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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.
I've told my parents so many times not to click on links in an email.....now you're telling me to send them a link and have them click on it?
Crap, i clicked on it.
Last time I got one of these I was in a playful mood and pretended to be an illiterate, however I answered their questions like I was using a VAX via a green screen VT-100 terminal. Took them 15 minutes to say - "aaah, we are sorry, we don't support that". Especially when they asked me what is the key on the left of Alt and I told them I don't have an "Alt" but a "line feed".
I suspect you've edited that transcript, as it appears to be missing the five minutes straight of laughing.
Recently discussing this with friends we came to the conclusion that the best approach would be:
State that your girlfriend/wife is the main user of that computer.
Get increasingly angry that "she" has broken it
Say she's just come home and you'll be back in 2 minutes - you need to talk to her
Go into another room, shout, make some loud banging noises then go silent.
On the phone say "oh god what have I done" repeatedly. Maybe cry.
Once they hang up, carry on as normal.
Windows are a horrible magnet because they're glass.
FTFY
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Even more epic fail, I've worked on the MS campus a lot, and in fact installed much of the security hardware. I take them on a mental tour of the campus, trying to get them to tell me what building they're supposedly working in, ask them whether the Ms Pacman machine is still in that stairwell, etc. It can be fun.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin