Tuesday 17 January 2012

EVENTVWR

The Indian enevtvwr phone scam.

The Scam

Many people will have experienced the Indian telephone virus scam.  It starts with a telephone call and an Indian technical expert telling you s/he has information that your computer is infected with a virus.  He then tells you to press the "Windows" key (the one with the flag on it) and the "R" key.  This, of course, opens the "Run" window where you can type commands into the operating system.  There are various different scams that they use but a typical one is to ask you to type "eventvwr" which runs the Micro$oft Windows Event Viewer.  This shows a list of logged events and typically is full of error messages.  The error messages are quite normal and Windows generates a lot of them as it tests all sorts of things.  They are meant to be there and are only interesting if you are very technical and want to know detailed information about what sequences of operations Windows is executing.  (Another use I have discovered is to detect if anyone has switched your computer on whilst you were away.)  But...

To the uninitiated this can look like a lot of frightening error messages and presumably the scammer then goes on to frighten you and to suggest there is something wrong with your computer.  They may suggest you have a virus or a bug or a Trojan or a worm or some other dastardly infection.  They will then get you to hand control of your computer to them and they will download all your data which will likely contain bank accounts, passwords, credit card details and all sorts of very useful information for what is called "identity theft".

There is little more that needs explaining here except to say they can do a lot of damage and get away with a degree of serious profit.

The Conversation

I just received one such phone call and was very entertained to keep the guy going for a while.  I kept asking him to spell things again and again and then declared, with feigned horror, that the box had disappeared and we had to go through the process again.  I did enquire as to how much he was paid and suggested he told his boss to put his finger up his rear orifice.  He queried the word "office" and so I spelt it very slowly with the phonetic alphabet (which I learnt during my time as a seaman (not a sperm); O for Oscar, R for Romeo, I for India, at which point he asked me if I liked India... F for Foxtrot, I for India (the same silly joke), C for Charlie and E for Echo.  A moment later another voice, speaking much better English, announced "Hello this is Peter."  He went on to say "Do you see in the top right hand corner of your screen that I am fu<*ing your mother and your daughter."  Well I had to laugh.  I said if he could see my mother he wouldn't be so proud of his claim.  The abuse got more and more basic and obscene and I laughed more and more.  I had clearly got under his skin.  This went on for a while with comments going back and forth until I said to him that I understood he was only trying to make a living and I wished him well in the future and hoped he could find a better way to do it.  The torrent of abuse that was flowing quite rapidly evaporated and he said that he had not sworn at me but that he had done it because I had been rude to [whoever] and in no time at all we were having a civilised conversation.  It was brief, to the point, he apologised and we both wished each other well and said goodbye.

The Philosophical Point

It is all well and good for us civilised people to satisfy our egos that we are really nice and morally good people.  It is a sad fact that a lot of that is precisely collective Freudian projection.  I have discovered that this civilised world of ours is not so civilised after all.  The Joker's quote from The Dark Night: "When the chips are down, these uh, these 'civilized people', they'll eat each other." comes to mind.  We are living in an aggressive, competitive, oppressive, controlling hierarchy akin to the ancient Egyptian slave culture.  We are wage slaves (well those of you who are lucky enough to have a wage).  The financially well off are controlling the environment and like a game of musical chairs it doesn't work if you supply enough chairs.  They require poor people and they manipulate the situation to achieve that.  And poor doesn't just mean hard up it means at the bottom of the pile life is as bad as it gets and death is the only reprieve.  They need that threat to force others to comply with their wishes.  So we pretend we live in a democracy and we pretend we care about other people, we pretend we have a National Health System and a Social Security system, we pretend we have a just and reasonable legal system and we pretend to offer an education to our children, but all these things still require compliance for their own financial survival and very well being.  Notice the salaries of the people who are at the top of these systems and check up the actual facts behind the production and distribution of health or the facts behind the education system or the legal system and you will soon discover that if they don't get their way they are ruthless in the extreme.  So we here in the "West" are some of the richest humans on the planet and we need poor countries to be under our control and doing our biding.  The poor folk in India are in an unacceptable state of human deprivation but they have the internet.  Humans have the potential to be intelligent and the message is spreading far and wide even more so than when the printing press was invented.  Some people get the idea that the people who are squeezing them to death have no right to do that and eventually, combined with their instinct to survive, they resort to the same tactics they feel are used against them.  Deception and trickery to obtain income to survive seem the only option short of suffering in silence and losing their life.  It is perfectly understandable that they would resort to "ripping people off" just as the hierarchy are doing to them.  And when you think about it, if you are going to succeed, you have to pick on people who are weaker than you, just as the hierarchy do.  So I get it.  (Unlike the Prime Minister Baboon Cameroon who makes the same claim.)  If you want to see how sincere these kind and helpful organisations like the Children Services really are, then check out their behaviour and how they "handle" a complaint at the Toxic Drums "Children Services Abuse" section.

We live in an abusive controlling culture that strips people of self responsibility and infects them with a charade of a "moral framework" that perpetuates the power mongers control.  Think about our education system for example.  It is an inhumane mechanism of brainwashing.  Kids are not really provided with useful information for themselves but rather they are taught lessons that are useful for the controllers.  Studies amply illustrate that what kids really learn at school is how to kowtow to the bosses.  Of course if you do this better than the next chap you will be rewarded better and so the hierarchy supports itself.  Until people start taking personal responsibility for their lives the human race is destined to failure.  People in this culture regard themselves as good because they do what they are told and they regard what the politicians do in their name abroad as not their personal responsibility but it is.

Untill you are willing to do something about stopping the disgusting deception and abhorrent behaviour of the politicians you can't complain when the little guys in another country simply want to steel some of your dosh.  Let me correct that: You can complain but with no moral legitimacy.

For lots more information on this scam and many others see Zyra's Phone Virus Scam page.

44 comments:

  1. Been there...er...sort of...

    Got a landline call from an Indian Call centre about something or other...

    Kept him on the line for about 10 minutes asking about the weather etc...then said 'I'll be back in a minute' and went to watch TV.

    No idea how long the idiot hung about....it was at least 20 minutes before I went and hung up the land line...

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  2. Ha Ha. I've just received one of these calls. I answered all questions accurately e.g "Do you have a windows PC?", I use Ubuntu - which uses windows to display information, so I said yes. After 10 minutes of me dutifully answering questions and booting up my laptop, they asked me if I could see a windows button on the desktop - I said no, they asked me if i could see a windows button on my keyboard - I said no. They asked me if it was an apple logo - I said no. They asked me what i could see, I said a logo which is a circle with three dots in it. I was asked to press this and R, which brought up a run dialogue, and was asked to type in eventvwr. This faield to run as there is no such command found by Ubuntu. I told them there was a file not found error, and was passed to a supervisor, who asked me similar questions, and then she passed to me her senior supervisor. He asked me what I cold see, and I said, a fireplace, table, rug, laptop, television, chair and many other things. He hung up.

    I call that 1-0 to me :-) I kept those scumbags on the line for 10 minutes just to waste their time. If we all did that with international telemarketeers (my best record is 25 minutes) I'm sure we'd all receive far fewer calls, but unfortunately, coaching the masses to recognise these scams appears to be futile.

    Still, it's good fun to wind them up when they do call :-)

    Their number if you wish to say hello to these idiots, if you dial from UK, is 002092201908.

    Enjoy!

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    1. Just had the call, I feel initiated. The number was 01800456324

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    2. they are using a new number 271-386-4976 just getting the work out there on this scam

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    3. Just received a call - this time the number was 989-529-0872 and it indicated it was a cell phone from MI. I immediately knew it was a scam but kept him on the phone 15 minutes pretending to be horrified that this could happen to my computer. I also asked him to repeat himself several times and told him I couldn't understand him. He then put another guy on the phone and we started all over again. All the while we were going thru this sham I was looking up the code he wanted me to type in the run box which was EVENTVWR. Once I did this page came up.... just as I knew it would. It was then that I warned him to never call my house again and hung up. He called me back asking why I hung up!! After threatening to give his phone number to the police if he ever called again HE hung up. I agree that keeping them on the line as long as possible and letting them think you understand and will do whatever the tell you to do MIGHT eventually make them realize we're on to them. But the couple of uninformed, naïve, innocent people that they DO get to follow their instructions probably makes it worth their while to keep trying.

