The Wellington scammer
November 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am by David FarrarThe Dom Post reports:
A phone scammer targeted Wellington residents last night, the second incident in two weeks.
Police said they received about 40 phone calls last night from people who had a phone call from a bogus Microsoft employee.
Last night’s incident follows about 50 calls to Wellington, Hutt Valley and Kapiti residents last Wednesday and Thursday, reporting a similar experience.
The caller claims to work for Microsoft and offers assistance to help get rid of a virus by disclosing computer passwords.
Police warn anyone who receives a call of this nature to hang up immediately.
If the calls are being made from within New Zealand, surely the Police can easily ascertain the phone line they are being made from, and take action?
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November 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
I had this guy call me. Asked him for his number so I could call him back. He rattled off a bunch of numbers, then oh no this number… rattled off some more, oh no this one… rattled off some more. Needless to say I just hung up after telling him I knew he was a scammer.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 10:25 am
If you’re curious I’ve recorded a few of these
http://www.xi.co.nz/scam.amr.mp3
http://www.xi.co.nz/scam2.amr.mp3
Had one call the afternoon after the chch earthquake!
I’ve spoken to some others at length, it sure sounds like they’re not based in NZ.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 10:26 am
One night last week a woman with an asian-sounding voice calling herself Alison called on my landline. The caller id had one of those long numbers which usually indicates an overseas sales pitch of some sort. Caller said that my ISP had informed her that my computer had been “damaged” by a virus and need fixing. I asked who she was with and she just repeated her pitch. I told her I had virus protection and had heard nothing of any problem.Repeated pitch again. I asked if she was with Microsoft and got the routine again. I was getting peeved by this stage and asked several times who she was with. Stuck to her guns. Hung up after making the usual response. Sounds very much like the caller on xy’s post.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Got a call late one evening here about six weeks ago from a woman with a foreign, Asian I think, accent speaking very poor English asking whether or not I had a pc and asking if I’d had any problems. I strung her along and sure enough she tells me that my security is at risk and that if I give her my user name and password she can fix the problem. I was half cut at the time so I cant recall whether she said she was from microsoft but I think she twigged that I was having her on when I asked her to call back in the morning. And then I hung up.
Vote:The call sounded like it was from a phone using one of those el-cheapo sim cards that my brother uses when he’s working in SE Asia.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:37 am
My sister in Brisbane got one of these calls a few weeks ago, so it is not an unusual scam.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Oh….Bugger….
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 10:54 am
I got one of these calls about two weeks ago. It was a man and he sounded Philippino. He said something like “we’ve been unable to fix your computer as it has a very bad virus and we need to install a patch, so I’ll need you to give me some details to pay for the software.” The odd thing was that we had a computer in the shop getting fixed, so I just said to the guy “you’ll need to talk to my wife.” But she soon twigged that it was a scammer. He said he was calling from in NZ, but wouldn’t say where.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Had three silent calls last night. When i *52′d them, it said that the number was not known, rather than could not be given out. This indicates to me that it was an international number with caller ID blocked, or some other trickery going on.
1/2 wondering if it was related to telstras email crash.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Same-same as Cha at 10.28.
Indian sounding guy phoned. We were eating at the time – so that put him behnd the eight-ball straight-away!. Asked me to switch on the computer “to allow technical checks to be made to correct an elusive fault”.
Told him, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’, and hung up.
I don’t mess around with these guys!
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Exact same thing happens in Australia. Number always tracks to a phantom office.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:35 am
As has been pointed out elsewhere, it is impossible to legislate against stupidity. I am unsure how you think the police can ascertain which phone the calls come from, or are you advocating all calls be monitored?
[DPF: All telcos keep a record of calls made, and Police routinely access this information. No monitoring needed]
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:35 am
goodness me .. we got this call about 2 weeks ago .. we live in Franklin so it’s all over the place. The person wouldn’t answer questions and finally hung up
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:38 am
The test button on your smoke alarms can be used to good effect in persuading these mofos never to call your number again
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I wonder if Moist would be Going Postal on these callers. All they are doing is Making Money.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Indian sounding lady called a couple of times a few weeks ago with what was probably the same scam. It was a real struggle to understand her, especially as the phone line is a bit iffy.
@Christopher Thomson: Very witty.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
@voice of reason
Or maybe we’ve found a new use for the vuvuzela…
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Or maybe we’ve found a new use for the vuvuzela…
I don’t think that works unfortunately, much like blowing a whistle down a phone line. I recall learning at one stage that phone companies filter out the frequencies that would make that possible.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
In the last few weeks I have had , yellow pages scams, pay pal scams and just yesterday one from IRD>
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For more info on government services go to nz govt. etc
Looks real legit. but of course its a scam.
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Along with The McDonalds survey and NZTA licence update requirements.
If it does’t originate as a consequence of your own mail activity it is something that you just don’t need!!
Vote:November 9th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Wellington 09 Nov 3pm: Got a call from Indian? man claiming that ‘a report from the ISP identifying my computer as the source of a problem’ and “my computer had been “damaged” by a virus and needs fixing”.
I was a little off guard, as my ISP email system, has been down for 18 hours, and thought maybe the two things were connected.
His English was awful, although some words like ‘malware’ came across strong. Wanted me to go to My Documents folder, and the rest I couldn’t understand, his English was so bad. I know something about computers, but still wasted 10 minutes.
Vote:November 10th, 2010 at 7:58 am
I haven’t had a call from these scammers yet, so I can’t say for sure, but in my opinion it would be naive to assume that this is coming from New Zealand. The most likely scenario surely would be VOIP from somewhere where labour is cheap and english is a second language…. hmmm… where, I wonder…? Not Korori anyway hahahaha
Vote:November 10th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Yeah I had this fuckwit phone me wanting me to send in some forms and pay money. He really did work for IRD.
Vote: