When a stranger calls

I used to enjoy playing games with them, like asking which virus or for which platform or just telling them off. But you have to realize you're talking to some poor schmuck maybe in Bangladesh who's probably getting a dollar a day for doing this, is reading from a script, and doesn't begin to know enough to even make it interesting, and it's just not fun. Now I just say that's very odd because I don't own a computer.

Yeah. I think scam-baiting doesn't necessarily hurt the people running the scam - just those at the very bottom, who may have been forced into it. There can be different levels of gang hierarchy to manage a scam.

I think back to the famous Commodore 64 scam-bait...
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/how-to-trick-an-online-scammer-into-carving-a-computer-out-of-wood/305903/

...and have to wonder if the poor person who did the carving was either completely unaware of why the item was required (for fraud) and/or a practical (or actual) slave for the people in charge of the scam.  Probably never know.

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brvx wrote:

Now I just say that's very odd because I don't own a computer.

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Best answer by far!  Gives them no comeback. :smileyvery-happy:

Not to say that this doesn't cause extensive damage, and loss of money, to the unwary. My comment was directed at the lower level people doing the cold calling. At the Apple forums I have seen quite a few people asking what to do after having been taken in by this or similar scams, and having allowed the perps to install Team Viewer, or who knows what to look around, including possibly installing a backdoor by which all their passwords, credit card and banking information may be scooped up. And the only thing to do is a total wipe and then reinstall of all applications from scratch, with a restore of documents, excluding settings files, applications or anything else related, from a backup, provided there is a backup, which many do not keep. Then change all passwords, cancel credit cards, alert the bank, etc. Can be very painful.

Good read that article. Hadn't seen that before. My sister actually fell for the one where a friend emails and says she's been mugged in London, is desperate and could you please send money ASAP.

Calling the Internet a jungle is a gross understatement.

Cryptolocker for Mac is no big deal, just locks up JavaScript. Easy to get out of. But the PC version is the most vicious thing I've ever heard of.