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Feeling in a mood to verbally fence with telemarketers, I answered a toll free call, mentally prepared to dance around their ridiculous pitches. This time was a first, a variation on a common theme pretending to be from Dell or Microsoft and advising that my computer was "infected." Planning to ask whether this astute analysis revealed a contagious virus or whatever that was worse than ebola or flu, and whether this was something Fox Mulder and Scully had discovered in their extra terrestrial esplorations, I was surprised when I was told that: Allegedly I had a support contract with Microsoft, purchased a few months ago. But now (and hold onto your brains), Microsoft was going out of business and was refunding my service contract cost. MS? Going out of business? Their claim would be more realistic if they had said invaders from Pluto were taking over my health care. I think this group of pranksters REALLY needs a reality check.

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My mother's hobby was to look at the Caller ID and say, "Why is _____ calling us?" I thought about putting them on the Do Not Call list but didn't want to spoil her fun. So, they got a LOT of sales calls. My son got his kicks out of thinking of ways to answer their phone. One time he whispered, "Seven days" and the person on the other end laughed. One time, he said, "In Soviet Russia, phone answers you." The frustrating time was when it rang and I said, "I need to get that, it's for me" and she wouldn't move so I could get to the phone. "No, it's Best Buy, why are they calling us?" "Because I put a call in to them and they're calling me back."

Fortunately, they wouldn't answer the phone if they didn't know why so-and-so was calling, so they never fell prey to any scams.
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Tax scammers are blowing up my cellphone. Saying that if I don't pay them now, they will send the police to arrest me and they will be at my house in 10 minutes. I love cussing them out and telling them to go right ahead. I know the state of my taxes and I'm good with the IRS.
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Eons ago, I got one of those calls from one of the long distance providers about their 'friends & family' plan. All in good fun, I said, 'I'm so glad you called; I do get so lonely.' Then I proceeded to go on & on & on about why I was so lonely. The person on the other end was dying! Kept telling his co-worker, 'OMG you've got to hear this lady!'
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I've always been suspicious of unknown callers so I would normally say "who wants to know?" Now that I have a phone plan where I don't have to pay extra for caller display I just don't answer, if they are legit they can leave a message.
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Thx for the heads up, ff.

Just fielded another tax scam. She ended her message saying "Take care". I don't believe the tax people say that! Lol Makes you wonder who thinks these things up.
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If you get a phone call and the person at the other end says "is this_______" do not say YES. What some scammers are doing is cutting and paste your "YES" to prove that you had ordered the product they were selling.

It's tough trying not to say "yes", it just comes automatically. I need to put a sign on my telephones to remind me.
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Heard on the news that a young woman answered the phone and soon started laughing. She did not say anything, she just hung up the phone.
Not to be denied the caller called back and she answered again. It was the IRS scam.
She was told she had taxes due and she needed to pay immediately. If she did not the police would come and arrest her.
She started laughing again and go ahead and send them. I am fifteen years old and have never worked or filed taxes. The caller hung up.
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My sister's boyfriend likes to play choice snippets from John Wayne movies to the scammers. It really confuses them, apparently!

We enabled Nomorobo on our Comcast landline (Comcast offers it for free) last year and it has really cut down on the amount of scam and robo calls we get. We still get a few of those busy signal calls, but I can't recall a scam one since we set it up.
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I NEVER answer blocked numbers or unknown numbers. If they want to talk with me, they will leave a message. There is a newish scam that just by answering the phone somehow uses voice recognition.
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When those calls come here, and they are more frequent lately.. I no longer own a home, a computer, I already donated.. You get it. We try not to answer calls when we don't know the number,, but with lots of relatives everywhere,,, and Mom who thinks you should answer every call.. its hard!
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Dorianne, I am surprised how many people still fall for these scams. I get the daily police report for my area, and at least 2 or 3 people have fell for the IRS scam. Heck, my first clue would be when the caller says I have to pay in iTune gift cards.... seriously??

My Dad got a scam call that really shook him up. The call was to his Independent Living facility telephone. The caller said that Dad's car was used in a bank robbery and if he didn't want to be visited by the police he could pay the caller money.

Dad immediately called me because I had recently donated his car to charity, signed title went with the car. He wanted me to find out who bought the car. I had a tough time trying to convince Dad that he no longer had a connection with the car. Plus I had his license plates. No way the caller would know about the car, nor were Dad lived, nor his telephone number.

Dad still wasn't convinced. What about the VIN number? Dad's common sense flew out the window at this point. Finally I was able to get though to him it was a scam caller. Bet other residents in the building also got the same type of call.

Makes me wonder about the scam caller himself. Did he think elders would call up their grown children to have them drive Mom or Dad to the store to buy iTune gift cards?
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Blush. When my degree qualified engineer came to see what was upsetting my original Mac, back in the mists of time, he took the panel off the tower to reveal a complete blanket of felted dog hair. Apparently computers don't like being that well insulated.
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Lol, well, what I like about PCs over Macs, CM, is that I don't have to get my degree in engineering just to tinker with them! :-P
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Yeah, sure, and if your name's Nigel mine is Indira Gandhi.

This particular scam has been going for donkeys' years. The only person I know who seriously fell for it was a friend of my ex-SO's, who thank God took the call when ex-SO was actually in the room and able to snatch his bank card out of his hand just in time.

I'm sure one day Apple users will get their comeuppance. But for now, the "Microsoft Help Desk" racket is just one more reason to be sickeningly smug.
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Yeah....the sad thing is, though, some people will STILL fall for it. Those of us who are participating in this forum are probably at least a little computer savvy, but not everyone is.  Seniors are especially vulnerable.

My mom almost got sucked in by the Microsoft support call once....she even let them into her computer! Fortunately she was astute enough to end the call when they asked for her credit card number.  (Edit:  this incident was actually one of the clues for me that it was time to persuade her to move here, near me.) 

Best guy friend was totally blindsided once, and DID give them his CC number! Luckily when they tried to put through his CC, the CC company caught it for the fraud it was. They called him right away, and he cancelled his card and got a new one. He's not even a senior yet! Just not very computer smart or news aware (but he has other qualities, lol).  He wouldn't know if MS was or wasn't going under.  He's learned his lesson though....he won't even use his CC to order things off Amazon now!  I do it and he gives me the cash, lol. 

I keep hoping to get one of those MS support calls, myself. I've got a lot of time on my hands these days, trapped inside this apartment. I could have a very good time leading them on and frustrating their efforts to get inside my computer/get my card number.
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One yesterday - Just give us your credit card number and we can give you a great holiday!

Yeah, I can have a great holiday on my credit card without your help.
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And I suppose all you had to do was provide your banking info so they could direct deposit your refund, eh?
Unfortunately greed often trumps common sense, no doubt they have some who fall for it.
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GardenArtist, oh those telemarketing calls, now what I am doing is saying "Hello, ____ Property Management, how can I help you". If one of those ill computer calls happen, I say "I will get our tech department to fix the problem, thank you" and hang up.
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