Some years ago, I received a phone call from someone purporting to be from Microsoft and that they saw that I had a very bad virus. They said it would cost $150 to fix the problem, so I hung up on him.
Two days ago, different phone location with the same spiel, didn’t bother to listen past the 1st and 2nd sentence, …yep hung up on him again.
You wonder where they get a silent number from?
It’s a worry when they have found some details @genelow16. My general rule of thumb is that I won’t give out any information (or even take any calls from any company) unless I initiate the contact myself.
Their computer dials at random hoping to get a human to answer. Just as cheap emails enable spam, cheap international phone calls enable this scam.
‘war diallers’ have come a long way in the last 40-or-so years …
‘shall we play a game?’
Caller ID is a code which is transmitted with the voice call. It is possible to turn the call id off so that the number is ‘private’. This can be done easily now days with technology which is available.
Also, with software/apps (e.g. Skype calls), it is possible for an international caller to make calls effectively from a site/ exchange in Australia costing them next to nothing. They can also add fake caller ids so that it looks like a call is being made from a Australian phone (e.g. 02 ABCD EFGH).
More information on how caller id works can be found here…WIKI.
In our house, if we don’t recognise the number (or if it is a private caller), we don’t answer it and let it go to our answering machine. Should it be someone we do know, we can easily interrupt the message being left and take the call.
For the past 3 or 4 months every day, twice a day, usually at 3pm and 7pm we have had a call from “Telstra” about checking our Broadband connection and directing us to log on to our computer to address any issues. Obviously it was not Telstra and although we informed the callers (all from an overseas connection) to take a hike the first week, we resorted to just hanging up. We have a silent number but I think if you initially answer they will consistently call again until someone realises they are wasting their time.
When I get one of the scam calls on the landline I ask them to wait till I go upstairs and boot up my computer. I let them know I am an elderly person and therefore takes time to do all this. I then put the hand piece down beside the phone, walk out of the room and go about my normal business. Hopefully I waste as much of their time as possible while they are waiting for me to come back for further ‘instructions’! Thus leaving less time for them to be trying to scam others.!!
I just gently put the phone down and tiptoe away, on the grounds that it’s their dollar. I like your idea better.
I’ve done that too. It’s very satisfying, knowing that I’ve wasted their time. My best effort once was 40 minutes. Maybe we could start a competition to see who can keep one of these clowns on hold for the longest time. It would have to be on the honour system of course, but it’s a great way of fighting back.
I sometimes ask the scammer if he is in the Microsoft office in Bangalore, and if he knows [Indian national’s name]. If he claims to I start a social dialogue about how that friend and I met and asking about how he is going these days. If challenged it is a common name, so must be another [Indian national’s name] so maybe they are related… If he doesn’t know him, I explain he is a Microsoft supervisor in security and has the proposed download and execution been vetted and approved by his department, and off we go 
Only problem is I never know just how long it takes them to give up waiting for me to get back to them. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to engage them in pretending to follow ‘instructions’ etc. as that wastes my time too. 
Thank you all for all your solutions, much appreciated.
Generally this is something that your phone company has to do - and will… for a price.
We receive regular calls from such scammers. There are various games that can be played with them, and one of them even called me back after I spelled my name (George Costanza) to him as d.o.n.t.s.c.a.m.m.e. and asked him to confirm pronunciation! He said “You hung up on me Mr George…”!!!
Some (most? all?) companies allow the customer to do that. The overview for mine is:
Calling Line ID (CLI) Delivery Blocking. Caller ID Block allows you to block your phone number from being displayed on the phone you are calling. This feature can be permanently turned on or off via your toolbox. You can also block or show you phone number on a call-by-call basis.
As far as I’m aware, Telstra and Optus also allow this on a per call basis:
And for everything you wanted to know about CNI CLI CLID CND and probably more acronyms:
If you have to give out your phone number; and there are lots of situations now days, particularly with online sites where you are force to do so because it’s a ‘required’ entry; always give your landline number if you have one. Then let all your family and friends know you filter all your calls through the answering machine. Sit back and be surprised at the number of calls that never get to the answering machine message. These are the calls being made by automated telephony systems that hangup as soon as an answering machine is detected. We have been using this technique for many years and is guaranteed to work. Most legitimate callers will leave a message.
Some years ago I made fun of one of these scam callers and the response was “I’m going to come and rape you and I will rape your mother and I will rape your daughter”. The call was clearly from the sub continent so I wasn’t worried that a worker from a scam call centre would be able to afford to fly to Australia, locate me in the suburbs and carry out the threat.
More recently I had calls from “Telstra” two days in a row. I explained we are not with Telstra however that does not deter them for one second. They still insist they are going to cut off my internet service. On the second day I put on a very happy voice and said “Oh, Hi. How nice to hear from you again. I haven’t spoken to “Telstra” since yesterday when you called to tell me you were going to cut off my internet service”. … Click
I’d really like to spin it out a bit and have some fun but I just don’t have time.
A response to the likes of that first ‘gentleman’ might be ‘they all have Japanese knives and are expert sausage cutters, want to go for it?’
