Got a call from "Rick from Windows": (740) 650-5598

[wcass]

A caller with a strong Indian or Pakistani accent called, introduced himself as "Rick from Windows" to say that my computer was reporting to their servers that it has problems and he was calling to help. I thanked him and asked what to do next. After about 5 minutes of me acting like i knew nothing about computers, he tried to get me to hit the "Windows" key (i, of course, don't have one). He asked me to look for the key next to the CTRL key at the bottom left corner of the keyboard."The shift key?" I asked. "No, the key to the right of the left Ctrl key" he said. "There is no key there," i say "but this a vintage keyboard; an IBM Model M from 1984; a few years after i started working on computers, so Microsoft had not invented Windows yet, let alone a Windows key." At this point, my buddy Joe started cracking up. I had switched over to speakerphone shortly after the call started so that i could share the fun with my coworkers. i got disconnected from "Rick from Microsoft"

Curiously, "Rick" has kept calling. Always go straight into the script. I ask questions. This seems to trip them up and the start over from the top of the script. I'm really dying to find out how this story ends. Anyways since he keeps calling to help, is there anything you guys would like to ask "Rick from Windows"?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

James Veitch encourages people to reply to scammers:

Only a small portion of people would be able to pull that off, and even smaller portion would be able to string along a caller like Tom Mabe can:

I have plenty of questions for Microsoft, but not anything that would mean anything to a scammer.

[fohat]

I used to get a panicked call from my boss at least once a year about someone "at Windows" telling him about some problem.

No matter how many times I told him that there was no person, place, or company named "Windows" he still fell for it.

Worse was that he got the "FBI ransom" bug multiple times, telling him that he was suspected of terrorist activity, credit card fraud, or child pornography.

And he always asked me whether he should just pay it (usually about $350 via Paypal or bank draft). I would say, "You know that if you were actually suspected there would be a bunch of black vans around your house already before they alerted you." He sometimes had trouble believing it, though.

[wcass]

Thinking about creating a special VM. Any attempt to run regedit, ping, tracert, as much of everything as i can - launches ... "Never gona give you up. Never gona let you down ..."

[bricomaz]

Apparently many others got a call from "Rick"...and are fighting back!

https://www.onthewire.io/phone-bot-to-t ... -scammers/