which is what I've done in the past.

I wish there was a way to route spam phone calls away from my phone.

My dad's approach:

1. Sound gullible and eager
2. Tell them that there's something you need to attend to immediately (say, the oven), but plead with them to stay on the line until you get back in a few minutes
3. Do whatever
4. Make it a contest to see how long the person on the other end of the line will wait until they finally hang up (I think he's got up past 15 minutes, maybe longer by now).

Stealing this now.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: My dad's approach:

1. Sound gullible and eager
2. Tell them that there's something you need to attend to immediately (say, the oven), but plead with them to stay on the line until you get back in a few minutes
3. Do whatever
4. Make it a contest to see how long the person on the other end of the line will wait until they finally hang up (I think he's got up past 15 minutes, maybe longer by now).

Are you my son? I did this, and other things, during the car warranty phone spam thing a couple of years ago.
My record was just over 30 minutes.

My closing line:
"The only reason I am still talking to you is because I enjoy farking with you, and so you don't bother some other person at dinnertime, you asshole!"

Hypothetical Imperative: Boy could I have some fun with these guys.

I know! Why don't I get these calls? I'd so enjoy 'em.

offacue: Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

One time I got a phone call when my brother was in the room. Looked, didn't recognize the number, sent it to voice mail. My brother freaked out like I killed a puppy. He was like, "Why didn't you answer it? I can't believe you didn't answer it!" For like an hour after the incident.

I was like, "Seriously, if it's important they'll leave a message."


MooseUpNorth: Caller ID

Ha ha ha

offacue: Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

If I'm expecting a call from the apartment callbox, or if I know a delivery person is coming within the next few hours, or if I expect a call from anyone but I don't know their number, I'll answer if I don't recognize the number.

My companies outside accountant fell for this last week. She let them have control of her computer for 20 minutes or so. She has banking information, passwords, SS#, EIN#, online security question answers, for hundreds of small businesses and various city entities.

oooo, I wish these fools would call me.

Good times...good times

I keep getting call from that "cardholder services". I just hang up when I get them. My wife wonders why I'm so rude to "the lady from the bank"

IT'S A FREAKIN' MACHINE. It's a farkin' scam to get your cc number steal your money or your identity.

RTOGUY: Is it really that easy to scam people out of money?! Why the hell am I working for 60 hours a week at a legit job?! At this point I may as well start telling people that their cash is contaminated and that I need to take it back to the lab to clean it for them.

It's that easy to scam *a few* people out of money. Most people, not so much.

When I was in college, I did cold-calling to alumni from the University asking them for donations. It was as much a scam as anything else you can imagine. We were trained in how to 'build a rapport' with the customer and how to 'let them know how much we needed the money (IE - make them feel guilty).

Anyway, most people would give us nothing. A few people would yell at us. But a few people would give us money. And that money really added up.

What I found most interesting is that we could take donations right then and there (or send out a 'You pledged to give us X - so you'd better fill out this form and mail it to us'). I was amazed at how nobody ever did anything to verify who I was. Lots of people gave money over the phone.

If you were to combine the information you can find in the phone book with the information from an assessor's office with the information you can find on Facebook; you could compile a really, really long list of names, phone numbers, and what school they went to. And then you can simply call up, talk to them, ask them about their time at XYZ and which dorm they lived in and blah, blah, blah; and ask them for money, then take their information down and bill them. Hell, you could probably do this without even breaking the law; donate 1% of the money to the University you said you were raising money for (I'm not a lawyer, but that seems legit; given how much people running other charities earn).

Of course, if you just want to run a scam, you bill them the correct amount now and then wait a few weeks....then you use their card to rack up fraudulent charges and all sorts of other bad stuff.

blackmtnmantheonly: offacue Quote 2011-10-22 03:39:24 PM
Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

Not me. I love caller I.D. Hell, I won't even answer my doorbell if I don't feel like it. My conveniences, paid for by me. Now stay the fook off my lawn. Not yours, you can't have.

This, this, this, so much this.
I think I got this call last week. Any call like this, I handle it this way:
CALLER: Hello, Mister [totally screw up my last name as everyone since forever has]?
ME: [click]

Done.
I used to get pissed, but found that just pressing the damn "off" button on the phone makes me feel so much better.

I got the "lower your credit card rate" this morning. Apparently, I'm not very good at gaming them, because, when he asked to "verify my phone number" and I started to give him my work number, he hung up on me.

