This is India calling
Oct. 30th, 2012 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzThis morning I just received a phonecall from a not-very accented Indian telling me my PC was infected with spyware, claiming to be calling from the Microsoft Support Centre.
After telling this woman I was not running Windows on my PC (the thought!) I was promptly transferred to a manager, and then onward once more up the line.
Trust me, if you speak with an obvious Indian accent (and I worked in IT, so I can recognise it pretty well by now) and you claim to be called Ron Wilson I'm not going to buy into your story.
Never mind that not one of the three people I had on the other end of the line realised that I was telling them I was not running their operating system. They tried to just ignore whatever jibberish I was telling them, because of course they wanted to get me to relinquish command over my pc and let them remotely access it.
People remotely accessing my PC has freaked me out since I worked in IT and the tech guys needed to do it in order to fix my profile. It doesn't get better if you're on the other side of the world and it's clear you haven't the foggiest about what you're really doing. If I can outsmart you when it comes to your business, warning lights should start blinking.
Finally, I told "mr. Wilson" that we did not have a single Microsoft product in the house and I told him to open his browser, type "uniform bravo uniform november tango uniform" and hit enter. He promptly hung up when Google returned what 'Ubuntu' really is, although I doubt that meant anything to him and his 15 minutes per customer was up and he had nothing to show for it.
Things I learned:
- If someone calls you with an Indian accent, they might not just be calling to offer NoKey a job.
- When they tell me Scary StoryTM, it doesn't mean it's true.
- When they want to remotely access your PC, tell them to come to your front door. Hey, it's at least good for a laugh and it makes it easier to call the police if they do.
- NEVER ever press the Windows-key and then R. Ever. Especially when someone asks you to on the phone. There must be a reason why they really wanted me to do that. Maybe it makes the Dancing Baby appear on my screen, and that has always freaked me out.
- The fact that there is a Windows key on my keyboard doesn't mean it's a Windows PC. There aren't any keyboards for sale that don't have a Windows-key on it, unless it's a Macintosh (MacOS) keyboard. If you do happen find one in a store, let us know. NoKey wants one.
- If they can't or won't say where they got your number, how they got your personal information and are not listening to a word you're saying, chances are they're not really interested in the problem and they have an alterior motive.
- A website called windowssupport.in (in India) is suspicious. Also, NoKey is using his Whois genius to flag them with their ISP and have them taken down. All three websites they gave me. *evil grin*
- I kept them talking for a good 15 minutes, at least delaying their next harassment.
Never give your password out to strangers. Never let anyone access your computer remotely, even if they claim to be with your internet service provider. If your PC is a problem and has spyware, you will know and probably have already bought a new one because it's so slow. If your PC is sending malware and viruses, chances are your ISP has already noticed, cut you off and is telling you to fix it. If they do that over the phone, your internet is already turned off or running via a proxy, which you need to set up yourself. Some ISP's don't care, but most I know do.
Better safe than sorry.
ETA: They just called again. This is getting quite annoying. Apparantly, they've got our number from the complaints department and it's in their own database. When I told him we only have linux computers in the house, he said "it must be a wrong number". When I reminded him that he got it from his own database, he finally admitted he was looking for mr Aug. I told him to call back tonight, but he proceeded to proclaim it was all a mistake, really really, and finally he ended the call.
Let's keep a running tally, eh?
After telling this woman I was not running Windows on my PC (the thought!) I was promptly transferred to a manager, and then onward once more up the line.
Trust me, if you speak with an obvious Indian accent (and I worked in IT, so I can recognise it pretty well by now) and you claim to be called Ron Wilson I'm not going to buy into your story.
Never mind that not one of the three people I had on the other end of the line realised that I was telling them I was not running their operating system. They tried to just ignore whatever jibberish I was telling them, because of course they wanted to get me to relinquish command over my pc and let them remotely access it.
People remotely accessing my PC has freaked me out since I worked in IT and the tech guys needed to do it in order to fix my profile. It doesn't get better if you're on the other side of the world and it's clear you haven't the foggiest about what you're really doing. If I can outsmart you when it comes to your business, warning lights should start blinking.
Finally, I told "mr. Wilson" that we did not have a single Microsoft product in the house and I told him to open his browser, type "uniform bravo uniform november tango uniform" and hit enter. He promptly hung up when Google returned what 'Ubuntu' really is, although I doubt that meant anything to him and his 15 minutes per customer was up and he had nothing to show for it.
Things I learned:
- If someone calls you with an Indian accent, they might not just be calling to offer NoKey a job.
- When they tell me Scary StoryTM, it doesn't mean it's true.
- When they want to remotely access your PC, tell them to come to your front door. Hey, it's at least good for a laugh and it makes it easier to call the police if they do.
- NEVER ever press the Windows-key and then R. Ever. Especially when someone asks you to on the phone. There must be a reason why they really wanted me to do that. Maybe it makes the Dancing Baby appear on my screen, and that has always freaked me out.
- The fact that there is a Windows key on my keyboard doesn't mean it's a Windows PC. There aren't any keyboards for sale that don't have a Windows-key on it, unless it's a Macintosh (MacOS) keyboard. If you do happen find one in a store, let us know. NoKey wants one.
- If they can't or won't say where they got your number, how they got your personal information and are not listening to a word you're saying, chances are they're not really interested in the problem and they have an alterior motive.
- A website called windowssupport.in (in India) is suspicious. Also, NoKey is using his Whois genius to flag them with their ISP and have them taken down. All three websites they gave me. *evil grin*
- I kept them talking for a good 15 minutes, at least delaying their next harassment.
Never give your password out to strangers. Never let anyone access your computer remotely, even if they claim to be with your internet service provider. If your PC is a problem and has spyware, you will know and probably have already bought a new one because it's so slow. If your PC is sending malware and viruses, chances are your ISP has already noticed, cut you off and is telling you to fix it. If they do that over the phone, your internet is already turned off or running via a proxy, which you need to set up yourself. Some ISP's don't care, but most I know do.
Better safe than sorry.
ETA: They just called again. This is getting quite annoying. Apparantly, they've got our number from the complaints department and it's in their own database. When I told him we only have linux computers in the house, he said "it must be a wrong number". When I reminded him that he got it from his own database, he finally admitted he was looking for mr Aug. I told him to call back tonight, but he proceeded to proclaim it was all a mistake, really really, and finally he ended the call.
Let's keep a running tally, eh?
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no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 12:10 pm (UTC)Gawds they're dense!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 01:03 pm (UTC)Bob
no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 01:34 pm (UTC)Wkey - R is simply the 'run' command, it allows for command-line-stuff.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 06:05 pm (UTC)