Out of Pod Experience

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call while waiting for an important call. The person I was expecting to hear from often hides their number so it shows as 'private' on the call display so I thought it was the call I was waiting for. After picking up I soon realized it was instead a telephone solicitor *groan*. Expecting to be sold magazines or some other stupid crap I was instead informed by the caller that they had detected a serious security fault from my IP address. I was immediately suspicious wondering how they could get my phone number from my IP unless it was my ISP so I asked again what company was making this call.

"Kaspersky Labs" he said. I don't use Kaspersky software I said and there is no security problem with my PC. Thank you and goodbye.

Like most people I do a lot of online banking and credit card transactions and my bank is very quick to lock out my accounts if there's any sort of unusual activity. A pain in the ass when it happens but better than being robbed blind. I had just used my cc a few hours earlier and paid some bills and everything was working fine.

I knew it was a scam of course but did a quick search afterwards. Turns out there are scammers posing as staff of Microsoft or other firms trying to trick people who aren't PC savvy or simply gullible into downloading some crap malware and apparently on average victims of this fraud are being taken for hundreds of dollars if they fall for it. Word of warning to everyone. If you get a similar call, hang up. If I get this call again I will contact the police and my phone company.

I'm friends with a Nigererian prince!

I think that's close to Nigeria

Yeah these happen everyday. My recorded message on my phone explicitly states that if your name does not appear on my caller screen, you ain't talking to me.

Hello,

My name is Batswana Lululu and I am a Nigerian Prince. After specifically looking you up on the internet, I am now writing you to ask for your assistance. There was a recent coup in my beloved country and I am currently exiled. While I struggle to regain my rightful throne and restore peace and order to our once proud land, I must ask you allow me to hide my massive wealth and riches in your free checking account. It is the only way to save Nigeria. I beg of you, please send me your name, phone number, SSN, favorite soft drink and any irrational fears as soon as possible, there isn't much time!

Sincerely,

The Prince.

PS. If you don't comply I will come to your house and cut you with a potato peeler.


PPPPS Not to discuss moderation but I may or may not have received a warning for mailing this scam letter.

saw an article where someone did this, they setup a virtual machine with Win7 running and let the person have their fun and they basically did every single step that could break a PC.