Maybe the next one will be dumber :-)

My wife handed one to me last week. I insisted they tell me which computer was erroring as I had three running right now. Between trying to do other stuff and them being unable to tell me which, I became irritated and hung up. Next time though, I am going to be stupid and waste their time.

We got one of these
"our records show your computer has a virus"
"oh which computer is it we have 4"
"umm.. The laptop"
"which one we have 2"
"umm both"
"ok how do you know our computer has a virus?"
"well.... We did a survey of people in your area"
"so how did that tell you we had a virus?"
"umm....."


I love messing with scanners... Almost as fun as telling the people selling you long distance th at you don't own a phone.

I told them that I was busy and to give me their IP address and I would connect with them later...

StreetlightInTheGhetto: JasonOfOrillia: Bob_Laublaw: I got this call a month ago while home sick. I held the east Asian-accented fellow named 'Gary' on the line for better than 10 minutes as I asked him questions like "What are cookies?" and "What does the wheel on my mouse do?" He hung up on me.

That's sounds like a better approach than lying to them or being confrontational, which is what I've done in the past.

I wish there was a way to route spam phone calls away from my phone.

My dad's approach:

1. Sound gullible and eager
2. Tell them that there's something you need to attend to immediately (say, the oven), but plead with them to stay on the line until you get back in a few minutes
3. Do whatever
4. Make it a contest to see how long the person on the other end of the line will wait until they finally hang up (I think he's got up past 15 minutes, maybe longer by now).

I like playing that game when I have the time. One time at work I got a toner phoner scam call. When he asked for the make and model of our copier I gave him everything right down to the serial number of our Standard 1500. I kept him busy for 10 or 15 minutes.

/ A Standard 1500 is a two-way radio
// CSB

One of these wankers called my 83 year old father in the UK about 10 days ago. I happened to be there and answered the phone. After playing along for a few minutes a lost my cool, told him he was a farking aresehole, that my Dad doesn't have a computer and hung up.

After a PC repair scammer called us for the third time in as many days, my wife lit off at the caller and tore a strip off him. He ended up passing her on to a manager, who yelled back.

Then they called us back 5 times within a couple minutes.

I do the "hang on a second!" and walk away from the phone thing.

If they say I won a prize, I get really excited and start screaming "I won? I WON?!! I can't believe it! DELORES WE WON!! Get the kids ... hang on a second, this is great!! This never happens to me! Kids! Kids! Come here, we WON!!!" Eventually they hang up out of sheer awkwardness.

And I used to think only old people could fall for a PC repair scam, until the 24 year girl who works for me the other day told me "sorry I'm late, my Hotmail has a virus and has been sending everyone attachments from my phone."

Sigh.

TXEric Quote 2011-10-22 04:35:30 PM
blackmtnmantheonly: offacue Quote 2011-10-22 03:39:24 PM
Who the hell answers a call from a number they don't recognize?

Not me. I love caller I.D. Hell, I won't even answer my doorbell if I don't feel like it. My conveniences, paid for by me. Now stay the fook off my lawn. Not yours, you can't have.

This, this, this, so much this.
I think I got this call last week. Any call like this, I handle it this way:
CALLER: Hello, Mister [totally screw up my last name as everyone since forever has]?
ME: [click]

Done.
I used to get pissed, but found that just pressing the damn "off" button on the phone makes me feel so much better.

Amen. My late mother had to answer every call, I asked WHY?

Leave a Farking message...If I feel like it I'll call you back. Same with the doorbell. "NO SOLICITING" sign, and we have the Green River law. Just occured to me...I could make a living off sueing those jerks who haven't got a clew.

Last time one of these guys called, I started playing a numbers station loop I found online and put my phone up to the speaker. I then left for a minute, and they had hung up. Haven't called back since!

Wells Fargo scam going around too, these are the last responses-
[1] Lawanda finally says, "I know your scamming, stop or I'll report the number you're calling from." They reply, "good luck" and hang up.

[2] Lawanda says "my account is (in spaceballs fashion) 1...2.... Etc". They reply, I can't seem to find that #, what's your SS"?. She gives them 111-22-3456, after a few seconds, they mutter something and hang up.

[3] She then *69's them and they actually answer pretending to be WF, and she starts talking gobbledygook at them and they don't hang up for at least 15 seconds.

[4] They call and I hear this blood curdling scream into the phone.

[5] See [3].

Next up is one of those compressed air horns, and then if we feel energetic and they're stupid enough, hold them on the line long enough to give a nice 120db blast off the horns on my bike.