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I am currently dealing with a scammer.
He activated three computers on the internet and ran them for 8 months. His license agreement allows two computers.
Apparently one of the three no longer works so he emailed me to get my help getting it re-activated.
I told him what I tell everyone. Our records show you still have two computers activated. Your license allows two computers. If you de-activate one of those two, you can re-activate the one that stopped working. I'm very polite in case the customer doesn't still have two computers activated due to hard drive failure/overzealous reformat polices at institutions/plain human forgetfulness.
I usually get an explanation from the customer at this point. If the explanation makes sense I give them another activation. JFTR, most of the time it makes sense.
This guy went in the wrong direction.
"You told me one of the three computers I activated isn't working. I don't understand. What does that mean?"
I pondered a bit because it sure looked to me as if he just asked me if 3-1=2. I tried to find another possibility.
Ah, perhaps he is asking how I know one of the three computers isn't working. Except he told me that himself when he first emailed me. So that's not it.
The only possibility left is the "But I Don't Understand" game, wherein a scammer keeps asking for clarification to very simple information to the point where you go nutty and give them what they want so they go away.
Anyway I gave him the benefit of the doubt and re-worded my previous reply in a much simpler fashion. It was a challenge simplifying it without making it seem I was calling him a moron, but I did it.
He wrote back. The first line of the email was:
"You said I activated on three different computers. What does that mean?"
Yeah. No doubts about it. He's playing the game.
So I wrote back. The first line of my reply was:
"I apologize that I don't understand your first question..."
I can play too.
He activated three computers on the internet and ran them for 8 months. His license agreement allows two computers.
Apparently one of the three no longer works so he emailed me to get my help getting it re-activated.
I told him what I tell everyone. Our records show you still have two computers activated. Your license allows two computers. If you de-activate one of those two, you can re-activate the one that stopped working. I'm very polite in case the customer doesn't still have two computers activated due to hard drive failure/overzealous reformat polices at institutions/plain human forgetfulness.
I usually get an explanation from the customer at this point. If the explanation makes sense I give them another activation. JFTR, most of the time it makes sense.
This guy went in the wrong direction.
"You told me one of the three computers I activated isn't working. I don't understand. What does that mean?"
I pondered a bit because it sure looked to me as if he just asked me if 3-1=2. I tried to find another possibility.
Ah, perhaps he is asking how I know one of the three computers isn't working. Except he told me that himself when he first emailed me. So that's not it.
The only possibility left is the "But I Don't Understand" game, wherein a scammer keeps asking for clarification to very simple information to the point where you go nutty and give them what they want so they go away.
Anyway I gave him the benefit of the doubt and re-worded my previous reply in a much simpler fashion. It was a challenge simplifying it without making it seem I was calling him a moron, but I did it.
He wrote back. The first line of the email was:
"You said I activated on three different computers. What does that mean?"
Yeah. No doubts about it. He's playing the game.
So I wrote back. The first line of my reply was:
"I apologize that I don't understand your first question..."
I can play too.
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