[FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
We've had these sorts of calls in Australia for last 2-3 years. My wife had fun playing sport with one about 6 months ago. I usually hang up straight away - like Doug said, there was no point mentioning that we're a Linux (mostly) household. I remember reading a blog by an internet security consultant, who spun up a virtual machine whilst on the phone, and let them into it, just to see what they did. Needless to say, they were not particularly sophisticated, and hang up immediately he revealed to them how he'd conned them. I don't have a reference, and Google not really helping at present... Cheers On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 01:55:42PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org http://www.cusf.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Here are some links to the person you're likely thinking of (arranged chronologically): Anatomy of a virus call centre scam http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/10/anatomy-of-virus-call-centre-scam.html Scamming the scammers – catching the virus call centre scammers red-handed http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/02/scamming-scammers-catching-virus-call.html Interview with the man behind Comantra, the “cold call virus scammers” http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/05/interview-with-man-behind-comantra-cold.html And then, of course, there's Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/microsoft.asp Sadly, I haven't gotten one of these calls yet, but then again, I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. I'd enjoy wasting their time, since that's all that can really be done to punish them. Brent From: Russell Standish li...@hpcoders.com.au To: friam@redfish.com Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 3:21 AM Subject: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing? We've had these sorts of calls in Australia for last 2-3 years. My wife had fun playing sport with one about 6 months ago. I usually hang up straight away - like Doug said, there was no point mentioning that we're a Linux (mostly) household. I remember reading a blog by an internet security consultant, who spun up a virtual machine whilst on the phone, and let them into it, just to see what they did. Needless to say, they were not particularly sophisticated, and hang up immediately he revealed to them how he'd conned them. I don't have a reference, and Google not really helping at present... Cheers On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 01:55:42PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org http://www.cusf.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Glad we discussed this, its new to me and pretty interesting! Thans Nick. -- Owen FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Actually, here's another good overview of the scam with suggestions about what to do: https://windowssecrets.com/top-story/security-alert-bogus-tech-support-phone-calls/ Brent From: Russell Standish r.stand...@unsw.edu.au To: Brent Auble br...@auble.net; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 7:54 AM Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing? Thanks. I think it was the middle article I read. On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 01:22:57AM -0700, Brent Auble wrote: Here are some links to the person you're likely thinking of (arranged chronologically): Anatomy of a virus call centre scam http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/10/anatomy-of-virus-call-centre-scam.html Scamming the scammers – catching the virus call centre scammers red-handed http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/02/scamming-scammers-catching-virus-call.html Interview with the man behind Comantra, the “cold call virus scammers” http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/05/interview-with-man-behind-comantra-cold.html And then, of course, there's Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/microsoft.asp Sadly, I haven't gotten one of these calls yet, but then again, I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. I'd enjoy wasting their time, since that's all that can really be done to punish them. Brent From: Russell Standish li...@hpcoders.com.au To: friam@redfish.com Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 3:21 AM Subject: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing? We've had these sorts of calls in Australia for last 2-3 years. My wife had fun playing sport with one about 6 months ago. I usually hang up straight away - like Doug said, there was no point mentioning that we're a Linux (mostly) household. I remember reading a blog by an internet security consultant, who spun up a virtual machine whilst on the phone, and let them into it, just to see what they did. Needless to say, they were not particularly sophisticated, and hang up immediately he revealed to them how he'd conned them. I don't have a reference, and Google not really helping at present... Cheers On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 01:55:42PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org http://www.cusf.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
[FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org http://www.cusf.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? ** ** I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. ** ** Does anybody recognize this? ** ** N ** ** Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org ** ** ** ** FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
YES I've gotten calls like that in the past from some people from china someplace trying to claim they work for MS. I don't know who to report them to. It's not just fishing it's social engineering (aka fraud and lying)- in my case the guy was all panicky that I might have malware and if I let him run my computer he'll fix it. I didn't let the guy get on with his sales pitch before hanging up on him. I run a regular virus sweep and malware sweep. I think he gave up after the third time I hung up on him. Why would I trust some complete stranger calling up going on and on about how many evil things might be on my computer-why would I trust someone who wasn't recomended to me by a someone who I trust to controll my computer-answer: I don't. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? ** ** I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. ** ** Does anybody recognize this? ** ** N ** ** Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org ** ** ** ** FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
I got the call a couple of months ago. He tried to give the impression that he was working for Microsoft and they were doing the monitoring. He got very flustered when I pointed out that I had only Apple hardware and didn't run Windows. That didn't stop him from continuing his pitch. I finally had to shut him up by telling him what crook he was and hanging up. Actually I probably didn't shut him up but only moved him to the next one on his robodialer. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Mar 15, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
