"Windows Technical Department"

I will not answer the phone unless I know who is calling. If it is important they can leave a message & I will call them back!

I get a lot of calls, 2 years on, for the person who had our phone number before it was allocated to us. I wish I knew where Mrs Hopcroft was!

I am afraid that I have no problem with being rude to cold callers.
Often you can detect that they are problem callers when you answer the phone and there is no immediate response. After the second unanswered hello I just put the phne down.
If I actually get to talk to one of them I ask who they are and what firm they are working for. I then inform them that we have not requested a call from them and hag up!
They seem to have mostly got the message that they will get nowhere with me!!!

Anyway why do you not use a decent operating system that does not get viruses etc???

I have had my credit card provider call me before and I have refused to provide any details, hung up and rung the number I have back...always using a different phone (mobile) than they called on. Turns out it was a genuine call but they praised me for being wary.
Better safe than sorry!!
It is silent calls that I hate, especially is you are in the garden and come all the way in to answer a call from no one.

Yes you have, Frank and as I think you know well, this is a scam operated by people who don't know who has and who hasn't a computer. They work from some kind of list or from the phone book.

I think I have posted this on gransnet before but I was doing a bit of work at an elderly lady's house and she was finding something for me.
Her phone rang and I answered it at her request.
The caller said there were viruses in her laptop.
I could not understand how this could be true as she did not have a laptop.

Frank

My daughter, normally as very sensible 25 year old received one of these calls in the evening, and after a bad day, was feeling quite vulnerable (her job exposes her to some quite unpleasant folks, but there she has back-up etc). Once she realised it was a scam call (not always easy at the end of a long day) she was suddenly submitted to some very nasty abuse that seemed personal. In the cold light of day she soon realised they could have no knowledge of her and were probably half way around the world but, it upset her and would certainly cause distress to any less clued up individual.

P.S. there are other scams around that use the phone......they tell you to check with your bank/other financial organisation and although you phone the number you have on your records, they take the gamble you will do this very promptly and have not ended the call at their end.....so you find yourself talking to the fraudster.

Nonu, if carried through this scam defrauds people of hundreds of pounds and gives the fraudsters remote access to all the contents of your computer. They succeed often enough to make it worth their while to absorb the phone call charges from India - it's a very lucrative operation for them. When I have challenged callers I have variously been told that I will get my face slashed, that I should kill myself and that I should be locked up in a 'mental asylum'.
My usual response to a call is to listen to their lies for a few minutes and then tell them that if I was their mother I would be very disappointed at what they do for a living.

When these calls first started a few years ago I rang BT (my provider) and asked them about it as the caller had told me my computer had downloaded an illegal file.

The BT expert told me there is no way anyone can tell what your computer has downloaded unless they have access to it and do a search. His advice was if someone rings out of the blue and tells you there is something wrong with your computer to just hang up and if you think it necessary take the computer to a local IT expert and ask him to check it out.

Earn a crust? They are trying to steal more than crusts, they want to take as much bread as they can, any way they can.

There is no such thing as a Windows Technical Department, or in fact a windows computer, as Windows do not make computers, so from the very start they are working under false pretences. Then they tell you lies when they say that they have detected that your computer has been infiltrated, as they can't detect that you even have a computer let alone anything about it.

Then they get their victim who knows nothing about the innards of their PC to poke about in the works, changing settings to their security and allowing them to access their files. They follow up by persuading them to sign up with them for a fake "maintenance contract" for which the scammers can take money from their bank account - and come back again and again.

If someone did the same in person, you would call the police, not send them on their way politely with an indulgent smile.

I think you are stirring it, pretending to think they are harmless, Nonu

Actually they are trying to rip people off - not trying to earn a crust. They either want you to give them remote access to your computer, so they can get details of your bank etc. or try to sell you a very expensive unnecessary piece of software.

If they are genuine why do they call themselves "Windows Technical Department" and why will they not give you their phone number?

I just tell them in apolite manner that I am too busy at the moment.

After all , they are just trying to earn a crust. Bless

We find the 'Caller Id' service sorts most of these out....a small price to pay we think!

Apart from that, just remember they are fishing and have no idea who they are phoning or if you do or do not have a computer.

They are a nuisance arent they. I always tell them I don't have a computer which, seeing as we have, between us, one laptop, one netbook, two tablets and two smartphones, is being a little economical with the truth. However, as they have disturbed me by phoning, I don't really see a problem with fibbing to them, haha.