Who called from 2120003459

At 2 pm CST my home phone rang.  My phone showed "Name Unavailable from 212-000-3459".  Assuming it would be a telemarketer I answered on guard.  "Andrew" with a thick accent that sounded east Indian quickly rattled off some company name I'd never heard of and began to ask detailed info about my relatively new computer.  I was confused and chose not to answer his questions-- instead asking, "Are you trying to sell me something?"  He said, "No, we are calling today because there has been some malicious virus in Windows operating systems and we want to help you."  I knew this was a scam:  since when does Microsoft have the manpower, etc. to do THIS!?  I asked his phone number so that I could call back-- if this was legit-- having to do with my recent purchase, a real employee would receive my call and assist me.  He gave me the "30 22 61 54 02" number in the odd format and emphasized that his name is Andrew, I needed to ask for Andrew.  I asked why I wasn't given a toll-free number.  He stated that this was a local number.  We hung up.  I did a reverse lookup on the internet-- aware that this was either a cell phone number that I would NOT be able to lookup for free OR a long-distance number-- I knew it wasn't local.  It came back as Philadelphia-- I am central U.S.  The number he requested I call is listed in this database as problematic.  When I just tried to call the 212 number, I get the recording that the number is NOT in service (about 30 minutes after the call).

At 3pm CT my office phone rang. The called ID showed New York 1-212-000-3459. As soon as I answered the call...he started right in. A thick Indian accent telling me that he was calling me because my window 7, xp, or me computer had issues. His name was Nigel Wright from One Stop Solutions. (I had this call before and knew exactly what it was) He asked if I had a computer...his call volume wasn't very loud so I thought I would "play with" guy a little. I said Nigel...you are very faint...you will need to speak up. He tried and it was a little better. I interrupted him again and said "Nigel" are you using a headset to talk to me?" He said "yes I am". I said well you are still very faint...you need to pick up and use your handset. He fumbled a little and picked up the handset. He was still a little faint..but decided to let him move on. He started again saying that Chaska (the city I live in) told them that 20% of the computers in the city has issues. I interrupted him and asked him to clarify...I responded "You are telling me that my City call you and said my PC had a problem>" he said "yes they did...in fact they said 70% of the computers had issue (interesting that the percentage increased from 20% to 70%)....he continued...and I interupted him again and asked to clarify his name..."you said it was Nigel" and " you are from India"...he told me that he worked for a outsourced company ...bla bla bla...so I interrupted him and asked him what city he was in...he said India. I said no...what city....I said "I have employees that work in Hyderabad and Bangalore (two cities in India)...he stumbled for a bit and finally said Calcutta (Kolkata) muttered some more and said Mumbai...ok so  I let him continue. I knew the next step was to take me into the Administratve Event Viewer...but I let him tell me how to get there. He said " I will take you there with the keyboard...do you see the c t r l key (spelling out the letters). I told him that I didn't see a c t r l key but I did have a control key (yes is know the CTRL  key is the control key) but it was fun to play with him. We got into the logfile via the event manager. He asked me if a saw a "red circle with a cross in it" I said no but I see a red circle with a "!" (exclamation mark) in it. He "what's that" ...know that he wanted me to say it says "error" next to it....I said and exclamation mark is a vertical line with a period under it. he again said what is it...I said...do you mean the red circle...he said yes....I said a red circle is like square, except that the corners are round and it has the color red inside. (I know he wants me to say "error" as that is what the icon is for...but I won't do it. We go thru the red circle scenario a couple of times...and he switches tactics and asks if I see a yellow triangle with a cross in it. I say sure...he asks "what is it". I say do you mean the yellow triangle? and he said yes...what is it. (I know he wants me to say error...but I won't). I answer his and say a yellow triangle is a shape that has three sides, has a flat bottom and a point at the top. He said right, what is it? So again I say...a yellow triangle is like a square with the top line removed and the side pushed to the center until the line meet and form a point and it has the color yellow in it. We do this dance a couple of times and again he changes tactics and askes me "are there a lot of them?" I ask "what is a lot?" He replies "like 20 or 30 of them." I waited a couple of seconds and exclaimed "good grief...there must be over 200 or 300 of them!!!" Of course this thrilled him. I am sure that he must have felt that he finally made a connection with me...for sure I would understand that my PC was totally infected. He then told me that because I had so so many infections...he would have to transfer me to a "senior technician" because he could only fix 20 - 30 issues. The phone fumbles a couple of time and Tony Wright (note the last name) gets on the call. He begins to read his prepared script and I interrupt him. I say..."Tony, Tony...is your name Tony Wright?" He says "Yes it is" and gets ready to start again...but I interrupt him again and say "Tony Wright, so are you the brother of Nigel?" He is confused so I ask him again "Are you the brother of Nigel?" He is confused still so I say "You and Nigel have the same last name of Wright." He now understands and says he is not Nigel's brother. I say..."Oh you just have the same last name." He says yes and starts his script again...I interrupt again again and ask him "is Wright a very common name in India" He is confused and not sure where to go with that and tries to start his script again...I let him continue on. He asks if I see all the issues listed in my "event viewer" again I exclaim "Yes! There are hundred of them!!" He begins again..but of course I interrupt him again...and say "you mean these ones in the "log file"...he says "yes, do you know what they are?"  he asks again. I say do you mean what a log file is...so I proceed to tell him what a log file is. "A log file is the file to which a computer system writes a record of its activities." He isn't sure what to do with that answer and is silent a bit more....so I say"you know, a log file where applications also write information about the processes it is running and also places a record of any errors or excepts is has as it processes the computer application code." Again he not sure what to say next...so I say " did you also know that a computers OS...I mean "Operating System" (I say that very slow emphasizing each syllable...He starts to say some thing. but I begin to interrupt him again...but I never get any farther because he finally hangs up the call on my.    Not bad I was able to keep them on the phone for about 45 minutes. The longest I kept one of these guys on the phone was 4.5 hours (it was a support person from AOL). You can thank me that by keeping them on the phone for 45 minutes....it meant that they could call you during that time! You are Welcome