lol if you do record the conversation for our amusement (as well as good blog material). On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:03 PM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.netwrote: I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? ** ** I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. ** ** Does anybody recognize this? ** ** N ** ** Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org ** ** ** ** FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Yes same here- I didn't give him the chance to get annywhere when could bairly say Microsoft I just hung up. That virln(Roach) is probably scurring around I doubt that the kind of person that goes to or is on the FRIAM list is his mark. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Edward Angel an...@cs.unm.edu wrote: I got the call a couple of months ago. He tried to give the impression that he was working for Microsoft and they were doing the monitoring. He got very flustered when I pointed out that I had only Apple hardware and didn't run Windows. That didn't stop him from continuing his pitch. I finally had to shut him up by telling him what crook he was and hanging up. Actually I probably didn't shut him up but only moved him to the next one on his robodialer. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Mar 15, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? ** ** I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. ** ** Does anybody recognize this? ** ** N ** ** Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org ** ** ** ** FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Microsoft is usually all it takes to get me to hang up as well. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:19 PM, Gillian Densmore gil.densm...@gmail.comwrote: Yes same here- I didn't give him the chance to get annywhere when could bairly say Microsoft I just hung up. That virln(Roach) is probably scurring around I doubt that the kind of person that goes to or is on the FRIAM list is his mark. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Edward Angel an...@cs.unm.edu wrote: I got the call a couple of months ago. He tried to give the impression that he was working for Microsoft and they were doing the monitoring. He got very flustered when I pointed out that I had only Apple hardware and didn't run Windows. That didn't stop him from continuing his pitch. I finally had to shut him up by telling him what crook he was and hanging up. Actually I probably didn't shut him up but only moved him to the next one on his robodialer. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Mar 15, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? ** ** I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. ** ** Does anybody recognize this? ** ** N ** ** Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org ** ** ** ** FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Hanging up may not always be the best solution. A while ago my wife was getting pornographic calls. I could tell it was the crank caller since he asked for her as Rose instead of Rose Mary. When I asked who was calling he got quite huffy and said he wasn't calling for me, he was calling for Rose. So I told him I'd get her and put the phone down. An hour later I could still hear his heavy breathing. But he finally gave up waiting and never called again. We had a similar experience with prostitutes calling our room in Kazakstan claiming to be students studying English but that's another story and was more fun. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Mar 15, 2013, at 2:48 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote: Microsoft is usually all it takes to get me to hang up as well. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:19 PM, Gillian Densmore gil.densm...@gmail.com wrote: Yes same here- I didn't give him the chance to get annywhere when could bairly say Microsoft I just hung up. That virln(Roach) is probably scurring around I doubt that the kind of person that goes to or is on the FRIAM list is his mark. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Edward Angel an...@cs.unm.edu wrote: I got the call a couple of months ago. He tried to give the impression that he was working for Microsoft and they were doing the monitoring. He got very flustered when I pointed out that I had only Apple hardware and didn't run Windows. That didn't stop him from continuing his pitch. I finally had to shut him up by telling him what crook he was and hanging up. Actually I probably didn't shut him up but only moved him to the next one on his robodialer. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Mar 15, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
A nice variant is this: Many years ago a friend reported getting a sales call about window blinds and told the salesman that oh yes she was very interested in this and please hold the line while she goes and makes some measurements of her windows.. Bruce FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Ed- Cutting in before Doug gets there... It sounds like you get *all* the fun! Maybe I should answer my phone even when I don't recognize the phone number... that is MY solution... it works amazingly well, though the false positives do irritate my friends and colleagues, though that is what voicemail, txt, e-mail, etc. are for. My mother recently moved into an assisted living apartment and inherited the phone number that came with the apartment. The man who lived there before her apparently got scammed out of quite a bit of money (4 figures anyway) by phone and his number went out on the wire so she gets a *lot* of calls from these losers... she seems immune to most of it, but you never know when someone will get past her intuition... she's 86 and recently widowed. Her Scotch blood and Appalachian roots seem to be working for her so far. I don't understand why she answers the phone... a lifetime of habit I guess. - Steve Hanging up may not always be the best solution. A while ago my wife was getting pornographic calls. I could tell it was the crank caller since he asked for her as Rose instead of Rose Mary. When I asked who was calling he got quite huffy and said he wasn't calling for me, he was calling for Rose. So I told him I'd get her and put the phone down. An hour later I could still hear his heavy breathing. But he finally gave up waiting and never called again. We had a similar experience with prostitutes calling our room in Kazakstan claiming to be students studying English but that's another story and was more fun. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home)an...@cs.unm.edu mailto:an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel http://www.cs.unm.edu/%7Eangel On Mar 15, 2013, at 2:48 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote: Microsoft is usually all it takes to get me to hang up as well. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:19 PM, Gillian Densmore gil.densm...@gmail.com mailto:gil.densm...@gmail.com wrote: Yes same here- I didn't give him the chance to get annywhere when could bairly say Microsoft I just hung up. That virln(Roach) is probably scurring around I doubt that the kind of person that goes to or is on the FRIAM list is his mark. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Edward Angel an...@cs.unm.edu mailto:an...@cs.unm.edu wrote: I got the call a couple of months ago. He tried to give the impression that he was working for Microsoft and they were doing the monitoring. He got very flustered when I pointed out that I had only Apple hardware and didn't run Windows. That didn't stop him from continuing his pitch. I finally had to shut him up by telling him what crook he was and hanging up. Actually I probably didn't shut him up but only moved him to the next one on his robodialer. Ed __ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 tel:505-984-0136 (home)an...