Microsoft Warns of Internet Phone Scam

[reggieray]

One of many, I get calls saying, "Your credit card is safe for now but you need to call...."
Too bad the world is full of scumbag thieves, lying power hungry politicians who are basically thieves too and so on.

 

[darkstar107]

[citation][nom]whysobluepandabear[/nom]Yeah, and I'm no banking or financial pro (especially when It comes down to the fine art of scamming people out of money by using fine print and trick-ster type of math that is purposely used to deceive), but If I have someone who calls me and tells me yadda yadda, I don't go blabbing about my account number and SS#. I instead go to the institution. Even if I don't understand something, I know how to handle the problem. We need to stop this "No child left behind" mentality crap in this country. If you're a retard, you're getting left behind. Sorry, but the other 50% of halfway intelligent people want to move FORWARD. I'm sick of window lickers keeping us in the stone age with their lack thereof intelligence, dumb and superstitious beliefs and complete and willful ignorance. Grandma and Grandpa had a MUCH better opportunity to learn and master computers - cell phones too for that matter. They have disposable income and work in careers that adopted a lot of these technologies from the very start. They made the decision to ignore these fancy doohickeys, and disregarded them as being fads. Well look who's the wise ass now. Never, and I mean NEVER, as a human being, regardless of my age, will I ever reject technology and consciously decide that I'm okay with how things are and no longer desire to progress and stay current with times. That's seriously what these old idiots did. They figured that writing letters and using landlines was sufficient enough, and saw no use for these extra gadgets. They're the ones who made that choice, and now we accommodate to them?! For REAL? They're grown ass adults with brains and educations. It's not like we all of a sudden have Droids and iPhones and they have no hope of learning....they in fact had WAY better opportunities than this generation or last generation had. They were there since the beginning and had the chance to REALLY grow with it, but they decided not to. WWII gen and baby boomer gen were full of willfully and proud ignoramuses. When things kept moving forward, they choose to stay in their fairy tale bubble of Beaver Cleaver, the white house with a picket fence and a Cadillac in the driveway. Speaking of cars, that's also exactly the reason GM got run into the ground. The willfully ignorant white man choose to ignore the rest of the world and thought their product was superior because It's American, and really, how could anything they build and imagine NOT be the best?! Right?! Say hello to your 401k's ....that don't exist anymore[/citation]

I strongly disagree with this and here's why:

My grandpa is 88 years old. He hasn't been "avoiding" technology like you describe. He has a brand new HDTV, HDPVR, the fastest internet he can get, digital phone, and a lot more. He also has a doctorate in Math/education and is literally the smartest guy I know. He watches jeopardy on a regular basis and knows the answers to EVERY question. I can GUARANTEE you that he is smarter than you will ever be...and smarter than 99.9% of the people on these forums.

I'm not going to say that he would definitely fall for something like this, because I have no doubt that if he was asked to fork out his credit card number, he wouldn't. However, he doesn't follow "tech news sites" like this one and likely wouldn't know about this sort of scam. He knows enough about how to control his computer so that if this person called him, he wouldn't need me to show him what the person on the other end of the phone is asking him to do. What he doesn't know, though, is enough about malware (keyloggers, spyware) to know that this person on the phone is asking him to install something that will hurt him.

It has nothing to do with his IQ, or his interest in technology. It's more to do with how old he is getting since he's at the stage where he's starting to forget stuff. To go around saying that these "old people" are stupid is absurd, because compared to my grandpa's IQ, you're a complete retard (I don't need to know you to know that either).

 

[darkstar107]

[citation][nom]whysobluepandabear[/nom]I'm saying they're stupid for ignoring this technology when it emerged decades ago. It doesn't surprise me that your grandpa is up-to-date, he's educated and belongs to certain standards that will not allow him to drag his feet and stay where he more feels comfortable. A lot of the older generation has a hardcore case of nostalgia. Never said it was 100% the case, just the majority.[/citation]

Agreed, a lot of the older generation tries to ignore technology. Also to be clear, I wasn't calling you a retard. I'm quite smart as well and am dumb compared to my grandpa as well

 

[fir_ser]

I can’t believe scammers have become this rude.

 

[Guest]

I just got one of these calls; heavy Hispanic accent. She called me by name and went through the virus/malware spiel. I kept telling her I couldn't hear her. She was from LogIn4Speed (they have a website LogIn4Speed.com with NOTHING on it). I asked if I could call her back...she gave me the number! 877-623-9180. I waited an hour, called back, and the Indian gentleman answered, "Global Tech". I explained I was told to call "Maria" at this number and said she had a heavy accent. He went through some names and I said none of them sounded right. I asked if this was 877-623-9180 and he said yes. I was Googling "Global Tech" at the time and asked if he was in Seattle, WA. He said no, he was in the Virgin Islands and that he'd call me back later. I reported the calls to our state government "Do Not Call List" complaint department and if you receive one, I suggest you do the same.

 

[Guest]

An Indian phoned me yesterday asking to speak to the man with the computer. I have had several such calls and they're easy to spot as when you answer there's a pause and a switching sound.
I told him he'd reached the Australian Federal Police Computer Crimes Unit and that he was being scanned. He hung up immediately.