A rash of scams.

Microsoft invented antivirus. Meaning that their OS is a cullender. But i do not think they call pc owners to alert them about a scam going on. They could turn into the largest call center on earth.

Your bank or provider know your details. If you recieve a mail from your bank you can do a simple thing. Get nearest agency and talk to a clerk. If Microsoft calls you tell him you're running Ubuntu. Lots of fun!

Yes, two calls today.

First at 07:00 from 001 956 2797 836. About the fourth call from this bunch in the past four days and probably the 50th call in the past couple of years.

Second from a withheld number at 21:00. Again, quite a few withheld number calls this past couple of weeks

Both posing as computer technical departments who know there is a fault on my computer which they are willing to fix.

Since they "know" about the fault, I ask them which of my computers they are referring to. They don't know (obviously)!.... (although they won't admit this outright - even more obviously)

Most of the time I just say they are wasting their time and mine and hang up. Mrs D just says she can't understand a word they are saying, and hangs up.

I have wondered whether engaging them in pointless conversation for half an hour might be a more effective deterrant ?

I've also had a spate of e-mails from Tesco, Halifax, Santander, Amazon and no doubt a few others that i've forgotten about. All require me to re-submit my account details for one reason or another.

Don.

Engaging them in pointless conversation is worth a go. I tried it a few weeks ago to a caller attempting to gain control of my PC on the pretext they'd found a virus on it. I didn't manage half an hour but a good 10 minutes. Pretended I knew nothing about computers, went along with him until I needed to give him control, then told him the computer crashed, probably down to the virus.

I told him to ring back next day, but he didn't.

Next time I'm going to try the Count Arthur Strong approach. First couple of minutes of video below.

I have, it seems, quite an effective means of dealing with telephone spammers at home.

Answer the phone... obvious scammer on the end... tell them no this isn't him / her and ask them to hang on a second until you get them ...

Go to Hi-Fi system, take the phone with you; find Rage Against The Machine "Killing In The Name Of" (this works both with streamer and CD, and I suspect with a very steady eye and a good hand - on vinyl too) cue the chorus at 4:13 .. increase volume... hold the phone next to the speaker... and press play.

It has worked every time.

I always say "Does your mother know you're a criminal scammer?" They hang up.

I got a call from someone about 'the accident I had in my car recently'. As they obviously had information in front of them I asked for the date of the accident, which elicited a reply of 'sometime since June 2012'. Obviously a scammer if he pretends he's got information about an accident I've had but can't tell me the date of it. Also obvious to me as I hadn't had an accident since then. When I told him that the line went dead.

I had similar call last summer "Have you checked your computer today sir?

It would appear from our end you have a virus on board. We can sort it out for you today if you are near your computer"? I said I was and could he talk me through the procedure of identifying anything that should not be on my PC. I then gently put down the phone and went and mowed the lawn. I often wondered how long he stayed on the phone!

I usually ask them for the details of their company and where they're from, then ask them for the IP address of their server which logged the issue.  If they do give it (rare!), I do a WhoIs search, and compare this to the location they've given.  I then string them along 'til it's obvious that they've realised that I'm not going to fall for it, then tell them where they are - sometimes there's a touch of panic in their voice at that point!  I also report them to their ISP.

To check e-mails for scams, download the full header and compare the 'from' address to the addresses in the history of forwarding servers.  Usually the claimed 'from address' isn't the originating address!  At other times, the mail just contains a suspicious link.

I often send the mail as an attachment to 'postmaster@[actual sending server]' and 'abuse@[actual sending server]' telling them their system is being used for fraud (in the UK, USA and many other countries, failure to stop this could lead to corporate criminal charges, and the record of my mail could help).

Microsoft warns you:

http://www.microsoft.com/secur...oid-phone-scams.aspx