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.
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".
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.