Windows 10 S***8

[idahopz]

lol!

I do not get many solicitors nor scammers these days since ATT offered an app called Call Protect. The phone still rings, but the app tells you that it is a telemarketer, scammer, etc.

I formerly had fun when telemarketers called, wasting their time by asking them to hold because I had a pot boiling over - then just letting my phone go until they hung up. Another fun thing was to tell the people offering free trips to Florida that I have agoraphobia and can't leave home. It was funny to hear how they responded :D It became a game to me - to quickly come up with a story depending on the solicitation call.

 

[Bearcarver]

Ah yes, our government at work. They pass a law that says you must use a hands-free device when calling in your car. Result? Just as many people holding their phones and talking. They pass a law that makes it illegal to call a home unless your company has had prior business dealings with the homeowner. Result? More cold calls than ever, and most of them are hard-core scams.

Does anyone enforce either law? Nope.

I get 3-5 of these calls a day. I sometimes tell them they have reached the NSA, and they should expect a full-scale raid within five minutes. Other times I tell them that we have their home address and agents are on their way to raid the place.

What are they going to do to me, call the cops?

Exactly!!
I had one guy call 3 times. I recognized his voice. Then he gave me a hard time, even cussed at me, as if I called him!!
I told him I know why he got that job. When he went to school he used to get beat up every day for being a Smart-arse. Sometimes even the little girls beat him up.
So he found a job where he could be a PITA, and he doesn't worry about it because he knows guys like me can't reach through the phone line & grab him by the throat.
Never called me again.

Bear

 

[tropics]

lol!

I do not get many solicitors nor scammers these days since ATT offered an app called Call Protect. The phone still rings, but the app tells you that it is a telemarketer, scammer, etc.

I formerly had fun when telemarketers called, wasting their time by asking them to hold because I had a pot boiling over - then just letting my phone go until they hung up. Another fun thing was to tell the people offering free trips to Florida that I have agoraphobia and can't leave home. It was funny to hear how they responded :D It became a game to me - to quickly come up with a story depending on the solicitation call.

Pete I like that
Here is one I did
Money market management LOL
Who is this me Sam I want to handle your accounts
Okay Tell me more give me your home phone # and address
I can't give that LOL
U want to manage my money Sam we are ta

 

[SmokyMose]

The only problem we have with Windows is the PITA Jerks who keep calling here to tell me they want to fix the Viruses on my Windows. Indian Accents, and I can hear a bunch of them in the background all doing the same thing. I just tell them I have a Mac, and I don't have Windows. They keep calling. I even told them I don't have a computer. They still keep calling. I'm not dumb enough to give them info they're looking for.

Whatever happened to the "Do Not Call" list I signed up for years ago. It worked Great for a few years.
Seems this year it got 10 times as bad with Crap calls!!!

Bear

The Mrs gets a call from someone (broken English) about twice a month saying they’re from Microsoft and she has an imminent disaster involving her computer. She tells them she doesn’t have a computer, but they don’t buy it. She just gives them an earful. The “No call list” thing is a joke.
Browsing news sites on my office computer will sometimes result in a page jumping up proclaiming that my computer has been compromised and will be shut down unless I call a # (also claiming to be Microsoft). Locks everything out and makes both monitors flash ominously. I have to restart to make it stop. Can or will anyone do anything about it? No. The Internet is a free for all...
And yet my bank wants me to link my savings account to my debit card LOL!

 

[dward51]

I can help with the telemarketers....

The "do not call list" law had no consequence. It was a feel good thing they made a big deal about, but it only created a list you could register complaints to so "if" someone cared to try and prosecute a caller, they could find other potential victims. Basically it was useless fluff that most people wrongly were led to believe would actually reduce calls.

But there is a alternative for some....

