Got a phine call last night, a little after ten....

"Ma'am, this is Windows Computer. Your computer is badly affected...."

Hang up. Slept very badly, finally dropped off around three. At 6:48, the phine rings..."Ma'am, this is Windows...." Said a few choice words, hung up. Could not, of course, fall back asleep. Five minutes ago, 7:44, there they are again. This time I asked to speak to his supervisor, he hung up on me.

I swear, I wAnt to track down their home phone numbers and call them in the middle of the night at their own homes. Next time I'll tell them I'm passing on their number to the police, maybe that will stop them.

Tell them you've got Linux... and you can help them set it up on all their computers for, oh, $1500 a day and after that even they will be able to tell the time.

Do you have a second line with a fax machine on it? Swap the lines over for a couple of hours.
We did it at our place a few years ago. They never called back.

I get a lot of those calls, although never at unsociable hours. I usually say 'that's odd, I haven't got a computer', which stops them in their tracks.

We get this a lot and it's so frustrating for my hearing impaired father to take off the aid so that the special phone doesn't blast his ears off.

I try to catch it and say, 'How may I help you?' and if they insist much further than that, I say, 'This is .....sheriff's dept, how may I direct your call?' The only time they've said anything like 'Is this a business?' I've said, 'No it's the sheriff's dept'.
I only do this when I see the right thing on the screen though. My father doesn't use that.
Only problem with this is that I do receive calls from people who are unlisted at times. If my family members use that type of system though, they'll have to just say, 'How come you were answering that way?' and I'll tell them.

This method avoids hearing them yell at you as it's happened before. They pirate other people's lines so, I feel this is a better method of getting them to desist.

Oh, editing to add that we get a lot of home improvement type calls where they ask 'how are you?' and then, 'Are you the homeowner?' and I say, 'No sorry, I rent' and they apologize and give up.

I'm on a no-call list, so I don't get calls from actual businesses, furnace cleaners and such. But someone running an illegal scam is not likely to pay too much attention to the no-call list.

I received a scam call from someone claiming to be with Visa Card Fraud. Saying there was a 600.00 dollar charge on my card. I told them not to worry, I would check with the bank and hung up.

Oh we're also getting very scary voices telling us the IRS is suing us.
Nothing at all that you can do.

I usually just tell them that I am very busy, and if they give me their full name and number, I will call them back.

Or if they are very insistent, just interrupt them and ask what colour underwear they have on. Throws them off stride very quickly!

I had a call on my cell phone from a group "claiming" to be the IRS...the IRS will NEVER call anyone directly without prior written contact.

Yeah, we get that up in Canada too - they say they are Revenue Canada, but nope, the real guys don't do that.

I installed a gadget between the telephone point and the main phone, if I get a nuisance call I just add it to the list of blocked callers. These Windows scammers keep coming in on different numbers though but I haven't had one in some time.

If one gets through then it depends on my mood at the time, I might say that I have no computer or if feeling like it then I act the batty old woman and say that I have double glazing thank you, or perhaps "Computer, you are giving me a computer, how lovely" or perhaps "Oh thank you SO much for telling me, I will be sure to tell my son when he comes home from work - he works in the Police IT Department".

The ones which annoy me are the ones with a short survey and they are not trying to sell me anything. I have answered a few when I can be bothered but mostly now say "Stop right there... I do not live in the UK so none of the questions apply to me, the companies do not operate here." A month or two back I did go through with the survey and as tends to happen, the calls from the individual companies start within a couple of days. This time I let the PPI man go on, I told him that I haven't paid any but he would have it that I probably had so would get money back. I let him send the forms and filled them in and returned in the pre-paid envelope and I am waiting, probably in vain, for my cheque!

I never answer calls from numbers I don't know. If they click off as soon as the answerphone picks up, it's probably a scammer. As soon as the call ends, I check the number - just type it into google and a range of sites called things like "whosenumberisthis" or "whocallsmefrom" will be listed - go to any one of them and you can see if other people have reported a problem and what it was. I assume other countries have something similar. If it's definitely a scammer I log on to my ISP and bar the number. They have the power to bar numbers across their network so with luck it stops other people being bothered - at least for the five minutes it takes before the scammer uses a new number.

Oh and the PPI thing? I did nothing about that until I got a letter from the bank... turns out I was due something!

Oooer, well perhaps I am owed something too.

My Grandma once told them 'I don't know how you've reached me because I haven't got a phone.'

When I was working (and the memory is fading quickly) I used to get calls calls about Payment Protection Insurance or some similar nonsense on my mobile phone.

I used to demand: "how did you get my number? This is a Government phone - which was true - and improper use of the the number is an offence under the Official Secrets Act".

For some reason they seemed to hang up pretty sharpish - and did not bother me again...

Scams and telemarketers were the main reason I got rid of my main line. VOIP phones and cell phones get rid of that problem.

Today I had a call from Bryan just as I was dozing on my day off. Or so he said! I had answered, 'Good afternoon. How my I help you?' and he went into the Windows scam. I said, 'Oh thank you. I was expecting your call. Let me put you through to our Fraud dept. All the computers are down.'

The last "Windows scammer" call I got was a while back and I decided to drag the call out for a while to save some other poor little old lady from having to talk to them. They obviously thought they had a chance and the Indian gentleman caller gave way to his rather irate Indian lady supervisor. They stayed on the call for about twenty minutes going round in circles trying to explain to the idiot on the end of the line. They finally hung up when I told them that I had a Masters in Computer Sciences. I do not as it happens, but it was a minor lie compared to the ones they came out with.

It looks like they've caught some of the IRS scammers in India:

http://time.com/4520790/india-irs-call-center-scam/

Hooray! Go get the rest of 'em...

Not necessarily. I get calls on my mobile from people who preface the call with "You did a survey online". I haven't done an online survey for at least 5 years, so that gets a hang-up straight away.

Whatever, wherever or whoever is calling I find what works is
"Sorry I do not understand you."

The last Windows scammer who called interrupted my cribbage game.

I said, "Look here, I'm playing cards right now, and if you can tell me how many jacks I have in my hand, I'll listen to your spiel."

He said, "Ummmm, two?"

I said, "Nope, three. You're one jack off."

click