Weird phone call I got about my computer.

English Soapbox
1

Hi,

This morning I got a phone call (land line) from displayed number of
“000”. I answer, and I hear noise, room noise. After a few seconds, a
human appears.

So far, it is a typical automated marketing call. A machine makes the
call; if answered, the human agent is alerted. Badly managed, but typical.

Now the untypical starts: he speaks in English (remember that I live in
Spain). And it is very bad English. I answer in Spanish (intentionally),
but he doesn’t understand and insists on using English. So I switch to
English.

The other untypical thing is that he knew my surname, which is obviously
English, no possible confusion with a Spanish one.

What he said, as far as I could make out with the noisy background and
his broken English and his accent (I got the feeling it was from central
or south of Africa), was that he needed to talk about my computer
software, or that there was something wrong about my computer software.

I asked “what computer software”. My intention was to see if he knew I
was using Linux, or if he talked about some Windows thing trying to
convince me I had a virus or something. A verification question on my part.

He replied with about the same initial phrase. I think he was reading
from a paper, and didn’t really understand/speak English.

This sequence repeated twice, so I said that “I’m sorry, I think you are
talking nonsense”, and hung.

I was curious, though, to find out more, which is why I did not hang
earlier.

Somebody knows about similar calls, what could it be? It is very
strange. I never receive scam calls in English, this is the first one…
maybe they are targeting English speaking expatriates in Spain…

:-?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

2

Hi
That scam has been around sometime…

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/11/malwarebytes

3

I’ve had friends here have it happen
They also use Linux
Funny

4

I get that call every so often. Even if I tell them where to stick it, they call again.

5

On 2014-06-04 16:06, malcolmlewis wrote:
>
> Hi
> That scam has been around sometime…
>
> http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/11/malwarebytes

I thought it might be something like that.

But the chap spoke almost unintelligible English, he was unable to
understand the single phrase I asked him, and just repeated about the
same phrase about “wrong computer software” or similar (I do not have a
phone call recording device ready. I should).

It is impossible he could scam anybody in English if he can not keep
even broken conversation in English. My spoken English is quite good,
although not first language level, so it was not my fault. He simply
could not understand spoken English!

I tried to play along with him, but could not. He broke my game.

That’s a very unprofessional scammer. I should report him to his boss.

:-p

Ok, thanks for the link. I thought that other people here (this forum)
might know about it. I don’t know people here in Spain I could ask about
a scam in English happening in Spain.

But they may targeting expatriates in Spain: in my zone there are areas
with many retired British folk (and Germans and others, but I notice
better the British, as I lend some ear for practicing my English, I get
no other chance), so they may be easy targets. Many of them have
problems understanding Spanish, often they group together in villages
with English speaking repairmen, shops, etc. I know for certain that
they are victims of these: instead of using local people at local
prices, they are probably swindled by the small group they “trust”.

And old people are specially easy targets. I should find a way to warn
them, but I don’t know how…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

6

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:55:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> Somebody knows about similar calls, what could it be?

It’s a well-known scam. They get remote access to your computer, and
then either cause damage or encrypt stuff and demand a ransom.

Been going on for about 3 years now, usually the claim is that they’re
from Microsoft Support.

I’ve been getting about 4 calls a day from these scammers for the past 3
weeks - on my cell phone. I had to install an application to block
unknown callers to get it to stop.

If it weren’t on my cell phone, and I had some time to waste, I’d waste
some of their time with a Windows VM that’s got nothing important in it.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

7

English speaking people are fooled by such scams every day.

They have a problem with their computer, and call tech support. They find themselves talking to someone with broken English (probably an out-sourced customer service rep.) So this scammer’s method is consistent with their experience. Someone speaking in very correct English would be more suspicious.

8

I am an English speaking and I take offense of your comment sir :smiley:
I had 5 of this calls last 2 weeks and was not fulled by them not even a little.
although I have to admit that at least one of the callers were speaking decent English, but was obviously reading from script as I kept asking her questions about my computer and my IP and which computer is she talking about as I have 3 of them and none was on at the time of the call.
she just kept saying that my computer was sending error messages to their company and she is going to fix it. I said well fix it if you can, but all my PCs run Linux :slight_smile:

and hangup.

the other calls were similar but guys on them could barely speak. I could not understand most of what they were saying.

the last call I got I kept trolling the guy about what PC he is talking about, what IP, what windows/
he start to give me the 192.168. address at which point I told him where he can stick it.
and got a very angry response that he is going to revoke my windows license.

9

On 2014-06-04 19:36, nrickert wrote:

>> It is impossible he could scam anybody in English if he can not keep
>> even broken conversation in English.
>
> English speaking people are fooled by such scams every day.
>
> They have a problem with their computer, and call tech support. They
> find themselves talking to someone with broken English (probably an
> out-sourced customer service rep.)

Ah, yes…

In Spain’s case, they often outsource to South America, thus language is
not a problem. Or to Marroc, where many people speak French, Spanish, or
both, and some very well. They have been watching Spanish TV for
decades, it could be tuned in some places easily. I’m unsure if with
digital TV broadcast they still can.

