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Thread: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

  1. #21
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    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Quote Originally Posted by Paddy Landau View Post
    I've just Googled tubgirl.

  2. #22
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    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Quote Originally Posted by speedwell68 View Post
    ... playing the tuba
    ROFL

    Quote Originally Posted by Grenage View Post
    I'm so sorry; you've now joined the ranks of the visually violated.
    How do people even think of doing things like this? Weird! I'm lucky I'm not squeamish. But I definitely will consider doing this, if I can get hold of a legal copy of Win 95 or 98 (I don't think my machine will run XP or higher in a virtual box).

    It would definitely make my day...

    So, let's see. So far, we have the following ideas (including some of mine):


    1. Load Windows in a virtual box where he can't do any damage. Load tubgirl as the desktop wallpaper (if you can stand it). Snapshot the installation. EDIT: Don't bother about the wallpaper, as the remote software (TeamViewer, LogMeIn, whatever) temporarily disables it anyway.
    2. Ensure that the windows box runs very slowly, so as to elicit maximum frustration from the scammer. (Does Virtual Box allow for such niceties?) EDIT: Yes, it does. You can restrict disk bandwidth, although that is complicated to set up. You can also restrict CPU access ("Execution Cap" in the settings).
    3. When the scammer calls, get him to hold for a long time, perhaps by coming back every minute to say, "Please hold, I'll be with you shortly, I'm just trying to reboot my computer."
    4. Finally, relent and engage him in pointless distracting conversation; see if you get the 100 points. Even more points if he keeps making mistakes.
    5. When he wants to reboot the computer, revert to the snapshot, and delay the reboot for at least ten minutes, claiming that your computer always takes 10 minutes to boot. Play some irritating old rap music clip to him repeatedly during the reboot, repeatedly asking, "Don't you love this music?"
    6. Repeat steps 4-5 several times until he's beating his head against the computer screen.


    Any further ideas?
    Last edited by Paddy Landau; August 19th, 2011 at 11:00 AM.
    Always make regular backups of your data (and test them).
    Visit Full Circle Magazine for beginners and seasoned Linux enthusiasts.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    Manchester UK
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    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    When you set up vbox you can tell it how much ram to use when running,

    Just give it an insanely low amount, just enough to work.

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    50
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    Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Quote Originally Posted by Paddy Landau View Post
    ROFL


    How do people even think of doing things like this? Weird! I'm lucky I'm not squeamish. But I definitely will consider doing this, if I can get hold of a legal copy of Win 95 or 98 (I don't think my machine will run XP or higher in a virtual box).

    It would definitely make my day...

    So, let's see. So far, we have the following ideas (including some of mine):


    1. Load Windows in a virtual box where he can't do any damage. Load tubgirl as the desktop wallpaper (if you can stand it). Snapshot the installation.
    2. Ensure that the windows box runs very slowly, so as to elicit maximum frustration from the scammer. (Does Virtual Box allow for such niceties?)
    3. When the scammer calls, get him to hold for a long time, perhaps by coming back every minute to say, "Please hold, I'll be with you shortly, I'm just trying to reboot my computer."
    4. Finally, relent and engage him in pointless distracting conversation; see if you get the 100 points. Even more points if he keeps making mistakes.
    5. When he wants to reboot the computer, revert to the snapshot, and delay the reboot for at least ten minutes, claiming that your computer always takes 10 minutes to boot. Play some irritating old rap music clip to him repeatedly during the reboot, repeatedly asking, "Don't you love this music?"
    6. Repeat steps 4-5 several times until he's beating his head against the computer screen.


    Any further ideas?
    reverse h4x
    inb4 Apple copies Ubuntu/Gnome3/Unity

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    23

    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    I saw a story somewhere of some guy who replied to emails from scammers, and convinced them (it wasn't very hard) that he worked for a company that paid some ridiculous amount ($14 per page?) for peoples handwritten copies of books (Harry Potter in the story) for research analysis of handwriting. And they accepted only a minimum of 100 pages

    This sounded like easy money from crazy Americans to the Nigerian scammer, so he wrote, scanned and emailed these pages to the "research company" (there were actual copies of the handwritten pages shown in the story I read). The "researcher" kept stringing him along as long as he could, stalling, and asking for more, while the scammer complained that he hadn't been paid yet! Great stuff...

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    484

    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Let him SSH into a virtual Linux install. Won't slow him down any, but the reaction should be priceless.

    (Honestly though, your current plan is pretty amazing.)
    Life is an extraordinarily long concatenation of luck and coincidence.

  7. #27
    Join Date
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    Portsmouth, UK
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    Hidden!
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    Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Quote Originally Posted by PhillyPhil View Post
    I saw a story somewhere of some guy who replied to emails from scammers, and convinced them (it wasn't very hard) that he worked for a company that paid some ridiculous amount ($14 per page?) for peoples handwritten copies of books (Harry Potter in the story) for research analysis of handwriting. And they accepted only a minimum of 100 pages

    This sounded like easy money from crazy Americans to the Nigerian scammer, so he wrote, scanned and emailed these pages to the "research company" (there were actual copies of the handwritten pages shown in the story I read). The "researcher" kept stringing him along as long as he could, stalling, and asking for more, while the scammer complained that he hadn't been paid yet! Great stuff...
    Now that is good, lol.

  8. #28
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    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Quote Originally Posted by stealth. View Post
    reverse h4x
    Even if I knew how, then what? According to the Guardian article (post #8), they did track him down and they closed down his website. It made no difference; he's still working, opening new websites and scamming new victims. And I'll bet there are others.
    Always make regular backups of your data (and test them).
    Visit Full Circle Magazine for beginners and seasoned Linux enthusiasts.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    Perth, Australia
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    40

    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Uhh... What is tubgirl... I don't want to Google it.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    May 2008
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    Beverley, UK
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    Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

    Re: Beating back the telephone virus scammers

    Quote Originally Posted by Grenage View Post
    My personal record was 42 minutes on hold, with a cold caller; I almost started to feel guilty when I came back from lunch and the light was still on the phone.

    I know of someone who'd had enough, made out that the intended recipient of the call had been murdered, and that the caller had to stay on the line for the purposes of the investigation. That's probably taking it a bit far.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvJQxgtJW94
    Everything that has a Beginning, has an End

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