Discussion Boards - The Big Issues

A lovely young man shared with me how he was deceived and scammed by a person with an anglo saxon profile pic, and she needed help to keep her fashion business afloat and needed $2000. If others want to share their stories, maybe it will help others not to be deceived by their tricks to scam honest, caring, christians.

This happened to me last night, but not on CC.
Some one phoned me with an indian/asian accent and said that they had been informed by microsoft, that there was a problem with my computer and any one else who had windows 7 or Vista. I thought it may be a bit sus, so I said are you sure you're not selling me something, and she said (in her indian accent) no mam, I am here to help you, then she told me to press windows key and "R" and told me to scroll thru things and said....can you see any yellow triangles, and I said yes and she was really over the top saying....Oh my gosh this is no good, you have got a terrible virus....(hahaha this is starting to sound like I am telling a joke, now I cant stop laughing). Then she said I will put our technician on now to help you fix this problem. Then he told me to do this, and do that, then said is there a number in that box on the screen?, and I said no, then he said oh no, your warranty for this computer must have expired, why didnt you extend yr warranty, and I said, I didnt know it had expired, then he said....I CAN SELL YOU a warrantly for $160 and it will last you 3 yrs.
I was soooo angry that they sucked me in the entire time, and denying they were trying to sell me anything, so I slammed the phone down

wev'e had about 6 times the same people phone saying they were from windows and that our computer was slow and that for $25 they could fix it,so i asked the IT guy at work and he said windows would never phone you unless you phoned them first and that you wouldnt mind paying $25 but that was to just get your info, a couple of times ive said this is a scam and im calling the police and hung up and the've phoned back a few min later with the same thing.
but then Joshua had ordered something for his games and because he was under 16 the lady had to phone me to verify it and she had an indian accent and i was just about to blast her when she mentioned Joshuas name close!

So do you think these people have info from my computer now, cos they wanted me to type in a company name of theirs?

Don't let them get to you Cossie, I dunno what satisfaction they get out of scamming people... but I always find trust your gut feeling... believe me you will know when you have a virus on your computer. Some friends at work have had the same scam. Good onya for slamming the phone down on them.

This is a great post. Have you heard of the new scam at Coles or Woolworths? CHECK YOUR RECEIPT!!

What they do is, the cashier will do the normal scanning of your items but at the end they will add in "Cash out" without asking you, then when you walk away they then give it to their friend who is next in line .... I don't know if this is really true, but someone told me this and now I just double check the receipt before I walk away, just in case lol.

Yes, thanks for the tip off Pauline, - I am not sure if it was you who originally told me, or someone else. - but I too have become more careful, particularly if I have people in the line behind me.

I have been re-reading through this thread too - and noticing how far back that the (.....insert software company of choice) scam goes.

I was still getting phone calls from them up to a month or so ago ...at one stage CONSECUTIVE CALLS with the same spiel, -sometimes male, sometimes female even had the same person twice in an hour!

I would ask them to hold while I went into the other room to turn on my computer - and leave them just waiting...waiting...waiting. - meaning that there was one less opportunity for someone else to be targeted at least for a little while!

I am always careful though NOT to tell a scammer the reason why I have been able to pick them. (Have read that scammers use this as research and will amend the con accordingly)

(I now let the answering machine screen my calls - and friends know to ring me on the mobile thus eliminating the problem.)

Lol, just leave them hanging there on the phone hahahahaha. Good one Cheryl.

I am going to try that one with the telly marketers when they ring me.....Thanks Cheryl. Leaving them hanging should annoy the heck out of them, just the way they do when they keep phoning me at an inopportune time. Ahhh, just sharing the LOOOVE ! LOL

- I have no idea how long they waited or even IF they waited - I got involved in something else and forgot about them!

(and I was actually a little disappointed, because by the time I remembered him/her I was ready for round 2)

yes, the do-not call register means that you cannot be cold called from within Australia.
BUT it does not cover charities OR call centres overseas, (which 'conveniently' are covered by the legislation of their own countries...which often means 'open slather'). Also I think that you have to re-register after a certain period.- or at least that was the case for the short time that I was registered.

Also, our friendly neighbourhood 'Indian' scammer has you on random automatic dial - so if your number 'comes up' - then you are still out of luck.

(that, by the way is why there is a delay between you answering and someone speaking to you. - he has not yet 'registered' that he has a 'live one')

All in all, I did not find the DNCR to be that useful.

I am happy with what I am doing, and besides it would sit in my craw to have the 'benefit' of having to pay to reduce the number of nuisance phone calls - particularly given the above caveats! My way works 100% of the time, is free (as I already had the answering machine) and has the added bonus of causing inconvenience for those who call me for illegitimate reason!