My computer is being hacked ! ! !

[Ed Pawlowski]

I got a phone call that my computer was being hacked. The nice man on the other end though, said he can help me fix it.

I told him I was horrified and upset and suggested maybe we should call the police. He said no need, he could help. Computer Guy (CG) was so nice.

CG Is your computer on? me no, do you want me to start it CG Yes, turn it on me (long pause) OK the light is on CG What do you see? me The screen just came up with Windows 95 CG (audible gasp) How old is your computer me about 15 years. Works great, very fast CG what do you see now? me I think we should pray CG for what? to who? me to the spirits of computers. They can help. I started a chant of some sort and called up on the sprits for help CG Do you see the Control Key? me I went on for a couple of minutes and he wanted me to press the key with my finger. I asked what finger, etc. CG did you type it? Now press enter me Ok. Oh, my screen went black CG Anything happen? me yes, it is black. Let me light some incense for more prayer CG (after about a minute) Anything? me The incense it burning. Let me pray again. GC (after another minute) what is happening me Still black what do I do now CG I can connect you with our engineer. He will help you and it will cost from $99 to $199 depending on what he has to do. me OK, but pray with me first CG click, hung up

I've since heard of two businesses that got caught in this scam. One was $2000, the other was $10,000, but most was taken care of by the CC company after about 6 months of hassle.

[philoÂÂ]

I've heard of such phone calls from my friends.

For years I waited and finally they called me the other day.

I really would have loved to play games with them but I just hung up.

[Ralph Mowery]

I got a call like that and had some fun with the caller. He said something about a blue screen and I told him my screen had all kinds of collors. Blue, red, green, yellow. Lead him on for a while and he said something about the computer not being secure,so I told him I needed to go to the hardware store and get some bolts and bolt it to the table. Then hung up on him. I may have played with him longer ,but his english was not too good and I had a hard time trying to understand him.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I got one of these calls a few months ago but didn't manage to keep him occupied for long. My wife took a similar call recently when I wasn't home and simply hung up on him, unfortunately.

Perce

[Dan Espen]

You must live a charmed life. Before I started using Nomorobo, I got at least 5, maybe 10 calls.

For a while, I'd string them along, then I started calling them idiots. There is no "Windows" here, only Linux.

[philoÂÂ]

yeah, I use Linux too, so it would have been fun

I also use Nomorobo and it does a good job, but cannot get them all

[Todd]

These guys?

Seems a little too good to be true: There's no charge for consumers to use Nomorobo. No strings attached.

Those stupid robo calls waste so much of my time at the business, it drives me nuts.

Are you guys using POTS (plain old telephone service) or VoIP?

-T

[philoÂÂ]

Got rid of my POTS when I had my Internet upgraded from DSL.

I'm now using AT&T VoIP and nomorobo really does help.

If I get a robo call that's on their "block" list the phone rings once and they kill it.

I am now in the habit of hanging up (for any other calls) if I say "hello" and don't get an immediate response. I think only once did I hang up on a legit caller.

If there is a repeat number that keeps getting through, it can be reported to nomorobo and/or put in the AT&T "blocked" list.

[Dan Espen]

Hope you use the Nomorobo dashboard to report numbers.

I like to keep telemarketers on the line as I type in their data. Waste their time while they are forcing me to waste time.

[Dan Espen]

If you would read a little further, you would see how they make money.

There are no strings attached.

Verizon FIOS Digital voice. It works with any provider that allows for a secondary ring.

All you have to do is try to sign up. Nomorobo will tell you what works and what doesn't.

[notbob]

What is she suffering from? ;)

nb

[micky]

IIUC, you can keep your phone number when you go to voip.

But what if you leave one voip and to something else, and what if you eventually go back to POTS or Fios? CAn you just keep transferring the same number over and over with no large charge to transfer???

[philoÂÂ]

Since I stayed with AT&T not only did I keep my same phone number, there was no charge

If I went with another company than AT&T....I have no idea

[Ed Pawlowski]

Obviously poor eyesight.

[Todd]

Maybe I am blind. Still missing it.

[gregz]

Once, comcast sent me an email saying I had a computer problem. I guess I corrected the problem.

When the W2K fiasco happened about 11 years ago, my work computer got hit, and my then new boss gave me crap about that.

I was once running open FTP on a privater network. The movie gods found it, started uploading movies. Once the movie was loaded, other users started downloading from my computer. Luckily I found that out. At least I got one movie out of it. It was face-off.

Greg

[Todd]

Hi Ed,

I am constantly getting calls from customers about these kinds of scams (criminal activity). "But they sound so real and isn't Microsoft's tech support out of India?"

I have to tell my customers to think about it. "You wouldn't have much of a career as a criminal if you didn't have an honest face." Some still don't get it, but at least they believe me when I tell them this is criminal activity.

-T

[Ed Pawlowski]

I'm amazed at how long they stay on the phone and listen to my nonsense. I can only imagine that they get a lot of flustered elderly people so as outlandish as my reply is, they really hear stuff like that.

If it didn't work, they would not be calling.

[Roger Blake]

I had some fun stringing one of those along. The "technician" on the other end was utterly clueless about what was going on even when I started reading stuff saying "Ubuntu Linux" from the screen. They then got a "senior technician" on the line, he finally figured out in about 15 minutes or so that he wasn't dealing with a Windows system and made up some crap about my having to take the computer to someone local in order to "fix" it.

Another one called more recently but I didn't have time to play, so I just hung up on them.

[Todd]

I am a Linux shop too.

Though you guys would like this quote:

When you say, "I wrote a program that crashed Windows," people just stare at you blankly and say, "Hey, I got those with the system, for free." - Linus Torvalds