Extortion Phone Scam?

Bill, type 'tech support scammers' into YouTube, there's a lot of people having fun with those idiots.

There's a guy on YouTube 'lewistech' who seems to have made it his mission to annoy as many of them as he can. I watched one vid where a scammer asked him if he was using 'Windows 9'!!

Extortion implies that the extortionist is in a position to damage you if you fail to do as he wants. This caller apparently has nothing to damage you with. Social engineering is the easiest way to break into a computer, but it is not at all clear that this particular scammer had that as a goal. Likely this guy is more interested in getting your credit card number than access to your computer, by offering to sell you something he does not have to sell. He may have access to a list of subscribers to some kind of computer support service and is offering a renewal using a hard sell, or he may just be assuming that you have a computer, like the "Microsoft Support" callers who constantly call to tell you they have found something wrong with your computer, or the emails from banks you have no account with which tell you you need to change your password for your nonexistent account. They are just playing the odds, without any special knowledge about you. Hanging up is an eloquent response to someone trying to sell you something you do not want. 

Sometime back, I posted this video on a guy scamming the scammers by setting up a virtual machine/rigging some of the functions keys and letting the scammer have remote access to his virtual machine........I watched the whole thing and it's just too funny.
 
 

I wonder, if a lot of people did do something like this to trap these scammers, would it slow them down?
 
but then again,
 
 

A new scam in the UK is when they call pretending to be "a legal advisor from a solicitor's office" and start trying to get you to talk to them about a "reported serious accident" involving their "client" and "your vehicle". Not that they can tell you what accident, when it occured even what your vehicle is. Or who their client is.

They just keep saying the magic formula, "I am a legal advisor, your vehicle has been in an accident, you must do what I say." The obvious reply being "you say you're a legal advisor, but I only have your word for it. Which firm of solicitors do you work for? What is the name and roll number of your supervising solicitor?" Their scripted answer to all tricky questions then comes into play, which is "erm..... That doesn't matter, you have broken the law, I AM A LEGAL ADVISOR."

Had them twice in the last month, once each on our two landlines. Great fun. It's illegal in the UK to pretend to be a solicitor, and in any case a lawyer representing a party you've injured would already have your vehicle details - or how else did they find you to call?

They get particularly upset when told you are admiting nothing and if they want to pursue the matter further to put their claims in writing so you can pass it on to your insurer and legal advisor and you'll look forward to seeing them in court.

Like the "Microsoft" scammers there's a good 20+ minutes entertainment to be had from them, unless you don't know how accident and injury claims are really handled, what the regulations about solicitor's conduct are and that doing something just because a lawyer representing someone else says you must is rarely a good reason to do anything and find being called by a pushy "legal advisor at a big law firm" terrifying.

I detest this sort of scammer. They are parasites who prey on the elderly, on people who don't know enough about complicated stuff to realise they are being scammed and they are persistent and aggressive in their attitude. I don't care that they are low paid, they know exactly what they are doing and will prey on their neighbour as readily as they will on someone in a distant country they've never met. They are no different than the fake "gas meter reader" who gets into your house and steals from you.

I usually don't feel I have the time to waste (I know! I know!), but sometimes I have fun and play like some completely agreeable ADHD idiot.  "Ok, so what do I need to do?"  "Is my computer the black box with the window or the grey one?"  "Do you like rabbits?  I do!"  

I'm starting to get PO'd now!

Thanks Craig. Done! No calls the last 30 min! My son called this morning 

If you really want to waste your time, try reporting these people to the authorities in the US. The most credible scam I have ever seen are the report forms you can fill out at the Federal Trade Commission, FCC or FBI which will require an enormous amount of time, collection of an extraordinary amount of information about the incident, and a sworn statement subject to perjury penalties and will result in absolutely no action whatsoever except to result in the collection of wildly understated statistics that they can go to Congress with saying that they need more budget to pursue these malevolent actors. 
 
The FTC famously released a proud report that ten years of their supervision of the Do Not Call Registry, had resulted in more than 100 law enforcement actions resulting in orders against 291 individuals and corporations. I get more calls than that on my DNCR registered telephones in a couple of months. 
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2013/06/10-years-national-do-not-call-looking-back-looking-ahead.
 

I just tell them I use linux. That is usually met with some type of confusion until they ask someone near them. Then they hangup. After about the 3rd time, they quit calling.
 
I think that DNC list is a joke. I really think the scumbags get that list just so they know who has a valid and working phone. They spoof their caller ID from a rented IP phone service. They know it's hard to really track them down and why they don't care about the DNCR.