Slashdot Mirror
Listen To a Microsoft Support Scam As It Happened
itwbennett writes You know full well that Microsoft will never call you and ask to "access your computer" to help fix a problem. Yet this is a ruse that many unsuspecting computer users fall for and wind up with their machine hacked. CSO writer Steve Ragan, turns the tables during a phone call with a scammer — and he records it all for us to hear. Do yourself a favor and play it for your parents.
Was it a "nice try"? And what's there to smile about? You have the criminal's attention for a few seconds — use it to communicate something harmful, something to cause them actual anguish. This is not a game — an asshole entering your home under such pretenses deserves to be shot to death, so do harm such people with words so much, they starts hating her job and become disinclined to do it.
If that's a woman, for example, tell her, that she'd been identified and cursed to never have children. Something along the lines of 4chan-hatred... No quarter
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I know you're saying that to be funny, but...
As this story points out, Windows is a horrible, horrible magnet for scams like this, and it's all too easy for scammers to take control over your machine. Plus, I generally find that Windows is more-or-less unusable. My wife and kid both have Macs, and my kid has a Windows laptop that our school district gives all the students. The students are trained on how to use Windows, and my daughter can't understand why "Windows makes it so hard to do stuff". So, Macs at home - I'm not scammed - they are superior machines in every way, and really not much more expensive than comparable computers. I also run Linux on a Mac Book Pro, because it's a better computer than 99% of the stuff out there.