Frankie and Slim

Frankie and Slim
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Saturday, September 20, 2014

GOTCHA!!!

It happened to my friends. They got the call from Microsoft (NOT) that their computer was infected with some virus and they needed to follow instructions from the caller to correct the problem. The wife hung up on the callers. The spammer called back and the husband insisted they follow the directions to fix their computer that actually seemed perfectly fine to the wife. He did as told and immediately the computer went into cardiac arrest and the caller offered to fix the problem (he created) for $245. The husband cursed and hung up. Now my friend's computer is in the shop being fixed for $50. The wife is trying not to smile because $50 is still a lot of money, but she does love it that she was right




SCAM ALERT: MICROSOFT IS NOT CALLING TO
 FIX YOUR COMPUTER.

31 comments:

  1. It is amazing what lengths they go to for the soul reason of being evil.

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    1. Changes in the wind, it is evil and greed with greed being the driving force.

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  2. Anonymous9:29 AM

    Terrible!

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    1. gigihawaii, it is terrible that some elderly and confused people might pay the blackmail.

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  3. They ring us here too. And have done for a couple of years. Sometimes they say they are from Microsoft, and other times they say that they are from Microsoft working on advice from our Government. I ask them to put it in writing and they hang up on me. Which I count as a win.

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    1. E.C., the callers aren't the culprits they are probably just desperate workers who need a job.

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  4. This has been happening here at my parents for six months. Everyone has instructions to ask to speak to the supervisory, then they hang up. But it is annoying because sometimes they call late at night and that is not good for the elders.

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    1. Brighid, there needs to be some solution especially for your parents and others like them.

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  5. Thanks for the heads up GA. Brighid, if you are in the U.S. there are laws about businesses calling after 9 pm. Record the number and the times they call (a hand written log is fine). Use it to report them to the Attorney General's office of your state. They can be hit with a felony for it.

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    1. Lisa, you offer a good solution except for those numbers that are blocked or unknown. I won't pick those up but some do.

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  6. There are so many low-life crack-pots in this world. They're full of greed! Why don't they go out and get a job! Oh! That's right...nobody would hire them because they're so ignorant!

    I got a couple of emails from "PayPal" during this past week...so I referred them to the real PayPal.

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    1. Lee, Pay Pal has a way to report these scammers.

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  7. 'So sorry I can't take your call' is what I say to all unsolicited callers.

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    1. Pat, leave off the "so sorry". LOL

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  8. This is the second blog I have heard about this scam. Such a shame. They are basically stealing from people. I rudely just say I am not interested and hang up before they even start their spiel.

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    1. Arkansas Patti, it still amazes me to run across people who haven't heard of the scam.

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  9. That could happen here - and it would not be me who told them to fix it. I sure hope they never get mr. K's phone number.....LOL

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    1. Judy, if the phone was near Ron, he would answer it. I always tried to keep it away from him because he still trusted people.

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  10. Anonymous3:58 AM

    I thought that was an old scam that everyone knew about. Glad they are getting away with a fix of only $50.00

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    1. Ditchingthedog, you are right about that. My neighbor could have paid the extortion amount.

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  11. I got a call from a man who was demanding that I give him access to my computer because of the Microsoft issues that "everyone is having." Crazy. Love that your friend knew better.

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    1. Lynn, they have to be calling me too but I just don't answer.

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  12. I am so sick of the scams lately. i have become a suspicious person, and i don't really like it.

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  13. yes, i got that call, no i did nothing except tell them they were under investigation by the FBI by calling my number...seemed to work

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  14. Anonymous7:34 AM

    I got a call like that once and I strung the guy along on the phone, playing dumb, afraid housewife, until he got mad and hung up on me! It was hysterical!

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  15. I'm so sick of scammers and hackers. What a plague they are on the rest of us.

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  16. I'm hoping someone, somewhere is the instrument of karma.

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  17. Oh good grief! I wrote a post about this! Apparently they're doing this scam all over the world. It's incredible. How do they have the man power to do it? I had several of my Zumba friends here in Hawaii who also got the call. This is terrible!

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  18. Nor does the IRS call to tell you to send back-taxes. That scammer, with a heavy Indian accent, just attempted that on us.

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  19. We get a boatload of those spammers/scammers every week (working for the guv'ment sort attracts them like flies to honey). Suffice to say, almost no one pays attention to them.

    Key word: almost.

    Father Nature's Corner

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  20. Couldn't get a comment in here the other day- but I was here, you just can't Tell!

    I DO NOT ever answer my phone, I let the machine pick-up. Most calls are "hang-ups", if it's important I can hear the message and pick-up or call back. I still get calls from Other peoples debt collections! Wonder how many scammers I missed.

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