5 ms·

In NL, almost zero calls. What is the difference?

throwaway049 4y ago
Not enough scammers speak Dutch? One day they'll realise they can robo call people in NL in English and be understood most of the time.
Nextgrid 4y ago
English is a great language for scammers because it scales well worldwide - that one language covers the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and others, so an English-based scam operation has a much larger addressable market than other languages which would usually be limited to a single country.
- organsnyder 4y ago
  Most people in NL speak English, though. They could definitely be targeted by English payloads.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    Is it common for the services typically impersonated by those scammers (local tax authority/government department, bank or major retailer such as Amazon)? If not, it would still be a potential red flag for the victim.
    - Symbiote 4y ago
      It would fit for a call "from Microsoft", but not much else. Britain also isn't plagued by spam calls though, so it's not only a language barrier.
      - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
        Hrr. I once got such a call in Germany while reconfiguring my Voip, so my usual filters were down. But I've never heard of Microsoft germany calling endusers, nor doing that in english. Was funny btw. I picked up, asked 'Wer stört?/Who is disturbing(me)?' and got an Indian accent bubbling something about calling from MS customer service, that they had to clean a virus. Me in a mix between giggling and sighing: 'Could you stop your fucking script, PLEASE?!' ...You want me to open some page which tries to download some remote access tool, camouflaged as something else, hoping that would fly because my explorer doesn't show real file endings? While there is nothing from MS running here at all? Not even in a virtual machine? He bubbling 'What is your name, what is this company?' Me: 'I'm just the facility manager, doing house keeping stuff, and you don't need to know.' He bubbling something about me being impolite. Me countering with something about no need to be polite to fraudsters. He flustered. Me telling him about criminal acts, and our 'Bundesnetzagentur' where one can report such attempts, which leads to termination of such faked numbers, fines, and on occassion seized equipment, which makes the rounds in such circles, which leads to less and less acceptance of such 'businesses', because it's bad for their business. Too much hassle to be worth it. About 10 minutes of hilarity ensued, where I asked why they are even trying it(in Germany), who would fall for it, if ever? In the end, enraged gibberish, which I countered with 'Ja. Ja. Du mich auch, Arschloch!/Yes, Yes, the same to you, asshole!' Clack...
        Symbiote 4y ago
        Germany is big, but it wouldn't be so unusual for a Dutch (or Norwegian, Swedish etc) person to phone a support helpline and find it's only in English. It's not that unusual to find staff in a small bar, restaurant or shop who don't speak the local language. Microsoft presumably have support in Dutch, but for example Adobe don't: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/phone.html https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/phone.html
        LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
        Yes. I know that. But 'ze Görmänz' have this special concept of Amtssprache/legal/official language in which you have to conduct business. Which especially applies to larger businesses, which in turn leads to such strange experiences with outsourced hotlines in all over south-eastern Europe, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Portugal insisting to speak in their sometimes not that good German to you, while you could be done with it much faster and less ambiguous in English. Because of that I'd say it's very uncommon to have the hotline talk to you in English. Another reason would be that no hotline is ever calling you, without you having asked for that call(back). That just won't happen. I guess it's a cultural thing, as evidenced by dubbing of movies/tv-series, and not just subtitling them like it is done elsewhere. At least in the past. Getting blurry with things like Netflix.

Not enough scammers speak Dutch? One day they'll realise they can robo call people in NL in English and be understood most of the time.

Nextgrid 4y ago

English is a great language for scammers because it scales well worldwide - that one language covers the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and others, so an English-based scam operation has a much larger addressable market than other languages which would usually be limited to a single country.

organsnyder 4y ago
Most people in NL speak English, though. They could definitely be targeted by English payloads.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Is it common for the services typically impersonated by those scammers (local tax authority/government department, bank or major retailer such as Amazon)? If not, it would still be a potential red flag for the victim.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    It would fit for a call "from Microsoft", but not much else. Britain also isn't plagued by spam calls though, so it's not only a language barrier.
    - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
      Hrr. I once got such a call in Germany while reconfiguring my Voip, so my usual filters were down. But I've never heard of Microsoft germany calling endusers, nor doing that in english. Was funny btw. I picked up, asked 'Wer stört?/Who is disturbing(me)?' and got an Indian accent bubbling something about calling from MS customer service, that they had to clean a virus. Me in a mix between giggling and sighing: 'Could you stop your fucking script, PLEASE?!' ...You want me to open some page which tries to download some remote access tool, camouflaged as something else, hoping that would fly because my explorer doesn't show real file endings? While there is nothing from MS running here at all? Not even in a virtual machine? He bubbling 'What is your name, what is this company?' Me: 'I'm just the facility manager, doing house keeping stuff, and you don't need to know.' He bubbling something about me being impolite. Me countering with something about no need to be polite to fraudsters. He flustered. Me telling him about criminal acts, and our 'Bundesnetzagentur' where one can report such attempts, which leads to termination of such faked numbers, fines, and on occassion seized equipment, which makes the rounds in such circles, which leads to less and less acceptance of such 'businesses', because it's bad for their business. Too much hassle to be worth it. About 10 minutes of hilarity ensued, where I asked why they are even trying it(in Germany), who would fall for it, if ever? In the end, enraged gibberish, which I countered with 'Ja. Ja. Du mich auch, Arschloch!/Yes, Yes, the same to you, asshole!' Clack...
      - Symbiote 4y ago
        Germany is big, but it wouldn't be so unusual for a Dutch (or Norwegian, Swedish etc) person to phone a support helpline and find it's only in English. It's not that unusual to find staff in a small bar, restaurant or shop who don't speak the local language. Microsoft presumably have support in Dutch, but for example Adobe don't: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/phone.html https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/phone.html
        LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
        Yes. I know that. But 'ze Görmänz' have this special concept of Amtssprache/legal/official language in which you have to conduct business. Which especially applies to larger businesses, which in turn leads to such strange experiences with outsourced hotlines in all over south-eastern Europe, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Portugal insisting to speak in their sometimes not that good German to you, while you could be done with it much faster and less ambiguous in English. Because of that I'd say it's very uncommon to have the hotline talk to you in English. Another reason would be that no hotline is ever calling you, without you having asked for that call(back). That just won't happen. I guess it's a cultural thing, as evidenced by dubbing of movies/tv-series, and not just subtitling them like it is done elsewhere. At least in the past. Getting blurry with things like Netflix.