6 ms·

What about the scammers that just cold call and don't have an inbound number?

by verroq 10y ago

rblatz 10y ago
Or ones that provide a fake number. Sounds like an easy way to DDoS a bank, charity, political, call center.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Sunset 10y ago
  What kind of shoddy phone infrastructure allows "faking" the caller ID. There should be laws to fix this.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    What kind of shoddy network infrastructure allows faking an IP? There should be laws against this.
    - Sunset 10y ago
      Well, there's already a technical solution for that. You can drop packets which are coming from inside your network but which have ips which don't belong to your ranges. If there was a law that you need to have equipment capable of that and be using it that would be a step in the right direction. Same for telcos. Make it mandatory and watch them scramble to fix their shitty infrastructure. Instead of fining them money when they fail to implement the law's requirements make them have to cut everyone's subscription charges in half until they do follow the law to the letter or face the SWAT teams.
cyberferret 10y ago
Most of the ones that I have heard of here in Australia don't provide a number - they just call you direct and say that they are reacting to a 'virus log' on their system, apparently. I have had several family members and colleagues being called by them over the years - some multiple time, but so far I've never received a call from them. I actually can't wait for one of them to call me. My intent is to string them along on the phone for as long as I can with the reasoning that every minute he is wasting with me is a minute that he can't scam an unsuspecting person...
- empressplay 10y ago
  If you make up some reason that you have to call them back (and seem earnest about wanting their "help") they will (often) give you a number (although they may stop doing that if they get blasted enough)
- acbabis 10y ago
  My wife does this. One time a support scammer called trying to get her to install malware. It went something like this: "Ok. Please press the Windows key" "Ok (long pause)" "Did you press it?" "Yes" "What happened?" "Nothing happened" "Try again." "Ok... Nothing. Does it matter that I don't have a windows?" "Oh you have Mac?" "No, I have Ubuntu" "Ok, what version?" "I don't know!? You're the computer person. Why don't you know?!" The best part is that she was sitting on the couch the whole time.
  - cyberferret 10y ago
    That's exactly the sort of thing I want to do with them. I have another colleague who managed to string a guy along for nearly half an hour. Always managing to convince him that he was a noob struggling to get around. He said you've got to give those guys 10/10 for patience. Just imagine if they had real support jobs - they could probably do well at it.
    - brianwawok 10y ago
      Maybe they quit their Dell support job for this for the better pay?
  - microtherion 10y ago
    I did something similar with a Mac, reporting faithfully the reactions of the machine to his instructions. Eventually, he caught on: "Oh, so you're not running Windows?" "I never said I was. YOU called me and claimed I was running it!" "<Click>"
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago

What about the scammers that just cold call and don't have an inbound number?

by verroq 10y ago

What about the scammers that just cold call and don't have an inbound number?

rblatz 10y ago

Or ones that provide a fake number. Sounds like an easy way to DDoS a bank, charity, political, call center.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Sunset 10y ago
What kind of shoddy phone infrastructure allows "faking" the caller ID. There should be laws to fix this.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  What kind of shoddy network infrastructure allows faking an IP? There should be laws against this.
  - Sunset 10y ago
    Well, there's already a technical solution for that. You can drop packets which are coming from inside your network but which have ips which don't belong to your ranges. If there was a law that you need to have equipment capable of that and be using it that would be a step in the right direction. Same for telcos. Make it mandatory and watch them scramble to fix their shitty infrastructure. Instead of fining them money when they fail to implement the law's requirements make them have to cut everyone's subscription charges in half until they do follow the law to the letter or face the SWAT teams.

cyberferret 10y ago

Most of the ones that I have heard of here in Australia don't provide a number - they just call you direct and say that they are reacting to a 'virus log' on their system, apparently. I have had several family members and colleagues being called by them over the years - some multiple time, but so far I've never received a call from them. I actually can't wait for one of them to call me. My intent is to string them along on the phone for as long as I can with the reasoning that every minute he is wasting with me is a minute that he can't scam an unsuspecting person...

empressplay 10y ago
If you make up some reason that you have to call them back (and seem earnest about wanting their "help") they will (often) give you a number (although they may stop doing that if they get blasted enough)
acbabis 10y ago
My wife does this. One time a support scammer called trying to get her to install malware. It went something like this: "Ok. Please press the Windows key" "Ok (long pause)" "Did you press it?" "Yes" "What happened?" "Nothing happened" "Try again." "Ok... Nothing. Does it matter that I don't have a windows?" "Oh you have Mac?" "No, I have Ubuntu" "Ok, what version?" "I don't know!? You're the computer person. Why don't you know?!" The best part is that she was sitting on the couch the whole time.
- cyberferret 10y ago
  That's exactly the sort of thing I want to do with them. I have another colleague who managed to string a guy along for nearly half an hour. Always managing to convince him that he was a noob struggling to get around. He said you've got to give those guys 10/10 for patience. Just imagine if they had real support jobs - they could probably do well at it.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Maybe they quit their Dell support job for this for the better pay?
- microtherion 10y ago
  I did something similar with a Mac, reporting faithfully the reactions of the machine to his instructions. Eventually, he caught on: "Oh, so you're not running Windows?" "I never said I was. YOU called me and claimed I was running it!" "<Click>"
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago