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65,000 Complaints Later, Microsoft Files Suit Against Tech Support Scammers
MojoKid (1002251) writes Tech support scammers have been around for a long time and are familiar to most Slashdot readers. But last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had issued lawsuits against several culprits responsible for tech support scams. Now Microsoft has announced that it too is going after tech support scammers. According to the company, more than 65,000 complaints have been made about tech support scams since May of this year alone. Bogus technicians, pretending to represent Microsoft, call the house offering fake tech support and trick people into paying hundreds of dollars to solve a non-existent issue. If successful in their ruse, the scammer then gains access to a person's computer, which lets them steal personal and financial information and even install malware.
I managed to keep one of these guys on the phone for about 20 minutes while I stumbled through his directions, over and over, "rebooting," pretending to be using Windows, etc; the next one caught on more quickly. Have they called you? If so, how did the call go?
I usually say I have 25-30 computers, and ask them to tell me which one has the problem. Reasoning that they called me and must be able to know which unit it is. They will either be confused and pass me to the "next support level" or say it doesn't matter which unit I log in to. At that point I insist they tell me which unit it is. By this time they usually use some foul language and/or simply hang up. Mission accomplished.
That way any sales call in itself would be a felony if that special prefix is not displayed clearly.
Hey! We could stop crime by passing a law to make it illegal! That would definitely keep those criminals from calling.
Bonus points for going directly to making this a felony. I'm bothered by the stench of my neighbors' preparing fish head stew. Can that be a felony, too? What about if they paint their front door red? I hate that.
Rather than pointlessly inflating the number of felonies in this country, I suggest that you instead obtain a Google Voice number and start giving that out instead of your real number. With GV, you can mark callers as spammers and they will get a "number disconnected" tone if they call back. You can also block people so they go straight to voicemail while others ring through.
Smart scammers (but not these ones) would stop, as they are only wasting their own time calling someone they already know will not fall for their pitch.
Although that seems obvious, quite a lot of legitimate businesses, charities, politicians, etc., have quite a bit of trouble understanding it.
Your analogy misses the critical difference... A bum selling Rolexes on the street isn't a threat to the name or reputation of Rolex. If a jeweller claiming to be a Rolex authorised dealer was selling fake Rolexes as real, you'd better believe Rolex would be pressing charges, suing the living piss out of the shop, and working their PR department to save face. The issue isn't scammers, the issue is scammers claiming to represent MS, thereby harming MS.
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Until a local hospital calls you to let you know your kids got a broken leg...
I've seen people drive themselves to distraction with your logic. They start sweating when their phone gets to one bar, and refuse to go anywhere with no cell service. Or drive through long highway tunnels. And yet....... somehow we've been able to survive all this time without everyone having instant access to us.
Talk about your first world problems.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Most of these are little sweatshop ops out of India, China and Eastern Europe.
Microsoft can scream at the FTC all damn day. These guys, if caught, just uproot, disappear, and come back under another business name, registering new phone numbers, etc.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
The hospital will leave a &^*(^&$ message. A scammer/telemarketer/politician ... will not. I don't answer any calls not on my phone list. If it is not important enough to leave a message, It is not important enough for me to answer. My cell phone is for my convenience, not yours. Thank you.