I don't know if you've seen the loads of YouTube videos about this, but there has been for a few years now some scammers going around calling people's phones and telling them that their computer has problems. If you already know about these scams, feel free to skip down to the areas marked with <----- text here ------> to read my personal/unique experience with this scam that just happened to me a few moments ago and/or comment. If you don't know about these scams, and are more interested in reading my experience than searching up on YouTube better videos, then read further and enjoy. If you have no interest in this whatsoever, feel free to leave and enjoy some other forum post or giveaways c:

So, I'm sitting here casually playing Roblox (cause believe it or not, I actually think some of the games on there are decent. Haters feel free to flame me c:) when my phone rings. I pick up the phone expecting it to be my mom, since either she or my father usually call me while they're at work. But, instead, I heard via low call quality an Indian man's voice. He starts talking and finally gets to the point where he mentions Microsoft Windows, computers, his company, and computer problems.

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You're kidding me. I've been waiting for one of these calls for literally years, and it's finally happening......bring it on computer boy :3

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He asks me a few questions and we quickly gain some common ground and confirm a few things: I have a Microsoft Windows computer, it's turned on, I am at it/using it. For some odd reason he tells me to go to my desktop, or in his words, "The icons," even though what he's about to tell me to do doesn't require my desktop. Here's the part that actually kinda ticked me off, more so than the fact he's here to scam people. He starts going into this meticulous and downgrading step-by-step explanation of how to open a Run prompt.

First, we establish there's a key in the bottom left corner of my keyboard. That's the Control key. "What's to the right of that key?" "There's a Windows key." "Very right! Press that." He says the phrase "Very right!" throughout this entire thing. He eventually tells me instead of pressing that, I need to press Windows + R; I actually thought at first he wanted Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, but that idea left when he wanted a Windows key.

Once again, he's super meticulous, telling me about the little white box in the Run prompt. "Click that." Then he starts getting me to type "eventvwr"; by giving me a word for each letter. This leads to me opening Event Viewer, one of the many Windows utilities. Basically, in Event Viewer, there's a tab that will show you a list of errors and warnings. After he keeps repeating some garbled English grammar, we establish that I see these messages.

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"Those are real errors." "No. Do you see the errors and warnings?" "Yes, they're--" "Those are problems, do you want to fix them?" "There's nothing to fix. Those are normal program errors." So he seems just slightly testy at this. He tells me that I sound young and asks for my age; 16. We confirm I am the owner of the computer. You know sir, that's even more downgrading. He tries to tell me again that there are problems with my computer, but I just tell him the same thing.

"Do you want me to show you more?" "Yes." So, he tells me to close Event Viewer, and open up Run again. When he gets me to type "ms", I immediately ask, "msconfig?" "Yes." So, I simply type that in. But, before I press enter to open it, he leaves the phone. Okaaaaaaay, now would be a good time to open Audacity and put the phone on speaker. Audacity starts recording, picking up all the workers in the background. And then, whilst telling some people on Skype and my girlfriend over text about the situation, I wait some more. I tab back into Roblox a few times. Then the phone, sadly, just hangs up; I technically have no proof of this entire situation.

I try to call him back, but I find out that the Caller ID was somehow my phone's; how do people mask themselves like that? It's cool, but in my situation very annoying.

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So, in the end, a moment I've been waiting "my whole life" for ends very anticlimactically. How disappointing, I was prepared to destroy him even further, cause I know more of their little tricks to convince people something's wrong.

10 years ago*

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I wonder if the callers are even scam victims themselves, who paid money for a course to be become a "computer technician", which consisted only of these lines of dialogue and a questionable job opportunity.

10 years ago
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You know, I've never thought of it like that :o That could make for a great TV mini-series plot.

10 years ago
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Pretty sure they are scamming for the sake of stealing money from the elderly and anyone they can steal from
Doubt they are victims at best they are working at a telemarker job whose company scams people

10 years ago
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Well, we know they're trying to scam the less-knowledgeable for money c: Still, doesn't mean I didn't feel a bit ticked off

You never know :3 Maybe the company is victim to some kinda mob. For all we know there's a huge conspiracy going on behind these scams.

10 years ago
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That was just a guesstimate of me, like "I would do it this way, if I was to set up a scam operation" as I doubt that so many people are desperate enough to drop all sorts of morals just to earn a quick buck. As OP mentioned there're countless videos of their calls on youtube, and I watched some of them where people were explicitly messing with them, which made me laugh to be fair. But somehow I had the feeling, that some were really, deeply convinced of their computer skills and that they are helping their potential vicitms- so what would be easier than conditioning them to think that they're a "certified" technician?

tl;dr: I certainly don't know, but I doubt that they're evil enough to scam just for the sake of scamming

10 years ago
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You're pretty lucky. My wife got few calls from +91, which is India as well. Unfortunately, all calls happened after midnight. Would kill them for waking us instead of talk with 'em. Anyway, strategy "unknown number - don't answer" works just fine.

10 years ago
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Oh my, that sounds very sucky

10 years ago
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some of them just record your voice answering "Yes" so they can slip it into a fake conversation where you are buying their product

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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Well, it's in the same vein as what happened to me.

10 years ago
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Does this happen in the US? I've never heard of this in my country.

10 years ago
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I'm in the US. So, yes. It does happen in the US. I have no idea about other countries though; I'd assume so. I think I've seen videos showing this happen in Canada.

10 years ago
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Canada is still US to me ;) What about Europe?

10 years ago
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I have no idea about Europe.

10 years ago
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We have same problem with east european countries like Poland XD

10 years ago
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I hate racists more.

10 years ago
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they are from India.....it's not racism...buy a dictionary please

10 years ago
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neigh

10 years ago
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He was in fact an Indian man. Not really racism. I'm just pointing out the facts from both what happened to me and what I've seen in videos; also to try showing the shock I had when it wasn't the voice I expected on the other end. No hate/discrimination against Indians, if that's how you perceived it.

10 years ago
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never had the Indian call...but I had a Chinese guy call me last month telling me I had a virus...my friend keeps one of those coach's whistles and blows it into his phone when they call...they dont seem to like that

10 years ago
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Good. Them scammers need a little life coaching.

10 years ago
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