@MarkJFinewrote:
It's an offshoot of the people who know (over the phone, no less) that you have a virus and only they can fix your registry.
Same class of people threatening they're with the IRS.
In fact, I think they all use the same CallerID spoofing software, the latest of which is now picking numbers from a database with your area code and local exchange.
I remember the first time I ever got one of these calls, with the person telling me that I had a virus on my network, I asked him to tell me what my ISP was. He kept saying, "No, sir, the virus is on your network." 😛 I then asked him some, well.... colorful questions. He hung up.
One time I actually played along and had them on the phone for about ten minutes. I was acting like I had absolutely no clue about computers and that he had to walk me through every single little step. Either he caught on or got tired of it, as he hung up. LOL.
Though I find the type I describe in this post comical, I do feel bad for those that are taken in by any of these scams, which, of course, is mostly elderly people. You've got to be a real scumbag to take advantage of anyone, but especially the elderly (those "Grandma, it's me. I'm in trouble!" phone calls). A real scumbag.
Regarding the recent "Apple iCloud" calls, they've been spoofing real Apple Store phone numbers across the country, so even if you try to call back to mess with them, you get real stores. They're getting slicker and slicker, and the scuzbuckets know that a lot of people don't keep updated on scams, nor do they immediately know a scammer when they hear them, like we do. It's really sad, and unfortunate. I always keep my folks abreast of current scams.