If your home phone service is on the list that NOMOROBO services, I highly recommend it. It's free (at least on my carrier) and it's also available for some cell phones. How it works is they assign a phantom paired number to your home number and your carrier's multi-location ring rings both your home phone and the phantom number which goes to NOMOROBO. If the caller ID or number is on a blocked list, that's it. You only got the 1 ring and the caller is handed off to NOMOROBO where a pre-recorded message is given. So if you get that 2nd ring on the home or cell phone, it's 99% of the time a good call. Once in a blue moon a robo call will sneak through, but you just log into your online account and add the info and it's blocked (and added to their blocked list for everyone else as well). Neat service and worth the 5 minutes it takes to set up if it's available on your carrier (I have AT&T VOIP on the house).

https://www.nomorobo.com/

Oh and the "Microsoft Tech support" calls about needing to fix a virus on my computer are a joke. If I'm bored, I'll play along without ever actually typing in any of the info they give me and acting like a complete PC idiot. I can usually drag them along for a half hour before they start to catch on. They they cuss you out and threaten to do unspeakable things to your dog, etc.... Once they start that, it's fair game and I can hold my own in my best redneck twang and occasionally even get the poor foreigner rattled with my version of "how big a boy are you, and bring it, but you better bring friends and lots of ammo". And if they are local and want to try and follow up, well it's really is game on then, right? Oh the things we do for entertainment in my old age.

 

[Bearcarver]

I can help with the telemarketers....

The "do not call list" law had no consequence. It was a feel good thing they made a big deal about, but it only created a list you could register complaints to so "if" someone cared to try and prosecute a caller, they could find other potential victims. Basically it was useless fluff that most people wrongly were led to believe would actually reduce calls.

But there is a alternative for some....

If your home phone service is on the list that NOMOROBO services, I highly recommend it. It's free (at least on my carrier) and it's also available for some cell phones. How it works is they assign a phantom paired number to your home number and your carrier's multi-location ring rings both your home phone and the phantom number which goes to NOMOROBO. If the caller ID or number is on a blocked list, that's it. You only got the 1 ring and the caller is handed off to NOMOROBO where a pre-recorded message is given. So if you get that 2nd ring on the home or cell phone, it's 99% of the time a good call. Once in a blue moon a robo call will sneak through, but you just log into your online account and add the info and it's blocked (and added to their blocked list for everyone else as well). Neat service and worth the 5 minutes it takes to set up if it's available on your carrier (I have AT&T VOIP on the house).

https://www.nomorobo.com/

Oh and the "Microsoft Tech support" calls about needing to fix a virus on my computer are a joke. If I'm bored, I'll play along without ever actually typing in any of the info they give me and acting like a complete PC idiot. I can usually drag them along for a half hour before they start to catch on. They they cuss you out and threaten to do unspeakable things to your dog, etc.... Once they start that, it's fair game and I can hold my own in my best redneck twang and occasionally even get the poor foreigner rattled with my version of "how big a boy are you, and bring it, but you better bring friends and lots of ammo". And if they are local and want to try and follow up, well it's really is game on then, right? Oh the things we do for entertainment in my old age.

Exactly, only it wasn't my Dog he threatened to do things to, it was my Wife & my Daughter (Don't even have a daughter). That was when I started up on him, and with 30 years in construction, 20 years at Bethlehem Steel & 3 years in the Army, I can Bad Mouth better than most when somebody wants to bad mouth my Wife of 49 years.

As for the damage they can do, My One Buddy had to fix a guy's computer, because one of these Jerks sucked him in on the "Microsoft Tech Support" thing, and he actually helped the guy get into his computer. He said the guy was actually in control of his computer, because he guided him to the places he needed. Makes me wonder how many people get sucked into these Scams!!!

As for the "Do Not Call", it worked Great for years, but this last year it just blew up with all kinds of Scam calls here.

I gotta look into that "NOMOROBO"-----We have Verizon for our Land Lines.

Thanks Dave,
Bear

 

[bluewhisper]

I'm lucky I don't get calls like that. I have a ringtone assigned to each of my contacts so if the phone rings with the default tone I'm immediately suspicious. I usually let it ring and if it's legitimate they'll leave a message.

