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Comment by verroq | Hacker News Reader

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

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...

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)

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.

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.

Maybe they quit their Dell support job for this for the better pay?

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>"

Oh, you're just getting started! I would so keep on playing dumb.

"Oh, so you're not running Windows?"

"I don't know?"

"Do you have a Mac?"

"I don't know, what's a Mac? I have a computer."

"Where did you buy your computer from? Apple?"

"Idk, my daughter gave it to me."

"What does it look like?"

"It has a TV screen, mouse, and keyboard?"

Hahaha!

Do you have a landline? I've never got one on a mobile phone, but I used to be inundated with calls on my landline until I bought a Panasonic phone with a call block feature for up to 3000 numbers. (I had the same feature on an older phone, but I used up all 75 number memory slots with numbers I had to block from scammers & 'charities'.)

Some of the caller ID numbers are forged, but at least the one from +1 (234) 567 890 was obviously so.

If you've not seen it before, you might enjoy Troy Hunt's video stringing along one of the scammers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKjyMKj3n4

Caller id on landline?

Yup, for a few dollars extra per month (or sometimes for free) Australian telcos will let you see the number of the incoming call. You'll need a handset with a caller ID display, but most modern handsets do.

Yes, caller ID on a landline has been available for at least 20+ years, at least that's about when my parents first got it from what I remember. At first it was a couple dollars extra a month but it's standard now.

Also every office phone I've ever had has caller ID.

So Telstra had a good one...

You know how all Telstra passwords used to be Bigpond1?

Well I changed back to Telstra a few years ago, and had a third party ring me trying to get me to switch over to some service. Anyway I had way too much time on my hands so I talked to her for ages, and asked them where they were and the weather and stuff but whenever they asked for some Id stuff I'd say that I don't give that over the phone to people who have called me, they have to give me some proof they're from the company.

Anyway she knew my address and my last months spend. So they had been spamming bigpond account logins with bigpond1 to get access to all the account verification details... then if you fell for it they wound switch your number over, they had some basic billing information so xould find your bank account, and then the endgame is drain your account.

Tried telling Telstra and the customer support guy couldn't have cared less; but I think the default is slightly more random now so might have closed it.

Imagine that. It affected a lot of people; I don't think there are all that many that cracked the problem. Telstra could be up for a lot of money if a few people who lost got together

Go to the privacy commissioner.

What happens when you say "I'm not at my computer right now, can I call you back when I get home?"

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

What kind of shoddy phone infrastructure allows "faking" the caller ID. There should be laws to fix this.

What kind of shoddy network infrastructure allows faking an IP? There should be laws against this.

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.

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