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  3. Had a few of these calls to my mum and dads phone line, The say they are from microsoft windows support lol, I kept her on the phone for ages,
    She wanted me to run eventvwr not even asking about my operating systems,
    I started laughing on the phone and asked to speak to her manager as i am a computer engineer, then the line cut out!
    This has happened quite a few times, there phone bill must be huge!!

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  4. Just recieve one dam call exactely like what this website had mention!
    Dam! Not to be racist but if it was a real company, who would put a indian incharge of calling!
    This is really funny as i went on asking wat i was told and i keep trolling him when he say v i said b and i keep telling him the wrong letter. After which i simply told him my computer crash due to a power failure and eventually hang up.
    But that pest was persistence so i just keep picking up his call and hang up without replying him...

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  5. I got call today from this indian guy and I just told him Linux worked out very well and of course my Apple were fanatstic so no problem with Windows. He just hang up.

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  6. Just received this call....after I called them on their bullshit and hung up, they had the nerve to call back! So glad I punched the code he gave me into google and found this page! Bullet=dodged!

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    1. loool my mom got this call today but she realized this was a scam somehow and she didn't trust it! next time they call, im gonna troll the f*** outta them

      *they gonna be mad getting trolled by a 13 year-old :D

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  7. I've now had this scam twice,I kept them talking and after refusing to enter a web address in my run box, eventually got told to goto teamviewer.com - they wanted me to join a remote control session - obviously I declined to download software that would give them control of my computer!!

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    1. I just got the same call. I too let him tell me as much as possible til he directed me to a remote access site. I refused repeatedly. He said he had spent a lot of time, and now I won't help him? When he told me I deserve it (My computer is beinng hacked by a pro), I hung up, something I just don't do but this was the 3d call in 2 days.

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    2. Yes - They have driven me to treating them in ways I would never have thought I would treat anyone.

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  8. Between pretending my computer takes forever to boot and not understanding what a dialog box was I was able to stretch the call out to 24 minutes before I had to finally admit that I had not really walked over to the computer and yes...I had purposefully wasted the caller's time... what a hoot.

    I received my very first Indian accent "yu mudder phukker" to which I responded: "Have a lovely remainder to your day."

    Someday I aspire to be a good as this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdoogjic4I

    Cheers

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    1. I had the same call as everybody else. I knew it was fake when he couldn't tell me which computer. The highlight of the call was when he told me to 'come on the keyboard'. Unfortunately my phone died before I could shit him and his supervisor about some more. I'm eagerly waiting for their call now, which is what they want but I'm sure they'll be disappointed :)

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    2. its a shame that such people exist and breathe out air. they woke me from sleeping as I am not well and then couldn't get back to sleep after talking to them and realizing that they could not be for real.

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    3. I'm sorry to hear you are not well and I totally understand what you mean. There is something particularly gruesome about what they do given that they are treading on all and sundry quite regardless of those people's individual circumstances.

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  9. I just got the call here in BC, Canada. I had heard of this scam years ago, and was surprised that it was still going on. so of course I played along and through casual conversation managed to get employee numbers of about 5 people there, and the address of the company so that I could email them a letter of thank-you. Of course I know the names, employee numbers and address was bogus, but it was good to string him along almost as much as he thought he was stringing me. When he got to the part about remotely connecting to my computer to help me through the process I pretended to follow all the instructions and told him that it was having problems connecting and that I kept getting an invalid connection error. then I told him that a BSD appeared. Of course he had no idea what I was talking about and suggested I try to reboot when I told him that it was a blue screen of death (fatal error) and that the screen froze. This guy was desperate to hook me and I told him that each time we got to the same stage the same thing was happening. This went on four times, before he finally told me that he didn't think he could help me and that I should take my laptop to a computer repair shop to get fixed. Of course this was my turn to turn the tables on them and ask why he couldn't help me, after all they were a Micro$oft help center. I kept this guy on the phone trying to diagnose a bogus problem for 47 minutes before he finally hung up frustrated.

