“Windows Technical Support” scammers call me again

arstechnica.com

13 points·chinmoy··8 comments

I've had these guys loads of times.

"We're from Windows"

Pretending you are partially deaf and old keeps them on the line a while. 6 minutes is my record so far :)

"What? Windows? No, my windows are closed. Honey, are the windows closed? It's the winter. Why would my windows be open?"

This is my favourite response: http://arstechnica.com/features/2012/10/can-you-fix-my-windo...

My personal best is 2 calls lasting just over 40 minutes. I was bored at the time and curious about their methodology. I was really impressed by their professionalism and technically competent scare tactics.

Sometimes they're literally not allowed to hang up. You could just set the phone down and leave it for a few minutes.

That's more likely a rule in legitimate customer service operations. This guy was probably following the principal that the longer you keep a customer on the phone, the more likely you are to make a sale.

I did this:

* Ignored the caller's pressure and sense of urgency.

* Repeated every phrase she told me with a question mark added: "My computer is slow, eh?"

* Every time she said "Yes", I asked my own question: "What department do you say you work for?", "Who is your manager?", "What number should I call if I need more help from you?"

I never let her lead, never said Yes or No and never acted like an ahole. I was nice and calm. In five questions she got very nervous and hung up.

My dad was unlucky enough to be a victim of these guys. I was surprised, being a lawyer for so many decades, that he didn't realize that no one at Microsoft is that nice as to give you a call because your machine is slow.

Common sense people!

Previous article's HN discussion here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4612022

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