# I cant believe I fell for a hackers bit **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2014, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468 "2014-09-14T11:09:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/41 "2014-09-15T22:34:26Z")
They called me at work, and I wasn’t fooled. I told them bluntly they were scammers, & hung up. No further calls. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/42 "2014-09-15T22:53:16Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Its sad. There are actual full call-centers (boiler rooms?) set up to do this 24-7; they just switch areas at different times of day. I think I read here the worst thing that you can do is to challenge them, as they already have your name / phone number and are well outside of any jurisdiction of any agency that you could contact (aka- above the law). > > Supposedly the best thing you can do is to say that you don’t have a computer. No computer, no scam, no money… and they then move on. I like to tell them that I have something on the stove and then ask them if they can hold for a minute. They always say, “Yes” which surprises me to no end. Then, I go and watch some TV or do something else for about 20 minutes and come back to see if they are still there. They are almost always still holding. So I talk or listen for a minute and then tell them someone is at the door and ask them to hold. But I don’t wait for an answer. I just put the phone down and wrap it in a blanket so I won’t hear any loud noise from it. Then I come back in another 20 minutes. Most of them are gone by then. But about one third are still waiting. So, I keep doing this until they get tired. I once had some East Indian lady wait for 90 minutes. Why do I do this? It costs me nothing. It’s not a problem for me. But I figure they are all on some kind of commission. So if they sit around doing nothing for 30 or 60 minutes, that is a problem for them. The more people who do this, the sooner these bastards will learn they are being screwed and they will just go away after a few minutes and they won’t come back. It’s no fun to have someone waste a big chunk of your day. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/43 "2014-09-16T05:00:17Z")
I do some security work so I’ve got a server set up with virtual machines (VMs) that I can play around on without worrying about consequences. [Obligatory XKCD](http://xkcd.com/350/). Not really that, but I love the idea. But anyways, I’ll link them to a VM to see what their game is and to waste their time to keep them from bothering someone else. The latest thing seems to be ransomware where they install a program to encrypt all the documents, pics, video, etc and then want you to pay them to ‘fix’ them. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/44 "2014-09-16T05:03:08Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > They called me at work, and I wasn’t fooled. > I told them bluntly they were scammers, & hung up. > No further calls. Which still gets me, I knew it, but went along. I feel so dumb. I’m only 48 and fairly computer literate. I feel like a teenager who should know better who just shoved a fork into an electrical socket. Follow-up, I havent found anything yet they have done but I’m closely watching all of my accounts and have run my antivirus software several times. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/45 "2014-09-16T05:07:13Z")
I wonder how good this scam is going because my credit card company wouldn’t okay the charge and I found out the company and all its numbers are well known frauds. So they are getting found out and I suppose all the ID theft groups are also onto them. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/46 "2014-09-16T06:13:20Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’m still kicking myself over that one since I saw it on his computer, I was going to just delete and I thought ‘nah, he’s not that dumb’ and 2 minutes later he’s telling me that he has a problem on his computer :smack:. Wait… You left a known virus e-mail in your dad’s inbox because…? Why? So he could have the pleasure of deleting it himself? What point was there to leaving it there? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/47 "2014-09-16T07:31:37Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I can only read this in Monty Python voices. 😃 > > * * * I’m definitely doing that next time they call. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/48 "2014-09-16T10:55:51Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I like to tell them that I have something on the stove and then ask them if they can hold for a minute. They always say, “Yes” which surprises me to no end. > > Then, I go and watch some TV or do something else for about 20 minutes and come back to see if they are still there. They are almost always still holding. So I talk or listen for a minute and then tell them someone is at the door and ask them to hold. But I don’t wait for an answer. I just put the phone down and wrap it in a blanket so I won’t hear any loud noise from it. > > Then I come back in another 20 minutes. Most of them are gone by then. But about one third are still waiting. So, I keep doing this until they get tired. I once had some East Indian lady wait for 90 minutes. > > Why do I do this? > > It costs me nothing. It’s not a problem for me. But I figure they are all on some kind of commission. So if they sit around doing nothing for 30 or 60 minutes, that is a problem for them. > > The more people who do this, the sooner these bastards will learn they are being screwed and they will just go away after a few minutes and they won’t come back. It’s no fun to have someone waste a big chunk of your day. I approve of this method! If you have a cordless, you could just put it down in another room until the battery runs out of juice and it hangs up automatically. And then, you can get back to what you were doing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/49 "2014-09-16T12:01:03Z")
I suppose I kind of did that. I wasted half an hour of their time, plus extra time they were trying to call me back, and they got nothing for it. Plus my credit card company now has additional information on them to make their job even harder in the future. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/50 "2014-09-16T16:22:11Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > This is one reason I keep a landline, it filters out the junk calls. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > Not only we still have a landline… How does having a landline reduce junk calls? ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/51 "2014-09-16T16:31:24Z")
It happened to my youngest daughter’s in-laws. The call was from ‘Windows Support’. The scammer got as far as putting a password on the computer start-up and demanding a fee for the password. From what I gather, they often just hang up once they get the money without giving the password and/or encrypt the hard drive so no data can be removed. The father-in-law stopped just short of giving away his credit card number. Being the family computer expert, I pulled their hard drive out and put it into a USB hard drive enclosure. I was able to back up everything from their computer to another external hard drive just in case I couldn’t get their PC unlocked. Next I put the hard drive back in but booted the computer from a CD with WindowsPE on it. From there I was able to use System Restore to go back a couple of weeks and get things back to the way they were. Of course the way things were wasn’t all that good. The virus checker hadn’t been updated in about a year. There was all kinds of malware on the computer. I ran a couple of good virus checking products and cleaned up the malware. I then installed Microsoft Essentials. It might not be the best, but it’s free. Oh! I did have to turn off the service that allowed remote access to the computer even after running System Restore. Maybe it was on before the incident. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/52 "2014-09-16T16:41:29Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > How does having a landline reduce junk calls? Built-in call blocker. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/53 "2014-09-16T19:21:43Z")
When I visit my parents I run Ad-Aware and am amazed at how much junk their computer is infested with. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/54 "2014-09-16T20:24:51Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > _:bows reverently before the uber-geekness of **BrotherCadfael** ’s wife:_ > > Regards, > Shodan Yeah, we met many years ago working for a volunteer EMS organization, and first bonded playing Star Trek trivia one long afternoon. How many years ago? Well, let’s just say we played TOS trivia, as at that time there were no alternatives… ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/55 "2014-09-16T20:33:10Z")
It’s not just the Klingon; it’s the Dothraki. She is a _current_ geek. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/56 "2014-09-16T22:25:12Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > They called me at work, and I wasn’t fooled. > I told them bluntly they were scammers, & hung up. > No further calls. > [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Which still gets me, I knew it, but went along. I feel so dumb. I’m only 48 and fairly computer literate. I feel like a teenager who should know better who just shoved a fork into an electrical socket. > > Follow-up, I havent found anything yet they have done but I’m closely watching all of my accounts and have run my antivirus software several times. Don’t sweat it, I’m a nasty & un-trusting person by nature. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468/57 "2014-09-16T23:44:16Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > It’s not just the Klingon; it’s the Dothraki. She is a _current_ geek. > > Regards, > Shodan And she’s MY current geek! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-believe-i-fell-for-a-hackers-bit/698468.md?page=2)