I just received a call from an indian microsoft technician. He informed me that my PC is sending a ton of error messages to microsoft. Most likely it has been hacked, and he would help me by remoting in and fixing the problem for me. I just wonder… Is it my PopOs or my Manjaro PC that sends all this info to microsoft?

  • peto@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    341
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    If it’s sending information to Microsoft then it has clearly been hacked. Likely by Microsoft. It was very nice of that young man to break protocol and blow the whistle on this whole thing. You should send him an itunes gift card as a thank you.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        These are the same people - CIA just outsourced their call center to India & they have to send all gift cards back to the CIA, you just cut out the middleman.

  • dustyData@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    149
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    You reminded me of those YouTube vigilantes that troll Indian scammers. One installed the remote desktop app they use and let them access a honeypot linux machine just to mock their incompetence and confusion. Then proceeded to take control of their machine steal their data and wipe out their computers. Their reactions are hilarious. It’s sad that a lot of very smart people are dragged into it by thugs that leverage debt and physical threats to force them into the scam call centers.

    • Dharma Curious@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      117
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      I ended up on a massive Whatsapp group populated primarily by Indian women after I took a content writing class a few years ago. Made several very good friends. I’ve asked them about the whole Indian scammer thing. One of them said she knows a few, and they do it because they literally don’t have other options for employment. Which makes sense. Rampant, unfettered capitalism forces people to make decisions that go against their conscience for the sake of survival. I feel bad for scammers sometimes, other times I feel less charitable when they’re scamming my dad…

      Whole situation just fucking sucks.

      • M500@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        60
        ·
        8 months ago

        If I had the opportunity, I’d still wipe the scammers computer.

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          21
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          You absolutely should.

          Scammers escaping poverty by putting a bunch of others into poverty is the very definition of a capitalist and cancer.

          Eat the rich just as you would zap cancer.

      • Maalus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        27
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        8 months ago

        It’s always an excuse that criminals make - that they don’t have any other options for employment. It’s a shitty excuse when 95% of the country is employed and don’t scam people. It’s easy money for them, nothing more.

          • SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            Those people chose to not scam people I assume, otherwise they would count in the employed (by scammers)

      • foggy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        24
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        I’ve done a lot of thinking about the scam market, and there is no way it isn’t some kind of “CIA is behind the cartels” situation.

        Primary target? Elderly Americans.

        Objective? Bring generational wealth to institutions.

        FCC could stop the vast majority of this shit by using techniques similar to DKIM via VOIP to stop spoofing (STIR/SHAKEN). This problem is solved. Has been for a while.

        I can only assume they don’t drop the hammer because they can take a cut instead.

        • DaGeek247@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          I can only assume they don’t drop the hammer because they can take a cut instead.

          you have way too much faith in a government agencies ability to see, understand, and act on a situation.

          • irmoz@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            Thinking they’re too dumb to do this shit is exactly what they want from you

        • smeg@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          Do you really think only Americans are targeted by scammers?

          • foggy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            I think 80 year old Americans have a disproportionate amount of global wealth, so they are a, as I said, primary target. Yes.

            Give it 15 years and then focus will shift to be predominantly toward UAE.

            • Reacher@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              9
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              8 months ago

              As a European I can assure you 80 yo Americans are living in poverty compared to most Europeans.

              I know that Americans can’t see the other side of the ocean but scam calls are made everywhere.

              I love these Americans who live in their tiny bubble of “America is rich as hell”. In Europe we mostly compare America with countries like Russia and other large but poor countries.

              • foggy@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                8 months ago

                Americans wealth index only trails behind Iike 3 EU countries. Your statement is googlably false. (Germany, Norway. Not France Not Britain, not Spain, not Italy…not most of Europe).

                Edit: also, laughs in GDP

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        So you’re buying that explanation that a scammer is escaping poverty by putting a bunch of someone else’s into poverty?

        You just defined Bezos. Lol. You just got double scammed.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 months ago

      As much as a person could find a reason to feel sorry for them they unnecessarily verbally abuse people they are scamming and that was a choice they made. Their hands are not clean from playing a villain.

      And escaping poverty by putting someone else in poverty …that’s the capitalist game. No ethics is part of the package. They are not victims.

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          8
          ·
          8 months ago

          It’s not sad for a capitalist who uses the ‘I escaped poverty’ while sinking others into poverty to do it.

          • dustyData@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            You are all over this thread harassing people. I don’t care about your opinion. Don’t talk about crap you don’t understand. Watch the myriad of YouTube channels that cover the scam industry in India. Some people have their family and lives literally threaten with death to pay debts working for scam call centers by literal gangsters. That is sad. I’m not putting my hands in the fire for anyone. But that is also the product of an exploitative capitalist mindset. None of the people actually making the phonecalls are “escaping poverty”. It’s the owners of the computers and offices and bank accounts that accrue the scam money who are getting rich. And those people rarely set foot in the actual call centers.

            • puppy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 months ago

              He’s just a troll. I have seen many comments from this person They’re not even consistent in their opinions. Looks as if they make up shit, probably just asking for attention rather than contributing to the discussion.

            • Smoogs@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              11
              ·
              8 months ago

              You are all over this thread harassing people.

