Women at my dads work paying scam virus story

[thegame07]

My dad brought me a laptop to fix today, It belongs to a women at his work. She came to him today and said "I'm having issues with my laptop! it keeps doing strange things and I keep getting this virus! I've already paid the company over £160 in the past year but after I pay it goes away and comes back a few weeks or months later!" The idiot has been paying scammers £100s for over a year because the virus said it will fix it if she pays using her cc details.... Can anyone say facepalm? This is the 2nd time I've had a system given to me with this issue and both times the idiots have paid the scammers...

I used to think to myself "Wow! Who falls for these pathetic scams except for people with alzheimer's " Not anymore!

Anyone else heard of people falling for stupid shit like this?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

All the time. Not everyone in the world is as technologically advanced as you.

 

[thegame07]

All the time. Not everyone in the world is as technologically advanced as you.

I wouldn't think anyone would be stupid enough to just grab their personal details and enter them into a dodgy looking webpage just because it says they have a virus... No matter how technologically advanced they are.

I don't think it's down to their knowledge with computers it's more down to them being gullible... I bet it's the same people that fall for non technical scams.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

All the time. Not everyone in the world is as technologically advanced as you.

I wouldn't think anyone would be stupid enough to just grab their personal details and enter them into a dodgy looking webpage just because it says they have a virus... No matter how technologically advanced they are.

So? Some of the older generation just don't understand technology very well and I know people who would probably fall for this as well.

EDIT: Like, I get why it would sound stupid to people who understand stuff like this, but to some it might just seem like common sense. Now that I think about it, I remember someone having a similar problem but with lesser amounts, more like $10-$20 a month, but they just assumed a computer repair shop would just charge the same thing anyway.

 

[thegame07]

All the time. Not everyone in the world is as technologically advanced as you.

I wouldn't think anyone would be stupid enough to just grab their personal details and enter them into a dodgy looking webpage just because it says they have a virus... No matter how technologically advanced they are.

So? Some of the older generation just don't understand technology very well and I know people who would probably fall for this as well.

Yes as I said in my original post I would understand someone with alzheimer's or someone with special needs, However someone with their head straight should never fall for something that is obviously a scam. The people you know who you think would fall for this shouldn't really have access to an online payment system then imo.

The women is in her early 30s and has nothing wrong with her mental capacity

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

You overestimate people. A good percentage of people are just gullible idiots. I used to think it was just America but it looks like its spreading to other countries. That's what happens when people watch MTV and reality tv. I know a fair few helpless morons myself who have actually fallen for this crap, luckily one of them was a phone scam and he told the Indian guy on the other end he didn't have any money and the guy got mad and hung up the phone. I always assume that people are stupid until they show me they have a brain.

 

[ThatDudeWithTheFood]

You overestimate people. A good percentage of people are just gullible idiots. I used to think it was just America but it looks like its spreading to other countries. That's what happens when people watch MTV and reality tv. I know a fair few helpless morons myself who have actually fallen for this crap, luckily one of them was a phone scam and he told the Indian guy on the other end he didn't have any money and the guy got mad and hung up the phone. I always assume that people are stupid until they show me they have a brain.

If you go through life thinking people are stupid your entire life you'll do dumb work.

 

[pyromaniac123]

I hope she doesn't breed.

 

[Hells Malice]

All the time. Not everyone in the world is as technologically advanced as you.

Common sense =/= technologically advanced.

I started browsing the internet around the age of 10. I never once fell for a scam. Mind you I couldn't have even if I wanted to with no CC, but regardless.

 

[Fudge]

One time at my post office a person was talking about how her husband gave all his info including cc's to some guy in India posing as an M$ technician, same reason, apparently his computer was also fucked up. I know some people don't know much regarding technology, but come on, there's a thing called common sense!

 

[BORTZ]

You are all wasting my left clicks!

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

If you go through life thinking people are stupid your entire life you'll do dumb work.

Care to explain?

In my experience a good majority of people are uneducated, half-wits without a shred of logic. I agree that not everyone is this way and I choose not associate myself with the vast majority of these people if I can help it.

 

[Pleng]

All the time. Not everyone in the world is as technologically advanced as you.

Common sense =/= technologically advanced.

I started browsing the internet around the age of 10. I never once fell for a scam. Mind you I couldn't have even if I wanted to with no CC, but regardless.

Well depends how old you are I suppose. If you were on dial-up when you started browsing the internet, you didn't need to have a credit card to fall for scams. Premium-rate diallers; that was the biz back in the day!

 

[Maverick Lunar X]

If you go through life thinking people are stupid your entire life you'll do dumb work.

Care to explain?

In my experience a good majority of people are uneducated, half-wits without a shred of logic. I agree that not everyone is this way and I choose not associate myself with the vast majority of these people if I can help it.

I'm too lazy to go find it right now, but there was a study that showed the smarter you are, the stupider the mistakes you make, as in you over think the simplest tasks.

 

[jose_exe]

About 4 years ago my old man came up with this "watch and start to earn money!" cd

The catch is to indirectly sell the damn disc by spreading it around
starting by giving somesort of fee to this company.

I trew it away at the first chance

[The weirdest part is that the cd was in chinnesse/korean(?) language with asian people at the video and with european spanish subtitles]

 

[Originality]

I am mentally slapping everybody in this thread who EXPECTS the world to have common sense. Common sense itself is a misnomer because it's downright uncommon. I see examples of people with no common sense every time I go out.

E.g. People grabbing the closest milk because it's closest without checking the date. I've seen more than a few people grab one that's on it's expiry date this way - guess what happens next.
E.g. People crossing the road right behind a bus or truck, without giving enough space to look fr oncoming traffic. If there's a bus coming the other way, it's not like they can break intime to avoid hitting those idiots.
E.g. Someone buying jewellery from Argos and coming into my shop expecting it to be real gold. Sure, they may have only just bought it a week ago or whatever their story is, but if it sticks to a magnet it's not freakin' gold!

So when I hear people falling for rogue AV scam ware, or falling from Indian "Microsoft" call centres, or believing Nigerian scam emails can actually make them rich quick... I'm not surprised. You don't hear about the millions who see the scam for what it is, but always the unlucky thousands who get scared or persuaded by the tactic and fork over their CC details.

And if you want to see more examples of how common sense can fail you, watch some Derren Brown shows. He can literally walk away with your wallet and leave you wondering what just happened.

 

[nightbreed813]

I have worked in retail for over 10 years and everyday I go in wondering who is going to amaze me with their stupidity. I truly believe people are smart but make some of the dumbest mistakes for no reason. I don't think its possible for some of the things that I have seen to happen without them trying, but in retail I think a lot of it is just to see what they can get out of you by playing dumb.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

I am mentally slapping everybody in this thread who EXPECTS the world to have common sense. Common sense itself is a misnomer because it's downright uncommon. I see examples of people with no common sense every time I go out.

E.g. People grabbing the closest milk because it's closest without checking the date. I've seen more than a few people grab one that's on it's expiry date this way - guess what happens next.
E.g. People crossing the road right behind a bus or truck, without giving enough space to look fr oncoming traffic. If there's a bus coming the other way, it's not like they can break intime to avoid hitting those idiots.
E.g. Someone buying jewellery from Argos and coming into my shop expecting it to be real gold. Sure, they may have only just bought it a week ago or whatever their story is, but if it sticks to a magnet it's not freakin' gold!

So when I hear people falling for rogue AV scam ware, or falling from Indian "Microsoft" call centres, or believing Nigerian scam emails can actually make them rich quick... I'm not surprised. You don't hear about the millions who see the scam for what it is, but always the unlucky thousands who get scared or persuaded by the tactic and fork over their CC details.

And if you want to see more examples of how common sense can fail you, watch some Derren Brown shows. He can literally walk away with your wallet and leave you wondering what just happened.

Pretty much this.

Also, you can't discount the fact that many people are naive. People somehow believe in those scams, and get had in this way.
You can't really fault them, everyone makes mistakes. The mistakes just differ in type and magnitude. Heck, the same people you mock may very well be the ones mocking you with their superior math or physics.

 

[tinymonkeyt]

It's not really that surprising. Think about it. The reason why these scams and tricks are still around today is that people still fall for it. If people were smart enough not to fall for these things, they wouldn't still be circulating.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Hum, what's this? A Nigerian Prince stumbled upon an oil well and needs me to wire $6,500 to him as well as giving him my SSN, full name, address, mother's maiden name, and driver's license number, just so in the end he can repay me $400,000 after he is able to get it drilled?

Spoiler