Pure gold there... got the call but I had neither the time nor inclination to play the person as well as you did.  I did continually interrupt inquiring as to the nature of the business- was told it wasn't a business.  The caller (thick Indian accent- other callers could be heard in the background) said he believed I have a computer running Windows XP or Windows 7.  I asked him what the basis was for his belief- one of the many questions he was unprepared for.... he stumbled then attempted to restart his poorly memorized script about there being problems... I persisted as to the nature of his business to which he maintained that it wasn't a business.  he told me that he wanted to help me with my computer to which I replied that no one just helps without the expectation of something- he was working for a business.  I poked at the business angle for a bit then- growing tired of this game I cut to the chase and asked whether he was looking for access to my computer in order to fix my problems.  He replied, "yes"  Immediately I replied, "goodBYE" and hung up.

THIS IS A SCAM. Read about the your-PC-is-infected-corrupted scam here http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cold-Call-Tech ... on-150170.shtml They lie about your PC sending out malware, error messages, etc., and say your PC is about to crash to frighten you into giving them remote control of your PC to fix the nonexistent problem (don't let them!). If they ask you to open the systems tab in eventvwr.msc to see all the errors, these harmless errors are *normal* for any Windows PC (mine has several and it runs just fine). Don't let them take control of your PC because they can download *real* malware, possibly a malware suite, that can spam, steal bank logins and personal info, etc. If they've remoted into your PC, the safest fix is to re-format your drive and re-install your OS assuming you have clean backups of your data. You can try scanning with various antivirus software but scanning may not find all the malware. If you don't know how, get help from friends or pay a local shop to do it. THIS IS A SCAM.
It is especially dangerous now because criminals are actively attacking unpatched Java security holes so don't let anyone into your PCs.

Beautiful. I have done similar song and dances with many telemarketers. I love wasting their time . You are a genius!