askpcexperts??? Who are they?

I have just had two these calls and to be frank I just told them to f**k off! No doubt that seems extreme but I am sick to death of receiving this type of nonsense along with cold calling so I am just not prepared to waste my time. Treat them as they deserve to be treated...as garbage!

On Thursday, June 7, 2012 4:15:03 PM UTC-5, Ben Myers wrote:
I got a call today from a person (India or Pakistan probably) in a 3rd world country claiming to be Microsoft Certified, and that my computer had forwarded data to Microsoft indicating that it had a virus, and that he would help me fix it.

I did not tell him about my tech street cred, but I busted his stones for quite a while, asking repeatedly why I should trust him, and told him he could send me email with proof-positive of the virus in my computer. I gave him my email address, public knowledge anyway, and told him I would take his email and quarantine it just in case HE was sending me a virus.

They have a very nice web site, but this was almost 100% certain a scam. You been warned... Ben Myers

what can I do about this scam I had them work on my computer in sept 2014 and in oct a virus infected my computer and I lost all my files my email is if you could help please reply

You may like to read my blog post about this company. You will also be able to listen to the recording I made of my phone call. BBC Watchdog in the UK I believe are now investigating this company, as I just had an email from them this week. Also visit the recorded track on Mixcloud via he http://styin.me/scam-computer-virus-call

You will find some other interesting comments there.

Please share widely, especially with the older generation, which is their target market.

Be safe.


On Thursday, 7 June 2012 22:15:03 UTC+1, Ben Myers wrote:
I got a call today from a person (India or Pakistan probably) in a 3rd world country claiming to be Microsoft Certified, and that my computer had forwarded data to Microsoft indicating that it had a virus, and that he would help me fix it.

I did not tell him about my tech street cred, but I busted his stones for quite a while, asking repeatedly why I should trust him, and told him he could send me email with proof-positive of the virus in my computer. I gave him my email address, public knowledge anyway, and told him I would take his email and quarantine it just in case HE was sending me a virus.

They have a very nice web site, but this was almost 100% certain a scam. You been warned... Ben Myers

Hi Ben, I've been gone from the group for a long time, life got in the way. It's good to see the regulars like you still posting. My elderly friends got a call from "Comcast" to "help" straighten out a billing problem. Well the rest is history, along with their savings. Really sad, how do people sleep at night.

I too got a call a month back from MS Tech Support saying I had a virus. I told them I knew my computer was running slow, but of course it is never fast enough. I kept them on the line for a half hour. Hopefully, I kept them off the phone with someone like my elderly friends.

It's good to be subscribed again to alt.pc-clone.dell and seeing all the regulars still posting.
Take care, Pat Conover

On Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 6:32:45 AM UTC-5, Patrick Conover, MAI wrote:
Hi Ben, I've been gone from the group for a long time, life got in the way. It's good to see the regulars like you still posting. My elderly friends got a call from "Comcast" to "help" straighten out a billing problem. Well the rest is history, along with their savings. Really sad, how do people sleep at night.

I too got a call a month back from MS Tech Support saying I had a virus. I told them I knew my computer was running slow, but of course it is never fast enough. I kept them on the line for a half hour. Hopefully, I kept them off the phone with someone like my elderly friends.

It's good to be subscribed again to alt.pc-clone.dell and seeing all the regulars still posting.
Take care, Pat Conover

You might notice though that the posts to alt.pc-clone.dell are less frequent, almost rare. I have Google groups set to notify me whenever someone posts. This is a the legacy of the days before WWW everywhere, when usenet newsgroups covered 99% of what people needed to talk about. Now, every main computer sales company (they don't manufacture computers, too, do they?) has its own moderated user message group. And then you add Tom's hardware web site and its Q&A threads, and the Linux ones, the ones prompted by on-line magazines and the entities like usenet groups have grown exponentially and become very much fragmented.

Yep Ben, I see that now. Just after posting, I saw the post date back in 2012 Yikes! Boy did I show up late to this party... Thanks for posting back though. I have a Dell 9550 that has me bafflef, so I will start a new thread.. Well Ben, at least your still alive and kicking. Take care, Pat Conover

On Sunday, January 17, 2016 at 11:32:26 AM UTC-6, Patrick Conover, MAI wrote:
Yep Ben, I see that now. Just after posting, I saw the post date back in 2012 Yikes! Boy did I show up late to this party... Thanks for posting back though. I have a Dell 9550 that has me bafflef, so I will start a new thread. Well Ben, at least your still alive and kicking. Take care, Pat Conover

I'm still around Mr. Conover...Inspiron 660, Vostro 230, Inspiron N5050, to name a few I still have and use...

Hi Bob, I remember your name from back in the hey day of alt.pc-dell.clone or whatever the real name is... Anyway, since you, Ben and I are apparently the only folks left here, please call me Pat. Take care, Pat Conover

I have an old, still running Dimension 4550, a rock of a machine, an even older Dimension 8200, still running too with RDRAM, remember that? And a Dimension 9550 currently unbootable and driving me kooky!

On Sunday, January 17, 2016 at 7:12:01 PM UTC-6, Patrick Conover, MAI wrote:
Hi Bob, I remember your name from back in the hey day of alt.pc-dell.clone or whatever the real name is... Anyway, since you, Ben and I are apparently the only folks left here, please call me Pat. Take care, Pat Conover

I have an old, still running Dimension 4550, a rock of a machine, an even older Dimension 8200, still running too with RDRAM, remember that? And a Dimension 9550 currently unbootable and driving me kooky!

I also have a 4550 still running and gave away an 8400 to a friend. The 8400 was over $2000 when it came out (I got it for free from an IT friend). 1st to have: DDR2, SATA, ePCI video. I think there was a intel dual core on the later models?

We're running a bunch of old laptops as CPU
servers, under XP with Cygwin dating from 2005.

Not upgrading avoids bit rot, where changes in a
compiler for instance done by idiot graduate
students renders old programs nonfunctional.
You'd not only have to fix the programs, but you
have to first read and understand them. So no
upgrades.

This group is very useful for finding out what can
be done to resurrect the occasional laptop that no
longer works for some reason or another.

Dell laptops fail at a very low rate,
incidentally; the highest thing being a new HD
needed, easily accomplished so far.

My main machine, this one, an Inspiron 1200, has
been up 24/7 since 2005.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.