so recently we have been getting a lot of calls from "your windows service center" saying that "viruses are downloading themselves onto my hard drive." They are fighting them off, but they need me to download a program to block them or "all of my personal banking informations could be stolen by the malicious viruses on my hard drive."
Obviously they want me to download a rat of some sort, but this time I decided to play with them a bit first.
Me: I need to go turn on my computer, 1 sec.
Them: Ok this is very important, hurry.
Me:(10 min later) My computer won't turn on.
Them: This is very bad, the virus may have infected your power supply configuration.(dafuq?)
Me: So how can I turn it on?
Them: Unplug your computer and wait for a bit then plug it back in.
Me: Ok.
Me: (15 min later) Ok so it is on now.
Them: ok, so go to your local disk, ok? now go to windows, now, inf, then esent folder.
Them: now there is a file called esentprf.hxx, this is the malicious file.
Me: I can't find it.
Them: are you in your local disk?
Me: yes
Them: are you in your windows folder?
Me: no. I can't find it.
Them: What are your folders called that you see?
Me:bin, boot, cdrom, dev, etc, home, lib, media, root, usr, and other stuff, but no windows.
Them: ok the virus has hidden itself, you need to download the patch to block the virus.
Me: ok:
*Downloads nothing*
Me: It won't work, Do i need windows? my computer is linux
*They hang up*
well, that was a good use of 30 minutes lol
The Killer
2012-10-18 14:03:39
hahha, my nan gets calls saying her computer is giving off viruses… she doesn't even have a computer or internet :')
Neznam
2012-10-18 14:16:47
God they are f-in persistant.
Mr[S]
2012-10-18 14:24:30
I knew that was coming haha!
zertunami
2012-10-18 15:25:23
I lost it at "bin, boot, cdrom, dev, etc"
The sad thing is is that this phone scam was recently on the news where I live and that people still must be getting tricked or else they'd have stopped calling. Also:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/04/tech_support_scam_crushed/ (not really crushed)
Austin
2012-10-18 19:08:05
Omg, a kid in my class at school basically did the same thing as you last weekend. Pretty funny lol.
Silentcore
2012-10-18 19:40:43
How about those scams where people go out and sell a "Winning" lottery ticket to another person because they can't claim it.
Flight
2012-10-18 21:04:16
Gave me a giggle. Nice one mate. :)
I should really record one, anyone know if that's legal in Canada?
Footy
2012-10-18 21:35:48
Why wouldn't it be? I don't get calls like that round here. This made me laugh though. :)
Just googled, it is legal as long as one partcipant knows. Now I wonder how I could record it with reasonable quality…
From: [J]ustin
… Are they for real?
Yes, I was a little surprised that they said that, perhaps hoping that I new
nothing about computers and trying to scare me lol…
[XoL]
2012-10-21 02:42:10
Lol next time be like I removed the file, thanks my computer is working. See what they say because they know the file is fake :P
DeiJaiVui
2012-10-27 04:42:27
They should get more fluent english speakers if they want a successful scam.. Half the time I can't even hear what they're saying :p
TehNeonFishy
2012-10-27 05:55:34
HA. xD Nice I never even heard of people calling the house to say you're computer is broken. It seems like alot more effort that hiding it in a file.
Enslaved
2012-10-28 10:05:57
lol had a scammer try meet up with me on skype, they tried to phish me, i pretended like i was a noob as "was scared that they would get my IP" when they said you cant do anything with an Ip, looked up theirs, and told them where they lived, quite funny as they were 13 year old kids. then i did something to them Since its not strictly legal i shall not enclose what(but involves piggybacking a botnet and make someone's internet die) :)
From: Enslaved
Since its not strictly legal i shall not enclose what(but involves piggybacking a botnet and make someone's internet die) :)
Well what did you do, bigger hint plox? :p
Yeah it's funny when kids think they're uberhax0rs :D
Prometheus
2012-10-30 20:30:40
So the name was really "Your Windows Service Center"? XD
Yeah, that's what they introduce themselves as. I wonder what they would respond with if I told them I had a mac or linux right at the start ^_^
EtherFreak
2012-11-16 19:51:13
Me "Hello, EtherFreak speaking"
Whatever the scam, telemarketing ect may be.
Me "What is the nature of your emergency?"
Pause by them "what? No, I am calling about selling…"
Me "Are you aware of the number you just called. It is a federal offence to call this number for anything other then emergencies. We will be conducting a full investigation into this call, and fines and/or jail time may occur."
They usually hang up somewhere in the middle of this, or apologize. I rarely get calls of these type. Also, I only had one political call this year…
From: EtherFreak
Me "Hello, EtherFreak speaking"
Whatever the scam, telemarketing ect may be.
Me "What is the nature of your emergency?"
Pause by them "what? No, I am calling about selling…"
Me "Are you aware of the number you just called. It is a federal offence to call this number for anything other then emergencies. We will be conducting a full investigation into this call, and fines and/or jail time may occur."
They usually hang up somewhere in the middle of this, or apologize. I rarely get calls of these type. Also, I only had one political call this year…
Now that is genius. I should start practicing my 911 operator voice :D
Chris Reborn
2012-11-16 21:23:27
hahaha nice waist of 30 minutes :D
Neznam
2013-01-24 17:25:04
Is there a place to report this? Really Facked up to try to scam someone this way.
BTW that power suply being infected is just, wow.
grats
2013-01-25 15:45:50
man I wish I got awesome calls like that
From: grats
man I wish I got awesome calls like that
We used to get them at least once a month, but haven't gotten one recently. Hopefully they got shut down :D
grats
2013-01-25 17:51:26
From: BMWxi
We used to get them at least once a month, but haven't gotten one recently. Hopefully they got shut down :D
your microwave has a virus, HURRRY THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW BEFORE IT COOKS YOU
Turpinator
2013-01-26 14:09:00
From: BMWxi
Me: It won't work, Do i need windows? my computer is linux
*They hang up*
I laughed so hard my roommate came in and needed to see what was so funny.
I wasnt reading it too well so i missed the root folders, so that line got me.
From: BMWxi
Now I wonder how I could record it with reasonable quality…
Well… if you use googlevoice to call, you can press a button to record it. Also, some phones allow you to record calls. Although, mine is a 4 year old flip phone… not sure if all those fancy new phones without buttons allow for it so easily.
anyway on mine… during a call, i go to options then at the bottom ive got a record button. Ive never really used it, but i would assume it would record both people.
Neznam
2013-01-26 21:27:28
From: grats
your microwave has a virus, HURRRY THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW BEFORE IT COOKS YOU
I KNEW IT! It's been beeping everytime I touch it!