Phone scams Options

[Qrbrrbl]

Just a quick heads-up. I doubt any of you tech-savvy people would actually fall for it, but always best to be aware

Just had a cold-caller on my landline (autodialler, takes a few seconds for them to pick up on the other end) from a woman claiming to be tech support for a company I couldnt quite understand. Possibly an Indian accent.

Basically, she tried to convince me I had viruses on my PC (which I know is bull, but I played along for a while).
She then had me run EventViewer and insisted that the "3,000 events" actually meant I had "3,000 viruses" on my PC. I ended up laughing her off at this point, but considering the various Warning/Error messages you get on Eventviewer I can see how this could easily fool anyone who isnt particularly PC-competent. I dont know what the next stages are (I had already wasted ten minutes arguing at this point) but I suspect it would be either a scam to gain information or some way of sending a "technician" to fix things at a premium.

Just be on guard anyway.

[MonkeyFiend]

it's a last FM 'music wot I like type sig'... lol, I've never heard of scammers trying to ring up pretending to be tech support before. I had a call today for 'market research' who I promptly hung up on (it became a problem in my old rented house when I obtained quotes from every solicitor in the area to find the cheapest - the cold calls started shortly after)

That sort of thing particularily peeves me, since I often work nightshift.

Aside from getting yourself of the telephone preference service (and the royal mail equiv that I can't remember the name of) you can also get BT to block these types of call - if at first they're reluctant with the cold calling/extorsion end of things you can always mention the threats that they make

With something as choice as these cold callers, it'd be handy to get their email/phone number and report it :-)