Scam phone calls?

[grainsley]

The most frequent ones we get in Canada are heavy Chinese accents, "calling from Windows" to tell us we have a huge computer problem. I usually express my grave concern and say something like "can you hold a moment, I think I'll need a coffee to get through this?" They always say yes, I put the phone down and don't come back. If he is tied up, that's longer until his next annoying scam attempt. Or else I just tell them we recently had our windows cleaned and hang up. They keep trying though.....

We also get calls from various collection agencies, trying to track down the people who must have had our phone number previous to us....we have had it nine years now. Guess they were serious paper-hangers. They are clever with their attempts though, I give them that. We always try to make them commit to telling us what they know first, and give them nothing in return other than to tell them they won't find those people here. Last time they pretended to be the phone company, calling about an issue with our email. I guess they get lied to so much they just don't accept the truth, or recognize it when they hear it.

[steve B]

The "Microsoft" guys can be lots of fun. I usually run them through a who's on first sort of routine.
"I'm calling about your windows computer"
"Which one"
"Your windows computer"
"yes, but which one? You say it's infested with viruses, you should know which one"
"your computer with windows xp, 7, 8, or 10"
"Sure, which one of those"
"Any of them"
"Right.....but which one are you calling about"

Longest I got was a bit over 10 minutes, got into a bit of technical questions that he couldn't answer. When I laughed and told him he really had no idea what he was talking about he got mad and put on his supervisor who got very rude. THAT was even more fun! especially since he had a decent grasp of less formal English. Finally ended when he called me a MFer and I replied with a joyous "Son! It's good to know you're doing well! " That brought a bunch of angry non English and he hung up

Steve B

[Leon]

I have the same kind of fun with them. I had one of them throw the F bomb at me once. It was a great conversation.,...

Originally Posted by steve B

The "Microsoft" guys can be lots of fun. I usually run them through a who's on first sort of routine.
"I'm calling about your windows computer"
"Which one"
"Your windows computer"
"yes, but which one? You say it's infested with viruses, you should know which one"
"your computer with windows xp, 7, 8, or 10"
"Sure, which one of those"
"Any of them"
"Right.....but which one are you calling about"

Longest I got was a bit over 10 minutes, got into a bit of technical questions that he couldn't answer. When I laughed and told him he really had no idea what he was talking about he got mad and put on his supervisor who got very rude. THAT was even more fun! especially since he had a decent grasp of less formal English. Finally ended when he called me a MFer and I replied with a joyous "Son! It's good to know you're doing well! " That brought a bunch of angry non English and he hung up

Steve B

[DHogan]

I'm still waiting for the one from Microsoft to show up at my house and kick my ass. Like he said he was going to.

[bnorth]

Harassing these scammers is the only thing I miss about not having a land line anymore.

[steve B]

It only works with the fake Microsoft people, the card services people must really be in a sweatshop since they hang up pretty fast.

I used to get some really good ones in the early 90's
One person called selling siding, except I lived in brick apartment building. She was so pushy I finally went along and asked questions and went to set up the appointment for my free estimate. After giving the address she wanted some extra info to help identify the house. When I told her they couldn't miss it since it was a 3 story brick apartment building she got really upset and wanted to know why I'd strung her along like I did. I told her I'd tried a few times to tell her at the beginning and that I eventually figured since she wouldn't listen I'd just wait till the end. They never called back, and I never did get that free estimate.

The frozen meat sales people who kept asking for my wife - I was single, and even now a steak salesperson would have better luck with me - finally got the "teary almost crying" "No, she cant come to the phone, she died a month ago" Another one that never called back.

Steve B

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by steve B

It only works with the fake Microsoft people, the card services people must really be in a sweatshop since they hang up pretty fast.

I used to get some really good ones in the early 90's
One person called selling siding, except I lived in brick apartment building. She was so pushy I finally went along and asked questions and went to set up the appointment for my free estimate. After giving the address she wanted some extra info to help identify the house. When I told her they couldn't miss it since it was a 3 story brick apartment building she got really upset and wanted to know why I'd strung her along like I did. I told her I'd tried a few times to tell her at the beginning and that I eventually figured since she wouldn't listen I'd just wait till the end. They never called back, and I never did get that free estimate.

The frozen meat sales people who kept asking for my wife - I was single, and even now a steak salesperson would have better luck with me - finally got the "teary almost crying" "No, she cant come to the phone, she died a month ago" Another one that never called back.

Steve B

I used an accent last time a card services guy called me. I kept asking him to repeat what he was saying and he did. Eventually he told me to give him the 800 number on the back of my credit card and my card #. I told him to go f--- himself then and hung up as I heard him howl something at me.

I also get the calls from the "Policeman's Association" and I tell them to give me their URL as I would donate online only. That is when they hang up.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Harassing these scammers is the only thing I miss about not having a land line anymore.

Screwing with these people is really fun. I usually go along with it for a little while and then blow an air horn into the phone. I don't have a land line anymore either, but they call us on our cell phone.

One of my favorite are the ones that want to give me grant money to go back to school. I usually string them along for a bit and then tell them I have a doctorates (I don't).

And then there are the ones that call and offer grant money for no specific purpose. I either tell them that I already have too much money and the government can keep their money because they need it more than I do, or tell them to donate my grant money to a charity.

Edited to add: I only use the air horn on the scammers. I don't do it to legitimate telemarketers. As annoying as they are, they're still just doing their job.

[bnorth]

We just got rid of our land line a couple months ago and got the scammer/sales calls all the time on it.

I must be crazy lucky because I have had a cell phone since the early 90's and have never got a single scammer/sales call on it.