Thus we do notice the different accent and culture, but not broken Spanish.

> So this scammer’s method is
> consistent with their experience. Someone speaking in very correct
> English would be more suspicious.

Heh.

But this chap could not even understand what I said. He was apparently
reading from a paper the words, phonetically written. He made pauses
between words.

The conversation is getting foggy in my memory, but it was something
like this:

We call because problem your software.

What software?

There is problem your in software.

But what software?

We call because problem in your software.

What software are you talking about?

There is problem your in software.

You are talking nonsense. Bye.

(maybe I asked what company he was from. He didn’t say any)

It was something like that… not fun! :wink:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

10

On 2014-06-04 20:36, vl1969 wrote:

> she just kept saying that my computer was sending error messages to
> their company and she is going to fix it.

My chap maybe said just that. I’m unsure. There was a lot of noise.

> I said well fix it if you can,
> but all my PCs run Linux :slight_smile:

I wanted to say that! But I had no chance, he did not mention Windows.
It is not fun.

> the other calls were similar but guys on them could barely speak. I
> could not understand most of what they were saying.

That’s my case.

> the last call I got I kept trolling the guy about what PC he is talking
> about, what IP, what windows/
> he start to give me the 192.168. address at which point I told him where
> he can stick it.
> and got a very angry response that he is going to revoke my windows
> license.

LOL.

Most of Spain uses pirated Windoze, so good luck. X’-)

Ah, but the British folk here are probably law abiding citizens mostly
and do have licenses :slight_smile:

Except for some chap who robbed a train or something and retired here to
enjoy…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

11

On 2014-06-04 19:08, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:55:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>> Somebody knows about similar calls, what could it be?
>
> It’s a well-known scam. They get remote access to your computer, and
> then either cause damage or encrypt stuff and demand a ransom.
>
> Been going on for about 3 years now, usually the claim is that they’re
> from Microsoft Support.
>
> I’ve been getting about 4 calls a day from these scammers for the past 3
> weeks - on my cell phone. I had to install an application to block
> unknown callers to get it to stop.

Wow. So bad?

So now they are targeting expatriates.

> If it weren’t on my cell phone, and I had some time to waste, I’d waste
> some of their time with a Windows VM that’s got nothing important in it.

LOL.

Well… I may be getting more. The problem for me is that sleep strange
hours; the cell phone I power down, but not the land line, which remains
for emergencies. Very few people use it to call me. So these scum could
wake me up!

But I’m supposedly not listed. And this chap addressed me by my surname

  • it is the probable method they are using to identify expatriates.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

12

On 2014-06-04 17:56, HighBloodSugar wrote:
>
> I get that call every so often. Even if I tell them where to stick it,
> they call again.

Good grief. So they’ll call me again. Probably in the middle of my siesta…

I’ll need to find out a call discriminator for land lines.

Years ago I thought of building one with a computer and a special modem,
one that can “talk”. I could retake the project…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

13

I once did just that. I used to get a call from “Windows Technical” every week. I decided to have some fun with it once. I told the caller I didn’t like his tone, and demanded to talk to his supervisor. Surprisingly, he put someone else on the line after putting me on hold for a minute. I told him the caller was very rude and needed to be retrained or fired. He pretended he didn’t understand me, so I repeated myself a couple of times, only hearing him say “what’s that?”. I finally hung up. I haven’t heard from them in a while…

14

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 19:43:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

>> I’ve been getting about 4 calls a day from these scammers for the past
>> 3 weeks - on my cell phone. I had to install an application to block
>> unknown callers to get it to stop.
>
> Wow. So bad?

Yes.

> So now they are targeting expatriates.

Possibly, or they’re just calling random numbers around the world in the
hopes of finding a sucker.

>> If it weren’t on my cell phone, and I had some time to waste, I’d waste
>> some of their time with a Windows VM that’s got nothing important in
>> it.
>
> LOL.

Yeah, I’m not spending money to troll them, but if they called my regular
number, … :wink:

> Well… I may be getting more. The problem for me is that sleep strange
> hours; the cell phone I power down, but not the land line, which remains
> for emergencies. Very few people use it to call me. So these scum could
> wake me up!
>
> But I’m supposedly not listed. And this chap addressed me by my surname
> - it is the probable method they are using to identify expatriates.

They are getting the data from somewhere that has name info, I get the
occasional voice message asking “Mister Jim, are you there?” …

Because voicemail - yeah, they’ve never heard of that before. :wink:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

15

On 2014-06-04 22:06, chief sealth wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2647396 Wrote:
>>
>> That’s a very unprofessional scammer. I should report him to his boss.
>>
>
> I once did just that. I used to get a call from “Windows Technical”
> every week. I decided to have some fun with it once. I told the caller I
> didn’t like his tone, and demanded to talk to his supervisor.
> Surprisingly, he put someone else on the line after putting me on hold
> for a minute. I told him the caller was very rude and needed to be
> retrained or fired. He pretended he didn’t understand me, so I repeated
> myself a couple of times, only hearing him say “what’s that?”. I finally
> hung up. I haven’t heard from them in a while…

Heh.

