Anyone know how to deal with calls from 002011772013 - usual PC scam

Heres what one person did.

Ian McDonald I got a call from this number - no-one spoke at the other end. I used to get a lot of the "I'm calling from Microsoft support" spam calls, and tried loads of things to get them to stop calling. But the only thing that seemed to work (eventually) was this: when they called I'd pretend to follow their ruse.

I'd let them do the usual speech, and when they asked me if I was at my computer, I'd say no and ask them if they could wait for me to switch on the computer. They'd say 'of course' and I would just put the receiver down and leaving them hanging on. It would usually take them 10-15 minutes to get bored and hang up. But I felt that by wasting their time I might have saved another couple of victims. Anyway, I think they may have put my number on a black list as the calls stopped coming.

https://www.facebook.com/O2Ireland/posts/540574112644578
 
First time they called me it was the Windows support scam, I told them I'm not interested and hung up, they tried to call me a further five times that day but I let it ring out, the following day they tried calling again, I answered the phone and before they could talk I said, I know this is a scam, I have reported this number to the police and I am recording this conversation, he hung up, never heard from them since.
 
When I first got these calls I was really annoyed at the cheek of these gangsters trying to scam me and would allow myself to get really frustratedly during the call, silly really!
After a few calls I decided to frustrate the caller on the other end of the line by singing some of my favourite songs loudly down the phone, I even on one occasion asked them to join in at the chorus!! They hung up every time and the calls came less and less so pick your favourite musical and give them a bar or two, worked for me ;-)
 
Many thanks - useful suggestions - but is there any blocking mechanism or is the number ID not necessarily where its originating.
 
What I don't understand is why the telecoms companies we all pay each month don't block these numbers to prevent them calling us ....
 
There is a device you can buy that filters all calls and only allows 'recognised' numbers to ring thru. All other numbers are recorded and an option for them to leave a message. It costs about £100.

Another ploy is to pretend you are a non private number and request they enter their code.... to be deemed "invalid". With luck you might be flagged as a bad line so taken off the list.
 
Why would you bother? We have had some occasional calls of this nature at home and both the oddness of the calling number and the nature of the requests quickly alerts us to the nature of the call. Sometimes I'll answer and just politely say "thanks but no thanks" and other times just answer and quickly hang up. Perhaps some people are too polite to do this! Is it an Irish trait that we feel a need to spend a long time on the phone with this type of call, even though we now that they are trying to scam us?
 
My elderly parent receives very many of these calls, both scam ones and other marketing cold calls. She buys things from catalogues so I suspect is on several lists. I worry that she will injure herself in trying to get to the phone in time. They are definitely a nuisance.
 
How do these guys know who to call. It does not seem to be random and they know what operating systems people have. Is there a shop or unscrupulous employee providing third party information post sale?
 
How do these guys know who to call. It does not seem to be random and they know what operating systems people have. Is there a shop or unscrupulous employee providing third party information post sale?

90% of PCs run on Windows so it's a pretty safe bet!
 
At first I just used to hang up but I have had some fun recently. When they ring up I act very concerned and ask them how they know what operating system I have ( I actually have a mac). I acted so clueless on the last call that at the end of the conversation the caller actually said ( not making this up). Mrs Oxxxx you are a real ****. You have just wasted my valuable time. Couldn't make that up. Not as many calls since then.
 
Just Got a Text from:

00247101123

"Call me it's urgent. I have something important"

Marion
 
I don't usually pick up the PC scam calls -- they just go to voicemail and they never leave a message. I picked one up for fun the other day, and tried to get some details from them about where they get their information. I asked how come "Microsoft" had my number, they said they got it from Eircom. I asked why Eircom gave out my number and they said it was because my line was logging attacks, and as if to prove a point they also told me my address, which was a little worrying. Btw, I don't even have an Eircom line, but I didn't mention this. Instead, after I had grilled them for five minutes and got only evasive answers I treated them to a few bars of Joaquin Nin's Danza Andaluza, upon which they hung up. The cheek of them! It seems these barbarians don't appreciate classical Spanish music! ;)
 
I got a call from this people last week. I kept them talking as I wanted to find out how they got our telephone number, I could not tell what number they were calling from.

They said they were in California, I asked them the time there which they didn't know etc. I was passed to 3 different people. They sounded, to my ear, Indian or Pakistani, not African. So I asked them did they go to school in the US, quite clearly they didn't. But they did know our number, my husbands full name, and our address. I would dearly like to know how they knew all this information. As you guys know I'm not in Ireland. We cannot figure out where they got our details from. But she was able to read out the details for us on something. But they couldn't pronounce it properly.

I told them I'd call them back, not allowed, and they have no pen or paper either apparently, they are in some room in Microsoft, California, even gave me an address for that too.

They called again on Saturday, but I just put the phone down.

They wanted me to hit the key windows and the R key at the same time, anyone know what that would do to the home laptop?
 
Windows-R just brings up a dialog where you type in the name of a program to run. They'll get you to run something that "proves" your computer has been compromised. Probably the event viewer, which always has plenty of stuff that the average Joe Soap could be convinced looks worrying. Then they'll get you to go to a website and run something that lets them take over your computer so they can, uh, "help you" remotely. :rolleyes:
 
The thing is whenever you fill in one of those forms for <insert service or product here> you invariably end up giving the following details
Name
Address
Number
E-mail

Then you need to decipher the cryptic puzzle, get the wrong answer and you have just given your permission to whoever is gathering your data to "share it with carefully selected 3rd parties" ... in other words, put up for sale to the highest bidder as an entry on a list of "high quality" or "validated" contact details - especially true if you are dealing with something that needs to be delivered to your address.

If they have your number, they will more than likely have your name and address too, it proves nothing other than the fact that once you gave your contact details legitimately of your own volition to an organisation that has then had the temerity to sell it on because you "gave" your permission. You rarely enter your phone number on its own.

The best thing would be to ban any organisation from ever selling data to third parties, it is couched as being possibly of value to you the consumer (these carefully selected 3rd parties, you are generally promised, will contact you with stuff you are interested in and that is apparently a good thing for you ... questionable premise in my book) when in truth it is a nice little side-earner for the company that harvests details and a handy list of possible marks for the company that aims to extract more from your pocket.

I particularly appreciate the forms where they provide two or three tick boxes with different questions which mean that some you should tick and some you should leave unticked. It is a vile practice and it should be banned.
 
My Dad received a phone call from the supposed Microsoft people. He told the man who asked him to turn on his pc that he didnt have a pc. scammer on other end of the phone got very irate and told my dad you have to have a pc you are paying UPC for broadband. Dad told him it was none of his business what he was paying for and hung up. obviously Upc have sold on a customer list.
 
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