Cold callers purporting to be technical support

[bobspud]

From a head hunters point of view, do any of you get calls asking for names of employees of the company? and how easy is to get hands on employee lists/structure charts?

Only once, and actually from an agents point of view I bet it would be a really useful tool to get hold of. Although in the days of email scanners looking for company sensitive data egress, I'm guessing most sensible agencies wouldn't want to be seen to accept such a gift.

[BrilloPad]

From a head hunters point of view, do any of you get calls asking for names of employees of the company? and how easy is to get hands on employee lists/structure charts?

Get calls all the time. With a variety of variations. It is easy to get the information. Personally I have never been caught out yet - but I know a couple who have.

[wobbegong]

Anyone ever had one of these? I've had a couple and it's now become a game to see how long I can keep them on the phone for.

First, they tell you that there is currently high virus activity on the internet, and that your computer has been automatically downloading some of these viruses. They walk you through running Event Viewer and point out all the errors, which they claim are viruses. This presumably is to convince you that you have a genuine issue (even though seeing errors in event viewer is obviously fairly normal for a windows machine).

I don't know how people are taken in by this. How could someone get your phone number by monitoring your online presence?

[NickFitz]

Anyone ever had one of these? I've had a couple and it's now become a game to see how long I can keep them on the phone for.

First, they tell you that there is currently high virus activity on the internet, and that your computer has been automatically downloading some of these viruses. They walk you through running Event Viewer and point out all the errors, which they claim are viruses. This presumably is to convince you that you have a genuine issue (even though seeing errors in event viewer is obviously fairly normal for a windows machine).

A friend of mine got one of these recently. He's used Macs exclusively since the late 80s, and also likes winding up cold callers, but he was in a bit of a rush that day. So, instead of keeping the chap on the line as long as possible, he interrupted him with "Do your parents know what you're doing?"

There was a stunned silence from the other end for a few moments, then a stammered "Wh- wh- what?"

"Are your parents aware of what you are doing? You bring shame on them! You're a criminal aren't you? You are deliberately trying to deceive people. You bring shame on your parents!"

Another stunned silence from the other end, so he just said "Now think about what you are doing. Goodbye!" and put the phone down.

At a local FSB meeting a few days later he recounted the tale to a group of local businessmen of Indian extraction, and had them in fits of laughter. They assured him that, whatever training the chap might have received and no matter how dubious his personal ethics, the culture of respect for one's parents and the sense of duty not to shame them by one's actions is so strong in the subcontinent that this particular sally would have undoubtedly completely ruined the chap's day

[jmo21]

I don't know how people are taken in by this. How could someone get your phone number by monitoring your online presence?

For the same reason there is still spam email for nigerian millions, viagra and the like.

There are plenty of stupid an/or technically unaware people out there.

[Alphafemale]

I know someone who received a call like this but the caller actually had some pertinent details: address and dob I think (no idea where from). Anyway, it was convincing enough that the poor bloke actually gave them credit card details in the end. I think the scammers are getting better at it.

[wobbegong]

For the same reason there is still spam email for nigerian millions, viagra and the like.

There are plenty of stupid an/or technically unaware people out there.

True, but I'd have thought even the technically unaware, would ask the question "how did you get this number".

[Moscow Mule]

...snip...

I like this very much. I shall use it if I'm ever called again.

[TheFaQQer]

how easy is to get hands on employee lists/structure charts?

One of my first projects for Oracle consulting involved migrating the employee database from one email format to another. For six months, I had a copy of the database on my laptop - every employee, contact details, grade, skill set....

A head hunter offered to buy it from me, but I'd not been with the company very long so declined.

[Freamon]

I know someone who received a call like this but the caller actually had some pertinent details: address and dob I think (no idea where from). Anyway, it was convincing enough that the poor bloke actually gave them credit card details in the end. I think the scammers are getting better at it.

The ones that have been calling me know the name of the person that used to live here. I'm guessing they use the phone book.

On headhunters, one trick they use is to get the name/number of one person in the company, then impersonate them to another employee and try to get info that way.