A while ago I was getting this message at one certain site in another browser.

(edited to add the image)

Obvious bullcrap. I could click to close, then it would go to another warning window. Click to close and it goes back to the first warning. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only way out was a restart. It has not come up so someone got wise and shut it down.

Still it was spooky that I couldn't get rid of it by closing. It reminded me of the old HTML gag where you open a page and it opens a window that opens a window that opens a window ... on and on until you power down.

 

[SmokyMose]

I can help with the telemarketers....

The "do not call list" law had no consequence. It was a feel good thing they made a big deal about, but it only created a list you could register complaints to so "if" someone cared to try and prosecute a caller, they could find other potential victims. Basically it was useless fluff that most people wrongly were led to believe would actually reduce calls.

But there is a alternative for some....

If your home phone service is on the list that NOMOROBO services, I highly recommend it. It's free (at least on my carrier) and it's also available for some cell phones. How it works is they assign a phantom paired number to your home number and your carrier's multi-location ring rings both your home phone and the phantom number which goes to NOMOROBO. If the caller ID or number is on a blocked list, that's it. You only got the 1 ring and the caller is handed off to NOMOROBO where a pre-recorded message is given. So if you get that 2nd ring on the home or cell phone, it's 99% of the time a good call. Once in a blue moon a robo call will sneak through, but you just log into your online account and add the info and it's blocked (and added to their blocked list for everyone else as well). Neat service and worth the 5 minutes it takes to set up if it's available on your carrier (I have AT&T VOIP on the house).

https://www.nomorobo.com/

Oh and the "Microsoft Tech support" calls about needing to fix a virus on my computer are a joke. If I'm bored, I'll play along without ever actually typing in any of the info they give me and acting like a complete PC idiot. I can usually drag them along for a half hour before they start to catch on. They they cuss you out and threaten to do unspeakable things to your dog, etc.... Once they start that, it's fair game and I can hold my own in my best redneck twang and occasionally even get the poor foreigner rattled with my version of "how big a boy are you, and bring it, but you better bring friends and lots of ammo". And if they are local and want to try and follow up, well it's really is game on then, right? Oh the things we do for entertainment in my old age.

I’ll check on that NOMOROBO, Dave. We’re with AT&T as well.
Thanks,
Dan
(She hasn’t had one of those calls in a while. You haven’t lived if you haven’t been cussed out by a Pittsburgh Italian raised woman...)

 

[SmokyMose]

I'm lucky I don't get calls like that. I have a ringtone assigned to each of my contacts so if the phone rings with the default tone I'm immediately suspicious. I usually let it ring and if it's legitimate they'll leave a message.

A while ago I was getting this message at one certain site in another browser.

(edited to add the image)

View attachment 347099

Obvious bullcrap. I could click to close, then it would go to another warning window. Click to close and it goes back to the first warning. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only way out was a restart. It has not come up so someone got wise and shut it down.

Still it was spooky that I couldn't get rid of it by closing. It reminded me of the old HTML gag where you open a page and it opens a window that opens a window that opens a window ... on and on until you power down.

That spookiness is what really bugs me, bw. The fact that you can’t click out of it. You have to manually shut down. They really have “taken over your computer” in a way. Our IT guy says there isn’t any way around it, just don’t fall for it.

 

[johnmeyer]

Browsers are supposed to have a "white list" of bad sites that you want to avoid. This includes sites that present scary pop-ups with warnings like what have been reported here, as well as outright hacker sites. Obviously the lists provided by the browser are not extensive enough or people wouldn't be reporting some of the stories in this thread.

My solution -- and this is not for everyone -- is to use a "hosts" file. I do this under Windows XP, but I think it still works in later versions. It is a text file with a huge list of both "bad" sites and advertising sites. You put this text file in a specific folder under the main Windows folder. Once there, any program that uses the Internet will no longer be able to access any site on the list.

Here is the site where I get the file. I update it 2-3 times a year. The first few paragraphs on the site explain how it works.

Hosts File