"Windows Computers" nuisance telephone calls

I had an interesting phone conversation this morning with a 'gentleman' from the "Windows computers technical department."

I would be surprised if not most folk on here with a land-line haven't had at least one call from them as they crop up every few months. I have had one or two every day for the last week and just hang up on them but thought I would string him along today.

He starts off by telling me that my computer is very slow and he is going to help me fix it. Blah blah, heard this all before, so I pretend not to quite understand and engage him in a dialogue where I am wanting to buy a "Windows computer" from him and throw him off his script.

After a while, he cottons on that I am taking the piss and says let me check my records. Then it gets interesting. He sounds like he is having trouble breathing and enquires as to how is my pretty wife? "Ooooh, ooooh, I am loving to fuck your lovely wife, aahh," he continues - his English isn't the best by the way.
I wasn't sure I had heard him right so he helped by repeating it a couple of times, complete with authentic sound effects.
Says I, "This is great, it usually costs £1.50 a minute to listen to filth like this."
He wasn't impressed but I said you're going to have to hang up because I'm not.

Can't wait for them to call back

I read the other day that the guy behind the fake microsoft indian call centre got off with a very light sentence at luton crown courts. he got something silly like a couple of grand fine and suspended jail term...!!?? how can this be...??

Funny...I get the same call! However, I use a Mac! I tell them I use a Mac I don't have a PC that runs Windows but, they continue to inform me that I am a windows user. Surely I should know what laptop and operating system I am using.

one thing to remember Microsoft will never call you or email you out of the blue with anything its the same with inland revenue and other goverment services

ive had this microsoft one call my home first time my father fell for it luckly my mother was in the room and managed to stop him from doing anything stupid.

bet it doesn't come up with the number so you can report it to Microsoft themselves

These type of scam callers can be difficult to stop. Most phones companies have some sort of nuisance caller block, but the more persistent scammers will attempt to circumvent these blocks.

I've been looking up other people's experiences with these calls and as far as I can tell, the aim is to sell you a freeware antivirus programme for a jumped up amount. As such, I don't think they are technically doing something illegal as they are giving you a real product for your money. This is probably why the law is weak in doing anything about them unfortunately.

They use scare tactics to persuade you to let them take control of your pc remotely so they can load the software on to it and then ask for payment, while effectively holding your computer hostage.

Their proof that your computer is 'infected' is to get you to look at the Events Log and see all the Yellow triangles and exclamation marks with the word 'Warning' beside them. These are actually completely normal occurences on everyone's computer and don't mean anything bad at all, but they rely on a lot of people not being computer literate enough to realise that, and panic that things are wrong.

The surprising thing is how long this has been going on (several years) and yet so many folk are still being taken in by it.


On a side note, I find it a bit off that BT's answer to stopping nuisance calls is to try and sell you a special call-barring phone. Making a profit out of the problem doesn't give them much incentive to do something about it.

(26-04-2014 22:59 )kelly1066 Wrote:  the guy behind the fake microsoft indian call centre got off with a very light sentence at luton crown courts. he got something silly like a couple of grand fine and suspended jail term...!!??

It was a bit more than a couple of grand. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,665 compensation and £13,929 in prosecution costs.

(27-04-2014 14:15 )circles_o_o_o Wrote:  On a side note, I find it a bit off that BT's answer to stopping nuisance calls is to try and sell you a special call-barring phone. Making a profit out of the problem doesn't give them much incentive to do something about it.

I have my own call-barring system. I pulled the phone plug out of the socket 2 years ago and haven't had a nuisance call since

(27-04-2014 16:58 )aaron Wrote:  It was a bit more than a couple of grand. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,665 compensation and £13,929 in prosecution costs.

you still think is justice for all the money he made, and people he scared..?? fair enough.... hope you're the next one he calls and rinses if that's the case..!!