Indian Phone Scam

[JetSet]

I had a phone call today, actually not the first one, from a company who are based in India telling me that my ISP had detected a virus on my computer. This company then claimed they were working for MicroSoft and they would talk me through a fix for it. At this stage I told him to stop talking rubbish (or words to that effect ) and put the phone down. After a few minutes research it transpired that they are trying to sell you a product called PC Defender which is completely useless and will set you back £130 or so. They have obtained a database of names and phone numbers, he asked for me by name, and are targeting The U.K and The U.S apparently. There are several companies in India using this trick to obtain money from you, all owned by the same person and Trading standards have received hundreds of complaints although it would seem there's nothing they can actually do to prevent it.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... ll-centres

 

They tried again today "We're phoning about your computer problem" , unbelievable.

 

 

Pete

[The G Man]

Thanks for the heads up, had a bit of a nightmare with the "drive away insurance" that was going to make my plate transfer "easier" when getting my new 370. Anyway the company is Aviva, quite a large outfit, went through all the details, TWICE, both times being told "We don't insure that car"!?!, and this was the dealer's "agent".

 

The call centre was in India, they wouldn't put me on to a superior/supervisor and then just hung up!! Doesn't auger well if you had a claim!! Anyway, not wanting to come across racist/bigot in anyway, I refuse to do ANY business or have any utilities that don't have a UK call centre.

 

I don't blame the Indian/Asian individual, as it's a despicable thing for a UK company to do just to increase profits, but sometimes it's hard enough to get someone who is British to understand my thick Scottish accent, (maybe I'm being thick ), anyway this is turning into a rant

 

Suffice to say Aviva is of my list of companies that I'll deal with.

 

Ditto Scottish Power

[MrMartinGrant]

NO WAY !!!!!!!!!!!

 

haha this happend to me two days ago.

 

First of all let me just explain that i am a Managing Director of an I.T. company.

 

any way, so they phone me,

 

convo goes something like this.

 

Me : Hello

 

Him : Hello this is ****** calling from microsoft

 

Me : yes, ok

 

Him : sir we have detected you PC is generating error reports

 

Me : ohh i see, so microsoft are collecting data on their customers, should you really be doing that, saying as i have never regestered my

Microsoft products, how did you get this number.

so at this point i already know that something is not right here, but i'll let it go and see what happens.

 

Him : Sir you PC has Viruses.

 

Me : Which is it, you told me you received an error report, so do i now also have a virus now, ohh ****ing @*!# bollox, what should i do?

 

Him : sir, you have a virus

 

Me : what ive got the virus now? how did this happen?

 

Him : No sir you computer has a virus,

 

Me : thank God, it's only my computer, so you got an error report from my pc telling you that it has a virus?

 

Him : yes Sir you computer has a virus, but we can,

 

ME : What i can't hear you, i'm cutting the grass,

 

Him : Sir can you hear me?

 

Me : I start shouting as load as i can "you wee bastards get the **** off my grass"

 

Him : Sir, sir

 

Me : yes?

 

Him : so sir you have a virus, you computer has told us.

 

Me : ohh sweet jusus, i have the virus? you told me it was my computer.

 

Him : Sir, Sir, we got a report from your computer, you have a virus.

 

Me : are you sure about this? because i have a really really big firewall.

 

Him : yes Sir the virus is on you computer and we got a report.

 

Me : So you're saying my computer has a virus and not me, so i'm ok then?

 

Him : Sir yes, you computer has a virus and we can..

 

Me : you can what? i can't hear you, i'm talking a ****.

 

Him : hello sir?

 

Me : Yes Hello, who is this?

 

Him : I told you Sir i am **** from Microsoft.

 

Me : and what's this about then.

 

Him : Sir your computer has virus

 

Me : I am so gald you called me, I've been in the Computer busniess like 15 years and you really seem to know your stuff.

 

Him : Sir?

 

Me : I'm telling you, you actually phoned an I.T. Company and you're speaking to the Managing Director, we could be doing with people like you, you sound like you know about computer and the interweb.

 

Him : ehh, aaa, Sir but sir.

 

Me : What?

 

Him : .................................... line goes dead.

 

I should have kept him on longer, might have even bought his sister or something at a knock down price.

[JetSet]

Yeah, I've had 4 calls from them now. As you've described, they stick to a script and if you deviate from it then they just keep repeating themselves trying to get it back on track. I'm something of a geek when it comes to PC's, been on the Net since '93 and had my own website as long ago as 1996 so they picked on the wrong person. I'm actually considering going ex directory and changing my phone number its getting that bad. I used to get dozens of calls from Indian call centres trying to sell me mobile phones but they've stopped right now. Satellite repair companies are another nightmare, completely dishonest, people must be desperate to work for crooks like that. And then there's the silent calls, most of which I traced to N Power who I'll never deal with, period.

 

Pete

[BulletMagnet]

What works for me usually is I ask who they are, then say

"Sorry, but I work for the company that owns you."

Which confuses them And makes them hang up, lol

[Ekona]

Tbh if you fall for something like that then you deserve all you get.