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    1. I love it. These people deserve to have so much time wasted and if it was free entertainment for you all the better :) And thanks for letting me know - it brought me some pleasure too.

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  10. It just happened to me.
    They called three times in a row on the same day starting at 9:00 pm.
    They said my screen was black and there was a problem which is why they called from microsoft.
    They said to go to a diferent computer and type in the eventvwr. I asked how that could help the other computer. DAH!!!!
    Also Microsoft is in America and they said that they were calling from India!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. How sad is it when you reply on your own blog but I had to add this. I scored triple points today. I got a phone call from these people and I told them to fuck off. The guy didn't like it so I told him to "fuck of you mother fucking fucker fuck fucker" and put the phone down. It obviously got him mad because he phoned me back to tell me to fuck off! That has made my day :)

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  12. If its from the middle east or india, it should be leveled ( nuked) God damn fucking pakkies. Die all you cocksucking middle east garbage pig fuckers

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    1. Sometimes expletives help to vent the old spleen eh? And I guess the same rational would apply to the British because of the bankers and the politicians.

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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  14. I just got this call. I was in the middle of setting up Chromecast app on my girlfriend's macbook, just sitting on the floor in front of the TV when my phone rang.

    Normally, I don't answer my phone... if it's important, they'll leave a message. But it was from "Unknown" which piqued my curiosity, I like wrong numbers and talking to strangers, so I answered the phone.

    "Hello..." I spoke.

    "Hi I'm calling because your computer didn't receive the update!" Oh, no! This call must be urgent. My computer didn't receive THE UPDATE!?

    "The update? Oh, okay!"

    I was scared! I thought please, don't waste any time, let's get down to business! I hope he won't bother explaining who he is or what company he works for... don't verify my name, or which computer, let alone what the update is for! Just help me quick!

    "Do you see a Windows icon on your keyboard, next to one called C-T-R-L ?"

    "Yes! I see it! Do I push it?!"

    "Ok, good. Yes, first you need to hold it down, then press the R key and tell me what you see."

    (long pause)

    "Okay I'm ready." I've opened up a new browser tab and loaded google.

    "Ok now type E-V-E-N-T-V-W-R, I'll spell it again to make sure. It's E as in Echo, V as in Victor, E as in Echo..."

    (at this point i've googled "scam eventvwr" which brought me here)

    I had to make sure. That was all the proof I needed so I kindly told him how good his mother felt... over and over... he was probably more confused than anything, and it wasn't the most original twist to an ending, but it had to end. And my girlfriend had just walked into the room so I had to go.

    So this scam is still alive and well, apparently. Like the author said, it really is kind of sad.

    -Blake

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  15. and now is coming in France thx for the information india 0 France 1

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  16. I just got it! Hahah...I'm in Hawaii. Love free entertainment. Although the other half is shaking his head at me. So I just kept the Indian guy going for a while and then hung up after 5 minutes. He tried calling back but I didn't answer. Love these unknown callers!

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    1. Nice to know their entertainment is world wide. ;)

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  17. I just had a call in the UK! I'm quite handy with computers as I've grown up using them a lot... He gave the typical "Your computer has a bad malware infection, I'm calling from microsoft blah blah..." I thought it could be amusing so I played along, acting like I hadn't got a clue what he was telling me (Had Google on standby, just incase). He proceeded to guide me through holding the windows key, bringing up the command promt and then afterwards the event viewer. At this point it went majorly downhill for the guy, he started telling me that all of the messages were errors and warnings, that they were a threat to my PC etc. Which windows does that as standard. Soon after that I decided to inform him that I'm an IT tekkie and have been working with computers for years. He then tried to argue with me about what the event viewer actually shows. I asked to talk to his manager, who was apparently stood right next to the guy as the transition from caller to manager was less than 2 seconds. I then decided to get a tad nasty and told him the other guy was talking out of his arse and that they needed to do a bit more research before they tried fucking me over. Then, after 23 minutes in total, they hung up on me! Made my day :)

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    1. Well done Scott. You got free entertainment AND cost them a lot in wasted telephone time. And you probably pissed them off right royally too. :)

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  18. hopefully most of the people who get this call are not idiot and look it up before doing the remote thing got the call today and instantly did not trust it did not know bought this scam but i can usually smell bullshit like that a mile away i just hung up on him he did try to call back i should have trolled the crap out o him

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  19. Well done for spotting the scamsters Chad. You would think they would be running out of steam by now.

