[Julie Steiner]

it's a scam.

Since the recent Microsoft update--which has, indeed, caused numerous problems with my husband's and daughter's computers--there has been a revival of the old scam in which someone claiming to be from Microsoft calls your house and wants you to walk you through a step-by-step fix (for a fee).

I received a rash of these calls a few months ago, and so far today I've received two more. All have been astonishingly aggressive, insisting that I need to rectify the problem immediately, and even calling me back after I've hung up on them to impress on me the seriousness of the situation. I've done my best to encourage these callers to find a real job that doesn't involve fraudulent behavior, but such jobs seem fewer and farther between these days.

Anyway, heads up. Maybe this will help someone.

[Janice D. Soderling]

I've had those calls too, Julie, sometimes they claim to be calling from London, sometimes they don't say from where, but most of them seem to have speak English with an accent. They usually demand to get put through to the president of my company and get angry when I ask what their business with the president is. Amazing how snooty they can be with a mere female peon.

Sometimes I say, I'm the president (which I am/was) and then they hang up, figuring there isn't any big money to be had at that business. And they are right about that.

[R. Nemo Hill]

They used to call my mother all the time, and despite the fact that she insisted she had no computer (which she didn't) they would call back the next day. And the next. And the next.

Nemo

[Ann Drysdale]

Tell them your computer's a Mac. That's what I do. Eventually. After having had as much fun with them as I have time for. I should probably get out more...

It isn't. A Mac I mean. But what do they expect if they keep asking questions to which they would know the answers if they were who they say they are?

[Jan D. Hodge]

I simply say, when I get such calls, "My husband [of course I don't have a husband] is the computer person here. If you leave your number, I'll have him give you a call." Like magic, the follow-up calls cease.

[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Ann Drysdale

Tell them your computer's a Mac. That's what I do.

Ah, but the predators remain just as aggressive, even when I tell them I have a Mac (which I do--my husband made me switch when he got tired of wiping my hard drive every few months, because my lovely but flaky poet friends kept sending me so many viruses).

I also point out to the callers that their scam has been repeatedly outed, both on the Internet and in the mainstream press, and I remind them that cheating and stealing are despicable behaviors.

But there is no magic bullet--apparently their script requires them to keep hammering away at their "our records show that your computer is at risk" mantra, no matter what anyone says. And when I hang up they keep calling back, from unidentifiable numbers I can't block.

Why? Because their aggressive scare tactics succeed with enough victims that they're going to stick with them, no matter how hard the authorities try to crack down, both here and elsewhere, and no matter how well-publicized the scams are.

I guess I should probably change my home phone number anyway, now that election season is almost upon us. Sigh.

Oh, well. Thanks for listening to me rant. It's been therapeutic.

[Esther Murer]

We have a phone with Caller ID (Panasonic) and don't answer it if we don't recognize the caller, figuring that anyone who has a real reason to get in touch will email us. We told it to block all calls that didn't identify the number, which cut our junk calls by about 80%. (Of course we're dodderers - you yunguns might not get away with this so easily.)