New phishing scam (password or verification code)

Exactly my sentiments too !

Same pig, different lipstick.

I am always concerned when I get unsolicited requests for password and such.

I never respond to an calls that asks me anything. They had better tell me, or I wont talk to them. Even then, I am not very compliant.

A lifetime ago... When my son was little.. Say 3 years old, we'd get these unsolicited calls.. I'd always say, "Just a minute you need to talk with my financial advisor."

Then I'd hand the phone to our son...he just loved to talk on the phone

I can only imagine both parties had fun.. It was the only time our son was allowed to talk on the phone... It was a real treat for him!

Now if I could get my wife to follow .... she's too nice for her own good sometimes.

Unfortunately, the World is full of dishonest people always trying to use any means to take advantage of people.

I get the Microsoft Windows scam call all the time.
I tell them I know they are a scam and hang up but they keep calling.
No way to stop them.

A good friend of mine told me to whistle into the phone, I went one better and bought a marine distress whistle,approx 9$, puts out a 115db blast not all of it gets thro but enough to deture futcher calls. It appears to work, but make sure are talking to a carbon unit, computers are deaf and so are the carbon base units after just one blast, good luck!!!.

And if I remember my law class, that's a federal offense, something to the effect of intentional injury... Definately not cool

But these people are scum. They'd gladly steal every penny from you in a heartbeat without blinking an eye. Maybe this will teach a few of them a lesson about karma and they'll find a legitimate line of work. If not, call back and blow out the other ear. Some people just can't be reasoned with.

I have had better luck than I expected asking them for their phone number. (I assume the caller ID number is forged.) Seems they really don't want you know how to find them so they tend to hangup really fast.

However, still no luck with the "there is nothing wrong with your credit card" but please call us immediately to fix it calls. Hard to believe that enough people would fall for that to even pay for the automated calling every day.

That's no worse than shooting an intruder breaking into your house. The scam makes them criminals as soon as they dial your number.

I was getting 10 to 30 "junk" calls per day on my land line. These included scams, charities, political, surveys, etc. So in March I bought a T-Lock call blocker. When a blocked number calls, it only rings once, then disconnects the call. I now have well over 100 numbers blocked. It has reduced my number of junk calls down to fewer than 10 per week, and as I get calls from new numbers, I continue to add them to the block list (only requires pushing one button on the T-Lock). The device also blocks all calls that don't have caller ID, so I am no longer getting these nuisance calls from "Private caller", "number unavailable", etc.

It is not a perfect solution and does require a little patience and effort, but it sure has helped in my case.

Search the Internet for the "Disconnect" SIT or Special Information Tones. It's that sound you always get when you dial a disconnected number. Use it as the first part of your answering machine message. Calls drop dramatically.

I tried that, years ago. I got mixed results. Maybe I didn't have a good clear recording.

Anytime I get a nuisance call, I can select block caller. I wish I could block calls that easily on my landline. I can block calls, but the process is much more cumbersome.

The whistle sounds great.
I am on the do not call list but that is just a joke because of any one being able to call with any number. They even use my number sometime.

I have blocked many numbers but they just keep changing them.
I think the Windows scam is out of the us. They keep changing their number but it is always the same voice.

I will try the disconnect sound. The only problem is my 96 year old mother.

She calls a lot (A LOT) and she gets confused so don't know what the disconnect would do to her. I try and explain anything different but she forgets.

I have stopped answering anything I don't know. They hang up and leave no messages. Hope they get tired and go on to someone else.. Dreaming aren't I.

My husband cursed the guy out in his favorite "sailor" voice and that was the end of those annoying calls.

I had a call from direct tv about upgrading my services for about half price and all new equipment all he needed was my credit card no. I told him my wife had the card and I would have to wait until she came home, so he gives me his personal cell no to call back when she gets home !! so I call direct tv and guess what they never called about any deal and said they don't give out cell phone numbers to call back on. I thought there was something wrong when he kept pressing for a card no.
oh and we both have cards so even if it sounds good call back to a real number and check it out.

be careful the guy with the bad accent from ( India or Pakistan ) saying you have a virus on your computer ( he says he works for Microsoft ) and he will fix it for you is calling again ! just tell him you have an apple computer and he will hang up !

Good advice everyone!

I told them "just a minute" and put my son on who is an IT geek. They actually hung up on him. I was impressed!

I will try telling him I have an apple computer.
Good idea. Thanks

I'm going back before the Do Not Call List era, but I blocked a few numbers on my landine and it ended up costing me money, per blocked call. Got rid of that feature right away. It may be different now but be carefull.

I'd really like to have a cheap laptop so infected with malware and virii that it oozes puss. And ransom ware. Then let the sucker connect to it.

Nuisance junk calls are the main reason we don't have a "home" phone anymore. The junk calls on our cell phones are maybe 1 or 2 a month.

I can afFord to NOT answer any calls not in my contact list. Unknown numbers don't even go to voice mail.

Lately I have seen a few junk text messages that I never open.