The typical nuisance call here (Spain) comes from a few phone companies.
They insist on telling me to switch to them my internet connection. I
tell them to shoo away and never come back, but they do.

So what I do is add their phone numbers to my phone address book, so
that I know them without answering. Surprisingly they use the same
numbers many times.

I think that the company methodology is to hire private persons which
make the calls from their homes. No commutting, you know. And no
responsibilities. They can ignore the “no call lists”.

Some people add themselves to a list called “Robinson list”. The weak
point is that you are listed in there, and companies have to read that
list to erase matches from their own. Instead, they can use the R list
to get actual phone numbers from actual people… Daft.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

16

On 2014-06-04 22:11, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 19:43:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

>> So now they are targeting expatriates.
>
> Possibly, or they’re just calling random numbers around the world in the
> hopes of finding a sucker.

I think they do some type of investigation to locate candidates.

> They are getting the data from somewhere that has name info, I get the
> occasional voice message asking “Mister Jim, are you there?” …

Name and phone, right.

> Because voicemail - yeah, they’ve never heard of that before. :wink:

he.

Nor me :slight_smile:
I don’t think my phone company offers that service. Not sure.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

17

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 21:45:07 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> On 2014-06-04 22:11, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 19:43:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>
>>> So now they are targeting expatriates.
>>
>> Possibly, or they’re just calling random numbers around the world in
>> the hopes of finding a sucker.
>
> I think they do some type of investigation to locate candidates.

I doubt it. If they did, they wouldn’t be calling people with years of
experience working with computers.

They get a list of names and phone numbers. Most likely. :slight_smile:

>> They are getting the data from somewhere that has name info, I get the
>> occasional voice message asking “Mister Jim, are you there?” …
>
> Name and phone, right.

Yup. It’s what’s on their list.

>> Because voicemail - yeah, they’ve never heard of that before. :wink:
>
> he.
>
> Nor me :slight_smile:
> I don’t think my phone company offers that service. Not sure.

Google Voice here. I use it for my cell phone’s voice mail.

Which is nice, because when one of these scumbags calls me, I add it to
the “block” list, and they get the “this number has been disconnected”
message the next time they call.

Except that they illegally spoof caller ID (because how are you going to
prosecute them if you have fake CID information that originates over
Skype and from outside the country?), so unless they use the same CID
more than once, they won’t get the message. It’s still satisfying to do
that, though. :slight_smile:

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

18

On Wed 04 Jun 2014 11:42:58 PM CDT, Jim Henderson wrote:

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 21:45:07 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> On 2014-06-04 22:11, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 19:43:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>
>>> So now they are targeting expatriates.
>>
>> Possibly, or they’re just calling random numbers around the world in
>> the hopes of finding a sucker.
>
> I think they do some type of investigation to locate candidates.

I doubt it. If they did, they wouldn’t be calling people with years of
experience working with computers.

They get a list of names and phone numbers. Most likely. :slight_smile:

>> They are getting the data from somewhere that has name info, I get
>> the occasional voice message asking “Mister Jim, are you there?” …
>
> Name and phone, right.

Yup. It’s what’s on their list.

>> Because voicemail - yeah, they’ve never heard of that before. :wink:
>
> he.
>
> Nor me :slight_smile:
> I don’t think my phone company offers that service. Not sure.

Google Voice here. I use it for my cell phone’s voice mail.

Which is nice, because when one of these scumbags calls me, I add it to
the “block” list, and they get the “this number has been disconnected”
message the next time they call.

Except that they illegally spoof caller ID (because how are you going
to prosecute them if you have fake CID information that originates over
Skype and from outside the country?), so unless they use the same CID
more than once, they won’t get the message. It’s still satisfying to
do that, though. :slight_smile:

Jim

Hi
Since they wear headsets, whistles or compressed air horns also work
well. But we have no land line now, only had a couple to my cell phone.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-11-desktop
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19

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 23:53:26 +0000, malcolmlewis wrote:

> Hi Since they wear headsets, whistles or compressed air horns also work
> well. But we have no land line now, only had a couple to my cell phone.

That’s the nice thing about the “number has been disconnected” message -
it’s the same one the phone company uses, and it has three very loud
tones before the announcement. AIUI, those tones actually are
supposedly used by autodialers to remove disconnected numbers from call
lists, too (in order to cut down on “useless” calls).

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

20

Google Voice here. I use it for my cell phone’s voice mail.

Which is nice, because when one of these scumbags calls me, I add it to
the “block” list, and they get the “this number has been disconnected”
message the next time they call.

Except that they illegally spoof caller ID (because how are you going to
prosecute them if you have fake CID information that originates over
Skype and from outside the country?), so unless they use the same CID
more than once, they won’t get the message. It’s still satisfying to do
that, though. :slight_smile:

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

I know people who have used them for entertainment, deliberately prolonging the conversation and trying to frustrate them with silly comments and questions, before finally announcing that they don’t own a computer,…or that they use Linux :slight_smile: