Failure :(
Jess Hampshire (158) 865 posts |
I just had one of those “We’ve detected a virus on your system” scam calls. I only managed 5 minutes before he hung up. :( Saying Netsurf as the browser didn’t seem the phase him much, but when I said RISC OS for the operating system, he went to speak to a supervisor and then hung up. I think my error was volunteering too much information. |
Eric Rucker (325) 232 posts |
C’mon, there are better ways to troll scammers like that. (Luckily, I’ve not had to deal with them.) “Start button? I don’t see a start button! It’s in the lower left, you say? All I see there is HardDisc4, :0, and Apps.” “It says that an application that loads a file of this type has not been found by the Filer!” “Operating system? How do you expect me to know what operating system I have?” (Alternately, give Firefox as your OS (hey, it does run on RISC OS), like many people give Internet Explorer as theirs on Windows. The fun part with that is, Firefox actually is an OS.) |
Jess Hampshire (158) 865 posts |
Yes. I volunteered too much information. In my defence I was tired after a long day at work (or more the travelling). A friend said he had managed 25 minutes using Netware 6.5. That would have been funny. |
Grahame Parish (436) 480 posts |
They’ve learned to detect people who are too clever and don’t seem to take much time in answering the questions/following their instructions. You need to sound and act slow and confused and you can string them out for ages. When they ask me to download the remote access software I refuse to and I finally break the news that I’m a Microsoft trained and certified computer consultant and I know it’s a scam. I was once asked why I didn’t tell them earlier and wasted their time… :-0 |
Theo Markettos (89) 919 posts |
You need to discover your internet is very bad and the download of their rootkit is very very slow. I once managed 3 hours that way, including having a shower with them listening to the running water. Had another the other day when I was about to go out – managed to drive off (cordless phone) with them still on the line… |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
…watch a master at work… |
Kevin (224) 322 posts |
I just had one of those and told him he was a thief and F off and die. I’m not a polite as you lot. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
Well, I suppose that works too but when have time to do a multi-task time slice of your attention to wind them up to the point that they want (or do) tell you F.O.A.D it can be a real day brightener. |
Kevin (224) 322 posts |
I’d been out in the rain most of the day and wanted a hot bath more than I wanted to waste their time. Next time I might play dumb and say I’d get my computer guy to phone them the next day as the deals with that side of thiings. Then report them. |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
I used to get a few “unusual” calls on the landline, despite being on the liste rouge – but thankfully these calls are pretty easy to spot. Them: Blah blah blah. Me : Eh? Them: Blah blah blah (repeating) Me : Hé? Them: Blah blah-blah (slightly different) Me : Nihongo-ga wakirimas ka? Them: [stunned silence] Me : Um... tu... parre... m'wa... japonaise... oui? Japonaise, né? : <click> [I can’t say “do you speak English” because knowing my luck, somebody there probably does; but I figure I’m on safer ground with asking if they speak Japanese!] Suffice to say, I only get bothered now by Orange trying to:
Sadly Orange, being the telco, tend to phone you to punt rubbish, and they’re quite persistent, even when dealing with “troublesome” clients, like that poor receptionist girl who phoned me for a customer satisfaction survey. She asked me “What can Orange provide for you to make you happier?” I knew there was no point asking for faster internet, I’m at the end of nearly 5kms of cable. So I said “ice cream, caramel flavour… and doughnuts, the type with the hole in the middle” 1. She asked me to repeat that, which I did (“glace, goût de caramel, et aussi des donuts, les avec le trou dans les centres” 1). Then there was this really really long silence. To which she finally said “merci monsieur” and timidly carried on with less interesting questions. 1 I didn’t mention tea. I don’t think the French understand the British obsession with tea. I’m not sure anybody non-Commonwealth does. If you have any doubt – watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
Ah, yes that version. The wife normally plays dumb, dangles the play mouse in front of the phone kitty for a while – and then tells them what I do for a living :-) |
nemo (145) 2529 posts |
We use the corporate-sounding but actually nonsensical “There’s no one available right now”. |
Rik Griffin (98) 264 posts |
Nice to see the good Professor is speading the word to the less civilised parts of the globe :) |
Keith Dunlop (214) 162 posts |
Whilst we are on the subject, spookily enough, new single from Professor Elemental this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkF_XpA5P48 This is still my favourite though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk Bloody marvellous what? ;-) |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
Not related to crank/spam calls, but the topic heading fits. So I’ve just come across Great Teacher Onizuka and knowing that stuff on YouTube tends to vanish when you blink ( except stuff like this ), I decided to batch-download them. Yeah. Well, that was the plan. Reality, however, kicked in and let me know that it just wasn’t going to happen.
Jeez. Something that ought to be simple. Really. Isn’t. |
Martin Bazley (331) 379 posts |
I’m sure I’m playing right into the hands of some elaborately set-up punchline here, but… Did you try using Murnong? |
Keith Dunlop (214) 162 posts |
There’s a Python script called Youtubedl which works very well but I don’t know if it will do batch downloads. |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
Bookmarked, it’s useful to know. I have YouTubeDownloaderHD for single downloads (easier cut’n’paste of URLs). |
Martin Bazley (331) 379 posts |
It does work. (Well, it works at the moment, but breaks periodically whenever YouTube changes something, so make sure you’ve always got the latest version.) But it does work one by one, which would get tedious. |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
I was not intending to imply that Murnong didn’t work – however when you are looking for a batch downloader… There’s another lurking gotcha – if you download “too much”, YouTube will stop giving videos to everything except its player (and accesses to the real site will demand a captcha). |
Matthew Phillips (473) 719 posts |
No point reporting them. We tried that once, keeping them talking on one phone and ringing the police via another. But the police said that basically because these folk are phoning from India there is absolutely nothing they can do about blocking calls or prosecuting. The only way is to raise awareness of the scam. A former colleague who does not even own a computer mentioned in a letter recently that he was in trouble with Microsoft and might get his phone line cut off. I think that was the impression he had got from one of these people. |
Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts |
O/T but …. HTH |