The "Windows" Scammers

[Racket_Man]

I kept hearing that there were people hit with false positives with that system and I'm sure there were, but I never met one.

happened to me once with a PC that had Windows Vista on it. happened 3 or 4 years ago.

the machine had apparently just gotten a Windows update and it started throwing up "Illegal copy" errors for some reason. basically shut down the machine. I had to call Micro$oft and go through a bunch of steps with me going into stuff I had NO idea of, reading off strings of letters and numbers to the guy on the phone. They had me enter a "new" validation serial number (different from the one on the side of my machine) to re-up my copy of Vista.

[An Haddock]

I'd guess it's a bill collector. I've had a series of them calling me for some time, asking for "James or John Something". Sorry, no James here, no John, this isn't the Something household, etc.

The most recent call, I spoke with the agent. James or John Something apparently live in my apartment complex. I'm not entirely sure how in the hell they have my number to give out, and I sure as hell don't know them. (~400 units in this complex.)

They might get the street address but not the apartment number and just do a reverse-address search and call the first person they find. Once in a while we get a call for the woman who lives upstairs from our business. It's just the two of us with the same street address but with a 1st floor and 2nd floor. I just tell them she's not at this number but if I got into it, I'm thinking it's someone trying to sell her something. So whoever is trying to get her probably just punched the address into Google or whitepages.com and our phone number is the one that came up.

As for Jay Winger, I agree it's probably a bill collector - I'm sure people give false names and info all the time so they probably just ignore voice mail messages, assuming that whoever left it is trying to duck them with a fake name.

I used to keep a list of solicitor phone numbers in hopes that they might call back after being told not to, but over time I stopped keeping track. With all these Windows scammers and now a new inundation of people trying to sell me credit card processing, I might have to start doing it again.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I did consider that the calls for Tom Wotzisname were bill collectors, but the voicemail that was left for him seemed to suggest it was more like some kind of security company trying to alert him about something.

In which case I really hope they do get in touch with him. But if the calls for Tom keep coming, then I'll load up to let them have it with both barrels for harassing me.

[MadMike]

Yup, it was for Tom Wotzisname again. Which I don't understand because my voicemail message very clearly states "Hi, you've reached the mailbox for Jay Winger, please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you."

Simply stated, people don't listen. I had a similar problem when I was in my first apartment. I had all kinds of people calling my number by mistake and leaving messages for people who weren't me. So I changed my greeting to something like, "Hi this is Mike. I'm not available to take your call, but if you leave a message I'll get back to you." I still got messages that went something like, "Hi, (name that's not mine), this is so-and-so. Call me back as soon as you get this."

I even tried changing it to something like, "Hi, I'm not available. If you're calling for Mike, leave me a message and I'll get back to you. If you're calling for someone other than Mike, then you have the wrong number. Sorry." Problem solved, right? If only...

[Argabarga]

My machine also started throwing that annoying "NOT GENUINE!" error, right after a combo firefox/adobe update. As long as it goes away when I click the box, I'm in no hurry to fix it, this machine's due for the scrap heap pretty soon anyway.

I can feel the pain of persistent bill collectors who don't listen/believe the deadbeat they're looking for is NOT you.

I had one a few years back when I lived at a rental property who called looking for "Chris" and I'd flat out tell them "Sorry, I'm not him, he must've been the previous tenant, this is an apartment". And without exception, the lady would say "Oh, well, where is he now?"

Really? REALLY?

I DON'T KNOW HIM! I'm just guessing he's the guy who used to live here, stop calling me, you won't get YOUR money from ME. And then, the very next day, we got to do it all again. It only stopped when I left, for all I know, they're bugging the guy who lives there now about where "Chris" moved off to.


Then there was the time craigslist mislisted a doctor's office as my number. And some of these people were adamant, ADAMANT that they had reached the appointments line, and not some guy's apartment because they got the number OFF THE INTERNET! and the internet can't be wrong!!!! For the ones that were gracious and apologetic, I gave them the real number which was written down closeby. For the ones insisting I was punkin' them, they got a dial tone.


THere's a lone company cell at work that we only use for the installed apps that let us use GPS and search the ticket/tow database by license plate, see if the cars we tow in have anything outstanding on them.

It is NOT used to call anyone, and it's number, whatever it is, is unlisted. It's strictly app only.

About 6 months back, it started getting calls from a number in Colorado. Naturally, we didn't answer them and this thing doesn't have a voicemail set up. It reached the point that 4 times or more a day someone from that area code was trying to call us, and just didn't get the hint.

The eventually gave up.

And peace returned, for a week.

Now it's getting multiple calls daily from some number in Florida..... again, no idea who it is because if I answer it, they might just flag it as "good" and call even more.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I'm sure there have probably been other attempted calls for Tom Wotzisname (or others) that I don't know about.

Those calls, however, probably come during the week when I'm at work... which means my cell phone is shut off and in my car. (No personal electronic devices allowed inside The Client.) So any calls would go straight to voicemail.

However, since they don't leave them, they presumably therefore just hang up and flag the number as "bad."

[Shalom]

Years ago my phone number was one digit off the VA Hospital in Buffalo. That was fun.

For a while, my answering machine started "Hi, you have reached the ******** residence. If you want the VA hospital, please hang up, put on your glasses, and dial 716-834-xxxx..."

(ETA: I just googled my old number, and apparently it's now a dentist's office number. I wonder how many calls THEY get for the VA.)

[Sheldonrs]

Years ago my phone number was one digit off the VA Hospital in Buffalo. That was fun.

For a while, my answering machine started "Hi, you have reached the ******** residence. If you want the VA hospital, please hang up, put on your glasses, and dial 716-834-xxxx..."

(ETA: I just googled my old number, and apparently it's now a dentist's office number. I wonder how many calls THEY get for the VA.)

When I live in San Jose, CA, my phone# was one digit off of American Airlines.
I got calls at all hours. The nice people got told they had the wrong number. Anyone that got nasty got me taking their "reservation" info.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Our phone number is one digit away from a local crisis hotline. Fortunately we don't get calls for them very often.

[MadMike]

Our phone number is one digit away from a local crisis hotline. Fortunately we don't get calls for them very often.

Mine was a digit off from the local rape crisis center. I didn't get that many calls for that either, but the few that I did... not fun.

[mjr]

I had a phone number once where in the last four numbers, the first two and last two were transposed from the local bowling center. I'd get an occasional call, but not bad, all in all.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just got off the phone with a "Windows Support" scammer. I kept him on the phone for many minutes, going to his web site (safeme.us) and downloading his program (but not running it). He kept wanting me to click on open file, but Firefox did not give me that option. He then sent me to the support.me web site and tried to get me to give him remote access to my computer, which I found out is what the a1.exe program was for. I declined, told I was getting bored and that I knew it was a scam. Amid his protestations I hung up on him.

[retro]

Our phone number is one digit away from a local crisis hotline. Fortunately we don't get calls for them very often.

A friend of mine had a number one digit different from the benefits office and she was fed up with people calling up demanding to know where their giro (read: welfare cheque) was. Some were really abusive too and weren't prepared to listen to her lies about it being a wrong number.

Then a friend was at her place and picked up the phone. When the caller started demanding to know where their cheque was, he replied calmly: "How did you get this number Sir? No. No. This number definitely isn't listed. I ask again. How did you get this number? We are a government service who are unlisted in any phone books. How did you get this number? Okay, we've traced the call. We'll be sending someone to your address now. Good day, Sir."

The icing on the cake was he called the number back five minutes later, hid the number and just said "Get out. Get out now. Get out while you still can!"

[drjonah]

A long time ago, my parents number was two digits different then the Hilton hotel. Normally not a big deal unless a hotel customer called information for the hotel number (this was back when you always got an operator at 411). Well most of the operators would give the customer the number for the hotel as XXX - SIXTY FORTY but a lot of customers would misunderstand it as XXX - SIXTEEN FORTY and call my parents house at all hours of the day and night.

My parents were stubborn and refused to change their number so my dad called the Hilton and told them to change their number or my parents would start taking reservations. Needless to say the calls stopped very soon after that.

[Gizmo]

My landline is the same as the local Citizens Advice if you don't dial the area code - which for them is a premium/0845 number. Only had the landline a few weeks and had a couple of confused but strangely intelligent callers...