Scamming phone calls from India

An old one but a lot of people fall for it.

Laz2016 wrote:

Hi all

Just a friendly word of warning. If you get a phone call stating they're from Microsoft it's a scam. In fact if you get any calls from India it's a scam. All they want is to get remote access to your computer and then they plant trojans and get all your personal data.

It's a well known scam in the UK but the first time I experienced it in Malta the other day.

This has been happening in Gozo on and off for the last three years.

In New Zealand there was a rash of scam calls from India stating that they were from the  Tax office and needed you to pay up online or be jailed.

The second recent one was asking for bank account details to send your tax refund to.

I suppose people must fall for the criminals' lousy stories or they'd stop wasting their time and try a different scam.
That in mind, an extra warning about the scammers can't be such a bad idea.

I would laugh if I received such a call and play with them a little, since I don't use Microsoft Windows. 

I've had one call; it was fun, I told him I didn't have a PC (I don't, I use a Mac), he told me that I must have because he could see it - I asked him to hang on while I got someone to help me find it, then put the phone on my desk and carried on working while I could hear him squawking in the background.  After a few minutes, I picked it up and said I still couldn't find a PC in my home and asked if a Blackberry phone would do.  He threatened to report me to the police for lying and wasting his valuable time - still waiting for the knock on the door.

I enjoy scammers' calls because I really love to mess them about.
Pretty much goes for sales calls as well where, if I have time, I like to string them along for as long as possible.
My favourite used to be Jehovah's witnesses when they knocked at the door; my best being telling them I was a devil worshipper and suggesting she leave her daughter with me as I had a ritual later that evening but still hadn't found a virgin to take part in it.
The look on her face was a picture.

Cynic wrote:

I've had one call; it was fun, I told him I didn't have a PC (I don't, I use a Mac), he told me that I must have because he could see it - I asked him to hang on while I got someone to help me find it, then put the phone on my desk and carried on working while I could hear him squawking in the background.  After a few minutes, I picked it up and said I still couldn't find a PC in my home and asked if a Blackberry phone would do.  He threatened to report me to the police for lying and wasting his valuable time - still waiting for the knock on the door.

In case you do not know what a PC is, it is a personal computer, a Mac is a personal computer!!
It is not only a PC if it has a Windows operating system.

Ray

It's pretty much normal to assume a "PC" refers to a windows based computer, never a Mac.
It's in all the nerd type computer mags, including I have an Apple's own stuff.

This search of I have an Apple's site shows they note the difference by using Mac or PC.

http://www.apple.com/us/search/PC?src=globalnav

Just to clear up a point of order.

All I need now is a pen.

Fred wrote:

It's pretty much normal to assume a "PC" refers to a windows based computer, never a Mac.
It's in all the nerd type computer mags, including I have an Apple's own stuff.

This search of I have an Apple's site shows they note the difference by using Mac or PC.

http://www.apple.com/us/search/PC?src=globalnav

Just to clear up a point of order.

All I need now is a pen.

Any Apple site is going to refer to a Mac not a PC

It's only 'not a PC' if you own a Mac!

The link you posted referred to 'My Computer' not my Mac!

'Just to clear up a point of order' what does that refer to?

Ray

Maybe it would be better to stick to the topic of telephone phishing (scams), rather than bickering needlessly over semantics.