Scam or what?

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Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

...the poor sods on the other end are only trying to scrape a living. I'm sure they would rather be doing something more honest, but they have children to feed and needs must.

Blimey, you're in a good mood this morning! :)

Sorry, but I can't agree; the 'poor sods' could as easily be stealing millions of pounds as part of a commercial scale organised-crime operation and inflicting totally unnecessary suffering on completely innocent victims...

...and I doubt many of us are insured against this sort of cyber-crime?

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

All interesting stuff, I am sure, but I still haven't read anything which would persuade me of the merits of answering the call let alone wasting time on it, if I did.:)

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

I don't have any means, on my landline, of knowing who is calling before I pick up the phone, usually callers get about five seconds to identify themselves to my satisfaction or I hang-up; I waste the time of the 'Microsoft' scam calls purely as a public service (and to satisfy the evil side of my split-personality)!

One interesting thing about the call in the original post; the scammer knew Jim's name, surname, e-mail address and telephone number! That sounds a bit more serious than the random 'Microsoft' calls that don't even know your name usually and are just ringing random UK numbers in the hope they get somebody with a PC on the line.

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

Ah so no visual display. Well worth the negligible cost of such a receiver.

Yes that was my thought that the thread has rather wandered away, as is normal practice, from the OP's point and the apparent seriousness of it. Hence my original comment.

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

There is probably nothing to stop 'scammers' buying the sort of information that legitimate companies buy to better target their cold-calls; I bought an extra piece of car insurance over the internet recently and since then my mobile number has been bombarded with texts informing me (correctly) that I was recently involved in a road accident and that I could sue for damages if I had been injured...

...the funny thing is, I never give out my mobile number when I buy stuff!

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

The truth I suspect is that there is little or no information about us which is not legally or illegally available to those with the wherewithal to obtain it.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

I agree entirley with you Chas. But God help the next call, should there be one, I now have my old Police Whistle next to the phone, I'll give the sods some ear ache.:D
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

Had one and when he said he was from Microsoft we need to sort out your PC...

I said, "but I can't understand that as I don't own a PC", that stumped him...