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  20. Just got off the phone with a scammer!! I decided to have some fun because I was having a veryyyyyyyy slow day at the office.

    I made him repeat "EVENTVWR" over and over! I kept saying "Ok, e-B-e-M-t?" and different variations. He was getting so frustrated. After everything he asked me to do, I would ask him to repeat the directions or say nothing is showing up, so can we start all over? I was stalling so I could quickly google "eventvwr" which suprisingly took me to a bunch of sites!

    So, I asked "Edward" how he got my number.. he said it was linked to my computer because I've typed in my personal info on my computer. I said "What?! I only got my computer yesterday and haven't typed it in yet!" He mumbled some bullshit and I acted shocked. I said, "if you have my number, then you've got my name right?" Which he said he doesn't have because of some other mumbled bullshit.

    Every time he asked me to type something, I wouldn't.. and would go along with "yea.. done.. did it.. ok.." He asked me "What pops up in the middle of the screen?" I said "nothing, what's supposed to?" He dodged the question and asked again. I said, "hold on!! My computer is frozen omg. I just bought this thing yesterday. I watched too many Netflix and Youtube videos so I need to restart okay? HOLD ON!" I put the phone down and he hung up after about 5 minutes.

    I WANTED to end the conversation with me telling him that he's a dumb shit and he called a business (my work) and he's full of shit.. but that was more fun to have him wait. I can't wait until they call back tomorrow because they have already called twice today. The first time, I said I wasn't in front of my computer and was hung up on.

    The number that called was 953-267-6390

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    1. Well done for that. You would think they would give up. But the more wasted time the better.

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  21. got this call today, very entertaining. kept them on the line for 34 minutes, my personal record. i had nothing else to do atm, and was having a bad day. this call certainly improved it! the 'supervisor' who came on the line after 15 mins told me he had my MS computer license number (took me over 5 mins to write that number down) and because my computer was allowing other computers to connect to me, he was going to shut my computer down! too funny. he tried and tried to get me to enter different .exe's to run, and of course tried the now classic 'eventvwr' to confuse me. i know if i do not allow it, no one is connecting/downloading to me, as i am on a sat/net connection, very very easy to tell my upload/download statis. i hope they call back, i would like to try to break my record! thanks for the string of info keeping me on the straight and narrow!

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  22. He ask to do same thing as above. Then ask what do you see on the screen? I said it says the Taliban sucks. Then he ask if it said anything about Clinton or any white folks? I said sure it says RIP JFK AND I didn't have sexual relations with that woman. Oh now it has an ad for Old Navy Sale and he started laughing. I gotta go shopping now bye bye..

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  23. LOL Yes, I just got off the phone with a man claiming to be Albert Dawson. There was even two different people posing as the same person. They asked me to run EVENTVWR. He indicated he was from Computer Maintenance. When I asked for a number I can call him back, he gave 302-409-0997.

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  24. and it's still going in Canberra Australia - got a call from a Private Number at 10.35PM (not a worry for me as I'm a night owl and assumed it was my brother who has a silent number). The twist now is he told me it was an emergency as my internet was being hacked. He was from Telstra (my phone/internet is NOT) and I didn't have the patience to string him along when he told me to press windows key + R and just hung up and googled to here.

