I'm always surprised by how people can be scared into using this service.

Sadly, not everybody has a good working knowledge of computers, and don't have enough street-smarts to spot the clues of a scam.

Lots of older people who really don't know much about their computer, and are completely unaware this is an ongoing scam fall prey to it. They just think it's a nice person offering to solve a problem for them.

It's like any other form of spam or scam ... you only need a very small percentage of people to fall for it to be profitable. Especially since when you answer the phone it takes a few seconds for the auto-dialer to connect you with the guy on the other end. Because they're not calling you, a computer calls a zillion numbers, and then connects people who answer to the next available scammer.

So, if you know some older people who have computers, sit down with them and explain that the world (including the internet and the telephone) is full of lying, greedy bastards who are out to get you. It's like "stranger danger", but for adults.

Not everybody is as cynical and paranoid as people who work in IT. But you need to get them enough of both to not be victims.

I am continuously grateful that when my parents decided to get a computer I sat them down and had "the talk" (*) ... because they subsequently became people who could spot a scam on the phone from a mile away, and learned the kinds of things not to do on their computer.

(*) OK, I had to discretely have a separate talk with my father lest the lure of b00b1es caused him additional computer/wife problems. ;-)

Finally told him I had to go pick up my daughter and that I'd been screwing with him. He called me a "miserable son of a bitch" and hung up.

You know, the amazing thing is they feel they have a right to be angry.

Dude, you called me with the express intent of scamming me ... you seriously expect me to treat you like a human being?

I don't think so.

THEM: Hi this is Microsoft and...
US: hang up

And, if you're lucky enough to have a telephone which lets you block callers, you can do that.

Setting our home phone to drop calls from "Unknown" and "Private" callers killed a lot of this, and being able to block specific callers also helps. If you're calling me from a Private number, I'm not interested.

Of course, they just keep adding new fake numbers, so it's a losing battle.

I would say 95% of all of our incoming calls are crap ... it's gotten to the point if we don't know the number we don't bother answering.

I wish they'd prevent the ability to spoof caller id, because I get more scams calling with a fake caller ID, and I don't really care if a 'legitimate' business needs to do it ... because they represent such a small fraction of calls I get that I'm not prepared to accommodate them.

Look up the "clean hands doctrine". There's a reason that you don't see street gangs suing a drug supplier over a missing shipment....

Because they have guns and don't bother with the courts?

Crap, the Preview button is separated from the Submit, but I'm still an idiot. :-P

Myself, I would fear bad legal consequences if I did it, because hacking into their computers isn't going to be legal just because they are scammers.
So, you have to remember ... these are people operating in a foreign country which is currently ignoring your laws, and are actively lying to you in order to scam you.

What legal recourse do you think they're doing to take against you? Take you to court? Good luck with that.

Sorry, but these clowns are using spoofed caller ID, calling from India (by the sounds of their accents), and are hell bent on ripping you off.

You think law enforcement is going to show up at your door?

Now, if you used this one anybody else, you could be in deep trouble.

But these "This is the Microsoft Service Provider" or whatever they say ... burn 'em to the ground, wreck their computers .. I've got no sympathy for them, and they probably have no idea of who they're talking to anyway. Because it's just an auto dialer which connects you to the next available idiot when you answer.

So, anybody who has the ability to do this probably should. Because I can only imagine the conversation of them trying to lodge a complaint .... yes, I am the guy from the foreign call center doing the Microsoft support scam, this guy hacked my computer.

As I said, whatever ... they still essentially collect money from lobbyists, they just managed to write the rules in such a way as they have a nice legal exemption.

Like I said, I just assume all politicians and corporations are corrupt, it saves time.

This is different from lobbyists giving "campaign contributions" how?

The same thing happens everywhere, it's just a matter of the form it takes.

At this point, I assume all politicians and all corporations are corrupt.

So, I've never heard of a phonon. But I'm not in physics.

What I am laughing at is that they "captured" the sound ... they've almost gone full on Dr. Evil air quotes ... Mini Me, stop humping the "laser". Honest to God! Why don't you and the giant "laser" get a fricken room for God's sakes?

Of of them tried, but were slapped with gag orders so they couldn't even mention it to anyone.

Since when did Google test android apps?

... Right because Redmond doesn't know anything about forcing a tablet style UI on desktop/laptop users and having it fail utterly.

While theres nothing wrong with a Chromebook, pretending its going to take over the world is kind of silly.

Native Client ... REALLY? Let me put a VM in your VM so you can run VMs ...

This may sound like a great idea, but I suspect you'll find after using it a minor amount that its not all that great in reality.

Gaseous? So it is an element. ARRGH!

I complained to the FCC....

I didn't see enough of Janet's breast to compensate for watching the Superbowl.

So, basically the same advice they give when travelling to any other banana republic?

Pathetic when they give the same warnings about American cops as they used to about Mexico or other places with corrupt cops.

Any badly written law will get abused like this. Because now these guys can seize money and stuff without any legal process other than "because I said so".