@cs.unm.edu mailto:an...@cs.unm.edu 505-453-4944 tel:505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel http://www.cs.unm.edu/%7Eangel On Mar 15, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org http://www.cusf.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribehttp://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Sarbajit - And here we thought it was you! Pranking Nick is just mean, but maybe you could give Doug a ring and tell him you can fix his Bluetooth/WiFi problem if he just gives you his credit card and bank account numbers and the keys to his BMW Motorcycle... We could all have a party and help you spend out his accounts ordering stuff online... Do you think he's gullible enough? - Steve This scam has been around for years http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 1:33 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net mailto:d...@parrot-farm.net wrote: I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net mailto:nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org http://www.cusf.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- /Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net mailto:d...@parrot-farm.net/ /http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins/ / 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Hi Steve I must mention that these scamsters target victims aged 50+ presumably with little knowledge of computers and under-informed of human psychology. Probably picked the wrong bunch at FRIAM :-). Doug (from what I observe) takes care of himself very well. I'll ask my friends to devise a special scam for him involving peacocks and an Android app. Sarbajit On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:26 AM, Steve Smith sasm...@swcp.com wrote: Sarbajit - And here we thought it was you! Pranking Nick is just mean, but maybe you could give Doug a ring and tell him you can fix his Bluetooth/WiFi problem if he just gives you his credit card and bank account numbers and the keys to his BMW Motorcycle... We could all have a party and help you spend out his accounts ordering stuff online... Do you think he's gullible enough? - Steve This scam has been around for years http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 1:33 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.netwrote: I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Throw in a US Navy Admiral (Retired) Sarbajit, and you have the perfect recipe! (Old, inside joke, I'm afraid). --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 7:15 PM, Sarbajit Roy sroy...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Steve I must mention that these scamsters target victims aged 50+ presumably with little knowledge of computers and under-informed of human psychology. Probably picked the wrong bunch at FRIAM :-). Doug (from what I observe) takes care of himself very well. I'll ask my friends to devise a special scam for him involving peacocks and an Android app. Sarbajit On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:26 AM, Steve Smith sasm...@swcp.com wrote: Sarbajit - And here we thought it was you! Pranking Nick is just mean, but maybe you could give Doug a ring and tell him you can fix his Bluetooth/WiFi problem if he just gives you his credit card and bank account numbers and the keys to his BMW Motorcycle... We could all have a party and help you spend out his accounts ordering stuff online... Do you think he's gullible enough? - Steve This scam has been around for years http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 1:33 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.netwrote: I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
Would that be Vice Admiral George Nanos of cowboys and butthead fame? On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:52 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.netwrote: Throw in a US Navy Admiral (Retired) Sarbajit, and you have the perfect recipe! (Old, inside joke, I'm afraid). --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 7:15 PM, Sarbajit Roy sroy...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Steve I must mention that these scamsters target victims aged 50+ presumably with little knowledge of computers and under-informed of human psychology. Probably picked the wrong bunch at FRIAM :-). Doug (from what I observe) takes care of himself very well. I'll ask my friends to devise a special scam for him involving peacocks and an Android app. Sarbajit On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:26 AM, Steve Smith sasm...@swcp.com wrote: Sarbajit - And here we thought it was you! Pranking Nick is just mean, but maybe you could give Doug a ring and tell him you can fix his Bluetooth/WiFi problem if he just gives you his credit card and bank account numbers and the keys to his BMW Motorcycle... We could all have a party and help you spend out his accounts ordering stuff online... Do you think he's gullible enough? - Steve This scam has been around for years http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 1:33 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.netwrote: I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
The same, I'm afraid. On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 7:34 PM, Sarbajit Roy sroy...@gmail.com wrote: Would that be Vice Admiral George Nanos of cowboys and butthead fame? On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:52 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.netwrote: Throw in a US Navy Admiral (Retired) Sarbajit, and you have the perfect recipe! (Old, inside joke, I'm afraid). --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 7:15 PM, Sarbajit Roy sroy...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Steve I must mention that these scamsters target victims aged 50+ presumably with little knowledge of computers and under-informed of human psychology. Probably picked the wrong bunch at FRIAM :-). Doug (from what I observe) takes care of himself very well. I'll ask my friends to devise a special scam for him involving peacocks and an Android app. Sarbajit On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:26 AM, Steve Smith sasm...@swcp.com wrote: Sarbajit - And here we thought it was you! Pranking Nick is just mean, but maybe you could give Doug a ring and tell him you can fix his Bluetooth/WiFi problem if he just gives you his credit card and bank account numbers and the keys to his BMW Motorcycle... We could all have a party and help you spend out his accounts ordering stuff online... Do you think he's gullible enough? - Steve This scam has been around for years http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 1:33 AM, Douglas Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net wrote: I've gotten a few of those over the past few days from similarly accented people trying to tell me that my Windows machine was infected with a virus, but the callers' numbers were blocked. No, I didn't bother to Linuxize them, although that would have been fun. --Doug On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Nicholas Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing? I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them, I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for. Does anybody recognize this? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins * http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile* FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's