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  25. Here's what you do if you get this call:
    1) The Indian guy tells you to hold down Ctrl + Win + R
    2) He then wants to know what happens on your computer screen.
    3) Tell him a message has popped up on the screen
    4) He will ask what the message says
    5) You then tell him the message says- "Gandhi is a Faggot"
    6) That will generally end with him cursing at you.
    7) He will then eventually hang up.
    8) You then block his number through your phone company

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  26. Number on the caller ID was 559-386-9702. Said he was calling from a Microsoft technical support company in Ohio. He spoke with a heavy Indian accent and went through most of the same general spiel you see above. He was trying to be forceful by telling me what to do and then to do it. I was a pest to him the first 15 or so minutes as he had just woken me up from a nap. I had just gotten home from a long day in IT. I drew out the effects from the nap as long as I could and then decided to recite to him that the key on the keyboard on the bottom left was the Crtl key. Then he asked my what key was next to it. I didn't appreciate him being the so called expert and not having any idea about what key was next to the Crtl key so I turned the questions back to him. When did they work previously on my PC, what did they do, how do they know what virus/malware I have, how did they know, what sent them the message. And so on and so forth... Then it came time to press the Ctrl - R combo at which point I stopped. I let him know that I'm quite concerned that if I have a rouge program running on my computer, could pressing a series of keystrokes I never use do some harm somewhere? Could I possibly set of a bomb in DC? Could I shut down the internet, or kill my computer? He seemed to be very concerned of my worry but finally I overcame and moved on. E - even V - van E - even - N no T - tango (got one right!) V - van W - whiskey (TWO!) R - ring (to which I told him that whiskey is for W then he should use rum for the R). I had fun with him, playing Bubba for the longest time. I told him at this point that dinner was being served and that in my house, there is no such thing as being late for supper. He told me it would only take him another five minutes but I stayed hard and firm on getting off the phone for supper. I almost disliked getting off of the phone as It was so entertaining to my juvenile son, my wife and myself. We left it that he would call me back tomorrow, we shall see. Much more fun with these folks that those from Credit Card Services...

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  27. Got this call tonight and wasn't able to keep him on the line as long as possible because i asked why i should care if eventvwr showed error messages - or why they would care. The initial caller was an indian girl and the supervisor she switched me to was a male who i could understand a little better. He gave a bullshit answer and seemed to have little patience, saying "just cooperate with the woman's requests" that he was going to switch me back to. I said i still didn't understand, at which he leveled the first insult of me being a "cocksucker for not being cooperative". It had only been 5 min, so i continued playing dumb by asking if he was talking to someone else because there was no reason to say that to me - and why would he need to say that to anyone? He said he was using english slang so i could be sure to understand "that you are a cocksucking mutherfucking" and a string of other expletives. He clearly was frustrated and wanted to end the call but was giving me the opportunity to insult him back.
    Anonymous insults don't affect me and i dont feel the need to retaliate at their level - the best and most effective retaliation is taking their time away from them and/or not acting in a predictable way. I wouldn't insult him back and was trying to string it out longer by changing the subject when he just hung up on me. I didn't play dumb enough at the start because i was stalling for time to google eventvwr, so felt only mildly satisfied. Hope they call back. That was my experience today in san diego calif - and no need to relay their call back number because scammers change it every day and dialing it just gives a dead line recording.

    I'd just want to add something to this common experience. The callers are indian but in No way should we lump all indians together with these people. Something else he said to my "why" questions sounded like "you people" needed to know that we were mutherfuckers. I dont remember the text but did understand the feeling behind him wanting to scam me - alot of genuine, pent-up anger in these thieves. While it doesn't matter what their justifications for being angry at people they've never met, if the aim here is to end these kinds of callers, then just wasting their time isn't enough. Insulting them back is what they predict people that deserve to be ripped off would say to them and alerting law enforcement is a waste of our/their time. Its a long shot, but if they call back, my next step will be to ignore the insults while maneuvering them to say outloud why they are so angry - what happened in their life that justifies their anger? Having them confront themselves is better than insulting them back. I haven't heard back from a nigerian caller who used "god" in his scam when i reminded him that what he was doing was stealing and Will land him in hell. Ya, its a long shot but still worth trying, along with taking their time away from them.

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  28. Here is the scam recorded - lots of examples here on youtube.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvn6mCzRRpU

    That guy kept them on the line for 75 minutes! Kind of interesting at the end when he told them he was aware they were scammers.

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