You Stupid Woman!
I just got a call from Ben, who is either a microsoft service engineer or these guys...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres
And yes, I probably went further along the primrose path with him than I'm comfortable with, because... well because I *am* used to Indian accents telling me how to fix computer problems and being almost incapable of going off-script to answer questions. So I ended up talking to him for quite a long time --
AFTER I'd pulled the internet connection from my computer.
The thing that slightly convinced was that HE CALLED BACK. My brother took the first call, we were just about to eat, and he's worse with accents than I am and hates anything technical about computers, so he told the guy to call back. When he did he handed me the phone to take care of it.
Ben knew our name. Ben told me that microsoft's spyware had been getting a host of critical error reports and this was a courtesy call to help us fix the problem. Ben told me to turn on my computer and I'd see. And I wandered off to the laptop while asking him why my anti-virus software hadn't caught this and why windows hadn't told me it was sending the error messages -- because that's what it does when ebay collapses IE (which happens fairly regularly)... He kept saying this was a really new virus and would shut down my system within days.
Problematically it isn't *my* computer so I felt obliged to listen.
I turned on the computer, went to the event log files in windows which he said would be full of red and yellow warnings -- unluckily for Ben there were very few, and many of them were quite old, and reading a couple of warnings they seemed to be fairly mild happenings (like reporting that I've closed down the wireless again... I don't run wireless). I told Ben this. He tried to show me worse... but again was somewhat foiled because I run a happy ship. I pointed out that there were more yellows and a couple of reds early this year and no one had called me and my computer had not died a horrible death. He got growly and told me he could show me corrupted files.
During this I had pulled the ethernet connection and was off-line.
I repeated that I hadn't had any trouble with my computer, and if I'd had corrupted files then there would be problems. Wouldn't there? He told me that I had lots of software on my computer and it would all be corrupted from running with corrupted files. Then I asked him if he could, since he could see the error messages, tell me something about my computer that would reassure me he was who he said he was -- because it sounded a lot like he was trying to scare me.
I have trust issues. Sometimes that means that even when I am sure I should just say no I doubt myself for doubting the other person. What if Ben's assurance that he had all my error messages but didn't know which flavour of Windows I was running was semi-competance rather than a lie? What if tomorrow the laptop dies and I've turned away help because I'm an 'untrusting bitch'? (Which is a quote from someone who knows me better than Ben).
So I asked him what steps he'd be taking me through to fix the problem.
He blanked.
I asked again. In case it was a language problem.
He called me a stupid woman. He told me that my computer would die and it would be my fault. He told me he couldn't waste any more time on me. And hung-up.
I wish I could say I felt victorious.
What I felt was sure I'd done right. But not sure if there wasn't some evil magic by which he could already have done the computer harm (well yes I *know* it's unlikely but... MAGIC BOX!!!).
I feel better having Googled, apparantly they get you to go to a website and download software. (I can think of some sweet ways to do that prior to the cold call but I'm not these guys).
But I figure it doesn't hurt for me to tell the world that these blokes are out there, that they may have a connection to Microsoft (or be using the telephone directory) and that Microsoft's real response to people attempting to take money and install malware in their name is the advice that they NEVER call anyone so -- HANG UP THE PHONE!
Anyhow, just in case one of you gets a call from Ben... tell him from me that he's an evil bugger and just because you victimise people over the phone and computer it doesn't make you a better person than anyone else demanding money with menaces.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres
And yes, I probably went further along the primrose path with him than I'm comfortable with, because... well because I *am* used to Indian accents telling me how to fix computer problems and being almost incapable of going off-script to answer questions. So I ended up talking to him for quite a long time --
AFTER I'd pulled the internet connection from my computer.
The thing that slightly convinced was that HE CALLED BACK. My brother took the first call, we were just about to eat, and he's worse with accents than I am and hates anything technical about computers, so he told the guy to call back. When he did he handed me the phone to take care of it.
Ben knew our name. Ben told me that microsoft's spyware had been getting a host of critical error reports and this was a courtesy call to help us fix the problem. Ben told me to turn on my computer and I'd see. And I wandered off to the laptop while asking him why my anti-virus software hadn't caught this and why windows hadn't told me it was sending the error messages -- because that's what it does when ebay collapses IE (which happens fairly regularly)... He kept saying this was a really new virus and would shut down my system within days.
Problematically it isn't *my* computer so I felt obliged to listen.
I turned on the computer, went to the event log files in windows which he said would be full of red and yellow warnings -- unluckily for Ben there were very few, and many of them were quite old, and reading a couple of warnings they seemed to be fairly mild happenings (like reporting that I've closed down the wireless again... I don't run wireless). I told Ben this. He tried to show me worse... but again was somewhat foiled because I run a happy ship. I pointed out that there were more yellows and a couple of reds early this year and no one had called me and my computer had not died a horrible death. He got growly and told me he could show me corrupted files.
During this I had pulled the ethernet connection and was off-line.
I repeated that I hadn't had any trouble with my computer, and if I'd had corrupted files then there would be problems. Wouldn't there? He told me that I had lots of software on my computer and it would all be corrupted from running with corrupted files. Then I asked him if he could, since he could see the error messages, tell me something about my computer that would reassure me he was who he said he was -- because it sounded a lot like he was trying to scare me.
I have trust issues. Sometimes that means that even when I am sure I should just say no I doubt myself for doubting the other person. What if Ben's assurance that he had all my error messages but didn't know which flavour of Windows I was running was semi-competance rather than a lie? What if tomorrow the laptop dies and I've turned away help because I'm an 'untrusting bitch'? (Which is a quote from someone who knows me better than Ben).
So I asked him what steps he'd be taking me through to fix the problem.
He blanked.
I asked again. In case it was a language problem.
He called me a stupid woman. He told me that my computer would die and it would be my fault. He told me he couldn't waste any more time on me. And hung-up.
I wish I could say I felt victorious.
What I felt was sure I'd done right. But not sure if there wasn't some evil magic by which he could already have done the computer harm (well yes I *know* it's unlikely but... MAGIC BOX!!!).
I feel better having Googled, apparantly they get you to go to a website and download software. (I can think of some sweet ways to do that prior to the cold call but I'm not these guys).
But I figure it doesn't hurt for me to tell the world that these blokes are out there, that they may have a connection to Microsoft (or be using the telephone directory) and that Microsoft's real response to people attempting to take money and install malware in their name is the advice that they NEVER call anyone so -- HANG UP THE PHONE!
Anyhow, just in case one of you gets a call from Ben... tell him from me that he's an evil bugger and just because you victimise people over the phone and computer it doesn't make you a better person than anyone else demanding money with menaces.