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Phone scam


jim r

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I just had a phone call from " Jennifer" telling me I had massive probs with people hacking into my computer. Almost got sucked in untill my wife started beating me about the head and telling me how stupid I was for listening to her. She was very believable and subtle, managed to get a phone number out of her and when I googled it turns out to be repair zone representing Microsoft. :oops:

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We've had them 3 times now. It's kinda fun leading them on, because we run linux, so the stuff they tell you to do doesn't work.

My hubby had one of them going for absolutely ages until he got bored (hubby that is). His theory is the longer he wastes their time, the less people they can scam :dunno:

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Yea I've had them call me before. As soon as I pickup the phone they were like "OMGGGG! we are receiving huge amount of errors from your windows, we must help you troubleshoot right now!!!!", I'll admit I was somewhat gullible and thought for a few seconds that something did mess up, but then I realized the computers weren't even on how can they be getting any kind error spam from me? I told them the computers aren't even on, they say to turn it on "so we can fix it right now! it's killing your internetz and you will get hacked". At this point I was really suspicious, but just wen't with the convo anyway. Eventually they just kept evading the question of "what company do you even work for" when I finally got their answer (microsoft) I got bored with it and hung up. Next time I'd like to see how long I can keep them on the line for.

I think the phone text scam is a lot worse though. The ones that tell you to enter your phone number to get IQ test results or something. My dad fell for it once. Basically in the fine print of the terms and conditions, it automatically opts you in to receive daily 'joke' texts that charge you like $5 each time. There's a helpline number, but when you call it will just always say the line is busy and put you on hold forever. Vodafone wouldn't do anything to stop them so they just kept charging for this 'service'. In the end I think my dad found the terms and conditions again, and found that he could text "STOP" to a certain number to cancel it. THe reason why I think this scam is way worse is that if someone was malicious, they could enter someone else's number eg. someone they don't like, and since there's no confirmation, the victim would not even know what the heck was happening.

I really hate scams of any sort. The gypsie looking people that I've seen around some shopping centers asking for donations towards "world peace" seem to be scammers too. Real donation organisations would not be that unspecific about their cause, and usually wear badges, nametags, or carry sealed donation buckets. It's just such a shame that good honest people, especially the elderly are getting targeted and duped.

Don't lose faith in helping others, but just gotta be careful really. Ask them as many questions as possible about what their organisation does, what exactly would the money be paying for and make sure that you can get a receipt or other confirmation before donating any money. If a homeless person is asking for money, offer to buy them the food rather than giving the money so that you won't just be giving them cash to feed whatever habit they might be on.

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I really hate scams of any sort. The gypsie looking people that I've seen around some shopping centers asking for donations towards "world peace" seem to be scammers too. Real donation organisations would not be that unspecific about their cause, and usually wear badges, nametags, or carry sealed donation buckets. It's just such a shame that good honest people, especially the elderly are getting targeted and duped.

They're still probably not as bad as the hand lotion/nail treatment people in the middle of shopping centers. Every time I go to Botany or Sylvia Park I want to quickly run away. I may have been talked in to buying expensive nail treatment, cuticle oil and a nail file that made my nails super shiny. It wasn't until I left that I remembered at the time I was a chronic nail biter, so I had nothing much to use said products on haha. They employ amazing sales people, the best i've ever come across. Since then I have learnt to say no (although it did turn out to be pretty awesome stuff when I did grow my nails). Not exactly a scam, but they could talk anyone out of their money because so many people find it so hard to say no!

They should ban those setups, along with any dodgy looking fundraisers, and those tax refund people that pop up at the beginning of every year that take a huge cut from people!

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They're still probably not as bad as the hand lotion/nail treatment people in the middle of shopping centers. Every time I go to Botany or Sylvia Park I want to quickly run away. I may have been talked in to buying expensive nail treatment, cuticle oil and a nail file that made my nails super shiny. It wasn't until I left that I remembered at the time I was a chronic nail biter, so I had nothing much to use said products on haha. They employ amazing sales people, the best i've ever come across. Since then I have learnt to say no (although it did turn out to be pretty awesome stuff when I did grow my nails). Not exactly a scam, but they could talk anyone out of their money because so many people find it so hard to say no!

They should ban those setups, along with any dodgy looking fundraisers, and those tax refund people that pop up at the beginning of every year that take a huge cut from people!

Oh yea, I run a mile from those. But at least they're not actually scams, just sales people who are really good at weaseling money out of you. I've you've ever been to shopping centers in asia, you do get more used to them and learn how to say no. They're probably all on commission based pay, hence why they're so in your face with every sale.

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Oh yea, I run a mile from those. But at least they're not actually scams, just sales people who are really good at weaseling money out of you. I've you've ever been to shopping centers in asia, you do get more used to them and learn how to say no. They're probably all on commission based pay, hence why they're so in your face with every sale.

If you want to learn to say no spend a week in Marrakech or the like

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