With the T-Lock blocker this isn't needed as blocked numbers get disconnected at the first ring. My experience with junk calls that aren't yet blocked and ring through is that they almost never go to the answering machine. I have my phone set for 5 rings before it goes to answering machine, so the scammers apparently hang up before that because I seldom get a message from a junk caller.

The default for most answering machines is usually 2, 4, and 6. So most robots hang up on the fourth ring. Setting for 5 is an unusual option.

If you save a number from caller ID on the panasonic phone you are offered the option to save to: call Blocked or Phone Book. the phone I have will block up to 250 numbers.

With my service I have set up an incoming call routing list for the junk calls. Once on the list if another call from the same number comes in, they receive a "this number has been disconnected message " and it never even rings on my phone. This works great except the junk callers change the number they are calling from. I just add this number to the list. So far I have about 120 numbers on the list.This is a free feature of my VOIP service..

is the same as yours. Better safe than sorry.

For my VOIP land phone, I use Nomorobo and so far has worked great.

https://www.nomorobo.com/

It's a pretty good scam as those things go. It's unfortunate that so many people act without thinking and will fall for the scam. In this day and age it's sometimes hard to understand how people can still be so gullible but then I look around me at the people I see and suddenly it's not so difficult to understand at all.

when I tried to find out where he was calling from, he just kept saying Microsoft Service Center. He was very convincing but he couldn't answer how he knew there was a problem with my computer when my computer was not even on at the time. He was very cagey in answering my questions and he tried to keep me on the phone. however, I finally hung up.

The first time I got a call like that, I told the caller that I didn't have a Windows computer, only a Mac. It wasn't true, but he hung up on me anyway without saying another word. To me, that confirmed it was a scam.

Okay, so the folks on this forum tend to be better than the average bear.

But the predators are getting smarter -- some of the spam I see is really, really good. I'm glad I've got the defenses in depth that I have.

But then my son (who's a sysadmin) and I talk about the latest slime, and we wonder -- how do *normal* people deal with this stuff?

My mother-in-law knows she doesn't have a B of A account, and we've harped on her enough that when she gets an e-mail warning about her B of A, or some other banking account, she just deletes it.

The challenge for us is to educate those around us, and insure they have structures in place to protect them.

Your Aunt Mildred doesn't know (and probably doesn't want to know) what Flash is or why it should be updated -- so is it set to automatically update on her computer? Is she running NoScript and FlashStopper? HTTPS Everywhere? Does she know who she can call when her computer "starts acting funny?"

I don't like those calls either, but I'd rather get them than deal with the alternatives.

Reach out to those around you and educate, please.

(end of monday morning rant)

I told the guy, I also work for same company he does.. now what...

has been very informative.

https://youtu.be/-7OgWcwgB50

On Friday afternoon my wife received a call. The numbers show up as +9202 on the phone. We don't normally answer calls from unknown numbers but my father in law (who lives in Asia) occasionally calls his daughter and the numbers always show up as either less than 7 digits or a lot more than 10 digits. Long story short, I told her to pick up the phone, just in case it was her dad.

We hear recorded message that says they're from Bank of America fraud department. My debit card has been blocked because of an unauthorized use. Press 1 if we want to reinstate it. WHAT? I was surprised for a split second. I guess that's because this is my first time hearing a scam delivered by phone call. I realized it seconds later and hung up. I'm sure the next step is to provide my account number and PIN to "reactivate" the card.

I received a call but it was from a live lady. She asked it I had made purchases in San Francisco and the UK today. I told her no and she said they would cancel my card and issue me a new one.

They never asked me for any information. After the conversation ended I called the number on the back of my card and they verified that the call was legit. Apparently they don't ask for any information if it is the real thing. I received a new card in the mail.

That's right. It's fine as long as they don't get any information from us.

I've had my credit cards replaced due to fraud but no one called me to verify it first.

I'm sure my "blocked" debit card is fine. I was able to withdraw some money two days later. Not a penny is missing from my account.

Hard for phishers to pretend they're a bank...

Damn, I like that idea!

-K

I remembered reading your post when this man called again. I told him I sold that computer and had an Apple. He hung right up without saying another word and I haven't had another call from him so far.

Thanks for this suggestion.

I wish I could use Special High Intensity Tone on those scammers.

This scam is now available for OSX and iOS users. Isn't that great?

So far what I have seen is calls initiated by unsuspecting iOS/OSX users when they get a (javascript) warning on Safari browser that tells them they have malware. It asks them to call a number to fix the problem. It's not clear if they can remotely connect to their device or not.

I wouldn't be surprised if these guys now start targeting OSX users (by calling them). I'm a lazy guy. I just hang up without saying a word.

....claiming to be from the IRS. I received one a couple of weeks ago. It went something like this: 'This is the IRS and we need to talk to you about setting up a payment plan to pay your overdue taxes'. First of all, the IRS will never (ever) call you. They just send the dreaded letter. Secondly, I haven't paid taxes in years. I've always gotten a refund back for over-payment. So, if you get a call such as this, don't reply. Just hang up. Or, as one of my brother's friends did; he informed them that he was a deputy sheriff and asked them for their telephone number and name. They hung up and haven't called back since.

Thanks for the update!