              I’m allowed to engage in a forum where I talk to other people other than just you. You are not my world and I don’t need your approval.

              ‘Harass’ said the person who’s obsessed with me… I think you are personalizing this a lot.

              I don’t care about your opinion.

              Then why are you here talking to me about my opinion ?

              Don’t talk about crap you don’t understand.

              You aren’t my boss in life. But this is easily fixed with the block button so this is a choice that you made. I didn’t force it on you to either read it or not.

              Watch the myriad of YouTube channels that cover the scam industry in India. Some people have their family and lives literally threaten with death to pay debts working for scam call centers by literal gangsters.

              welcome to poverty. This is what happens to people who can’t afford care too. Life is not fair to impoverished but that is NOT nor is it EVER an excuse to impose that on someone else.

              That is sad.

              Scamming someone else is not sad. It’s infuriating and it’s gross when you give it such an excuse as empathy to con or hurt others. They should own they harmed someone.

              I’m not putting my hands in the fire for anyone.

              Yet here you are.

              But that is also the product of an exploitative capitalist mindset.

              And here you are infighting instead of attacking the mindset.

              None of the people actually making the phonecalls are “escaping poverty”.

              Also you: “* Some people have their family and lives literally threaten with death to pay debts working for scam call centers by literal gangsters. *”

              It’s the owners of the computers and offices and bank accounts that accrue the scam money who are getting rich. And those people rarely set foot in the actual call centers.

              Yeah and if the person on the phone is no longer in debt and the person on the other side of the line is, they benefited. They are still a villain.

            • Smoogs@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              I don’t for someone who scams someone else and thinks they can apply the exact scenario to the person on the line.

              This isn’t a scenario where someone outran a slower person to let a tiger eat them.

              They brought the tiger TO THEM full well knowing they are too slow to run.

      • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        8 months ago

        Honestly, my favorite of his was putting scammers through the Neal.fun password game. That thing is hard enough if you know what’s going on

        • Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          That one is brilliant. Watched it with friends in voice chat near enough when the video came out.

    • Norodix@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      8 months ago

      I have seen those, so first I played along a bit. “Oh, these hackers must be very good. Please help me”. But I had things to do so I cut it short.

      I never thought one of them would call me. I’m so much outside the target demographic. They might be getting desperate to find targets.

    • dan@upvote.au
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      8 months ago

      Ah yes, I remember back in the day we had to build WINE with unofficial patches to get malware to work. How times have changed.

    • Ooops@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Proper malware often still doesn’t run. Cheap executables to encrypt your stuff and so on the other hand work well.

      Which is why wine should be run as its own unpriviledged user…

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      I still chuckle about the fact that WannaCry the ransomware software has a WineHQ entry

  • Jayb151@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    95
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    One time I kept a guy on the phone for about ten minutes just playing dumb. Then he’s like, sir, what version of Windows do you have?"

    I say, I’m not sure but it’s the one with the little penguin icon.

    We actually had a good laugh about it together

    • Fungah@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      I won free airline tickets once and was shocked and appalled when they said I COULDNT use them to go to the moon. I fought long and hard for the right to use those tickets the way I wanted but alas.

    • XEAL@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      8 months ago

      There was a very custom theme for Gnome 2 that made it look like Windows XP…

      • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        That might be even funnier, but there’s still a chance they’re proficient enough that they could cause problems once they realized what was happening. A VM would help mitigate the chances of that.

    • arglebargle@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      There was a good version of windows 7 set up for this. Command prompts wouldn’t work right, and really messed with them if you gave then access.

      I let one in once and managed to reverse the remote desktop and took over their computer.

      That was fun.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    66
    ·
    8 months ago

    I once played along just to waste their time. Got to the point where I had to go to a site and get my IP address.

    I told him it was 127.0.0.1, and he just said “I think you be messing with me now sir” and hung up. :D

  • lseif@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    68
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    its a dangerous virus known as ‘Linux’ which can completely replace your precious Windows installation! be careful, there is a lot of propaganda pushing free (as in communism) software

          • fxdave@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            8 months ago

            Once someone asked if somebody knows how to run this old game in a linux community.

            The game was “capitalism lab”. I said no, we are communists.

            The guy then deleted his post.

  • Water1053@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    My father in law called me because he talked to a MS support rep about how his computer was dying. He was running Linux Mint.

    • Norodix@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      8 months ago

      No, this is the first time something like this happened to me. i dont even get it. In my country mostly young people speak english. Isnt the target demographic the elderly?

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        53
        ·
        8 months ago

        Young people can (and often are) just as tech illiterate as the elderly. Just because you grew up with an iPad in your hands doesn’t mean you understand computers.

          • original2@lemmy.world
            cake
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            Oh for sure … I (18m) helped out teaching product design at my school last year (a class of 12 year olds). When asked to open an app, many of them searched it up on google or didnt know how. We gave them the name if the app and only about 2/30 people

      • YⓄ乙
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        Sounds like someone from your country is selling your data to India.

    • mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      I did the opposite one day when I was bored. Wasted an hour with them and a Linux VM. Think they were the ones that had my Dell service ID for a tablet I previously owned.