This is a fairly popular scam call that has increased lately in my opinion. Now you may ask what does that have to do with credit repair or credit education and I will explain towards the end of this blog or you can skip to the end if you want. The below is a breakdown on the call and what I did when I had a little time to mess with them.
HOW IT WORKS:
The first thing they do is “Spoof” the phone number of Microsoft so if you google the phone number it shows its Microsoft’s corporate office, which of course it’s not.
What “Spoof” means:
Spoofing, in general, is a fraudulent or malicious practice in which communication is sent from an unknown source disguised as a source known to the receiver.
*** Which means they can electronically make the number that shows up on your phone/caller ID as a legitimate phone number.
How they get your name:
Most of us have our names attached to our phone numbers somewhere on the internet with phone directories to have some basic personal information about you to help try to convince you they are legitimate.
So the phone number looks like it is coming from a known or legitimate place when actually it’s coming from a call center of scam artists.
They tell you they are from Microsoft’s technical support department and YOUR COMPUTER had sent them a “critical alert” and it needs to get fixed before your computer has more problems.
SO, I told them when I recently got one of these calls:
“C’mon, this is a scam, people know about this”. Then the gentleman giving me an obviously fake name begins his B.S pitch and says not it’s not a scam, their support department says a critical error showed up and they can give me the license number of my system.
I told them to call me back at 2pm as I’m on the road now as I planned to have a little fun with them in order to write this blog.
They call back around that time and I start hitting them with questions to waste their time and get them to think he has got me on the hook.
Q- So when did you get a critical alert from “my system”?
Their answer- A few weeks ago and he apologized for not getting to me sooner.
Q- Why didn’t my computer tell me there was an error in the system?
Their answer- this critical error is in the core of their system and has to be addressed from their end first.
Now at this point, I make the “ok, yeah” statements making him think he has me on the hook.
Q- Ok, so what type of computer do I have?
Their answer- we do not have the Hardware information on your computer just the technical critical error from the core system.
Then I say, guys I know you’re full of crap and scam artists and do you know how I know that for a fact?
His answer of course was no sir I am not, I am calling you about the critical error alert we received from your computer ( blah, blah, blah stick to the script)
So then I dropped a lie on him that popped his top… (try it and have some FUN!)
“Buddy I know you’re a slime ball and crook because I have had a MAC computer for the last 10 years (I don’t).
So tell me how the hell you can get a critical alert from a system that I don’t own”???
His response: Well why did you tell me to call you back to address your problem?
I told him since he was a piece of crap trying to steal people’s information I wanted to waste his time to stop him from scamming other people.
At this time he launched into and I kid you not a 45 second cursing fest at me and I do not know how he was able to not take a breath during that time so I was actually impressed that he went on such a rant for so long without taking a breath.
So to annoy him I just kept laughing not stop in an annoying voice for as long as I could to drive him crazy. It worked but I still had to just hang up on him. Then of course thanks to phone technology I blocked the number and I aggravated him so bad that he attempted to call me back 3 times that day but the phone automatically blocked his call.
So, now how does this have anything to do with your credit?
What these companies try to do is get remote access to your computer and like most people you have passwords, banking information and personal information on your computer or saved in browser history that could cause all sorts of problems for you if they got their hands on it and cause all sorts of problems for you now and in the future.
That is it for this week, I hope you gleamed some information and knowledge on this and remember that our phones are now the new “junk mail”. Companies set up robo calls and constantly call you with offers.
They have the “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” attitude and other than clicking on the “BLOCK CALL” on your phone that’s all you can do.
Reporting these calls to the “Do Not Call List” is nothing but a waste of your time as they can’t track anything since with technology companies can buy spoofing software as mentioned above so the phone you see is most likely not the number they used.
REMEMBER— KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Feel free to contact me at wayne@waynethecreditguy.com and ask about my book “The Real World of Credit” to learn A LOT more of how the system works if you are thinking of fixing your own credit.
Understanding how the system works is half the job!
