Tech support becomes Australia's number one scam

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) asserts that tech support scams have become the most prevalent way to defraud the nation's residents, 113,000 of whom responded to such scams over a year. The Bureau's data is derived from interviews conducted for its 2014-15 Multipurpose Household Survey, so the figure …

[Anonymous Coward]

Phone policy 101

It has been my policy for some time that anyone who phones me, that I don't know or expect, is automatically ignored and hung-up on.

No exceptions.

Goodbye...

[Shugyosha]

Re: Phone policy 101

I never answer my landline - it's only there for my internet. I don't even know what the number is and so nobody who knows me has it. So I've never encountered one of these calls. They don't call mobiles, I presume.

[Anonymous Coward]

Marketing

I was astonished that Telstra called me (I'm reasonably certain) to discuss my account, but before they could, had to ask me personal verification details. Are you freaking KIDDING me?? You want me to give you personal info so YOU can trust that I'M the person you think I am?

If that really was Telstra, way to go, ensuring poor security mentality among your customers.

[Harry WWC]

Re: Marketing

Yup, done that dance with telstra, various government departments and banks.

Most eventually give me a name and an extension, and i call back sometime (much!) later on the published number and go through the ivr.

[Magani]

"I am not a scammer..."

The sub-continentals are still at it.

A phone call yesterday at Chez Magani:

Me: Hello?

<about 4 seconds of silence while the demon dialer gets the next available scammer (S)>

S: May I speak to Mr Magani?

Me: Speaking.

S: Hi. My name is Steve and I'm calling you from the Australian Federal Government department of Refund Finance. You have been found to be owed money by the ...

Me: Steve, what department of the government do you work for?

S: The Refund Finance Department.

Me: Steve, the Australian Federal Government doesn't have a Refund Finance Department, so I'm calling you a scammer and will now hang up.

S: <Yelling in background> I AM NOT A SCAMMER! I AM NOT A....

<click>

I would have played with him longer but we had a friend around for coffee. Pity, as I would have loved to have found out how much the Refund Finance Department was going to give me.

[shanen]

Next time put them on speaker and play it out. Great laugh while having coffee with a friend.

[JJKing]

Known scams but still Fuckstralians get sucked in.

I had talked to a customer of mine about the tech support phone call and showing you all the viruses you had in the Event Viewer. He told his son about it and to NOT provide any credit/debit card numbers over the phone. FOUR HOURS after being told this, the idiot son gave his debit card number for this very scam. Fortunately he is that stupid there was no money in his account. Australians are fuckturds, REALLY!

I wish I had 1 cent for all the times Telstra Tech Support have rung me and informed me that my Internet account is being disconnected. I would now have a new car for free. The joke being that Telstra is not my ISP.

[julian.smith]

Re: Known scams but still suckers get sucked in.

I've got caller ID software - if it's an anonymous call they've got about 5 seconds to convince me that it's legit

The pause whilst the call management software puts the scammer online is a dead giveaway as is an Indian accent

Callers, who know my surname - probably from reverse lookup software, usually claim to be from

- Microsoft (how did MS get my telephone number?)

- Telstra

As a Linux user who has no business with the blood sucking Telstra monster their scam falls at the first hurdle with derisive laughter ringing in their ears.

[Dramoth]

Tease the trolls...

Run linux and setup a virtual box running windows xp or win95 for them to play with.

Then when they try and bill you, delete the virtual box and scream down the phone telling them that they somehow managed to screw your entire computer and it just died.

Tell them that there were essential business documents you had just finished working on and hadn't backed up on that computer and now it's dead and you can't recover them and they were for billions of dollars in sales for the company that you work for. Ask them if they are going to compensate you for your losses as you were going to get a 3% commission on the whole deal.

Bet you hear dialtone before you finish asking for compensation.