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On 17/04/2022 08:00, Barnaby wrote:
Recently both my wife and I have received scam phone calls. No surprise there and no, we did not fall for it. The main reason for knowing that they were scams is that the caller, of course, assumed that we use Microsoft Windows. We don't.It had never occurred to me before, but one good reason you can give someone for moving over to Linux is better protection from scammers. Many of the programs that they try to get you to download just won't work. They won't even install. And you have a chance for a bit of fun with the caller.Just a thought Neil
Yes you can have some fun with them, One tried to get me to use which ever key combo in windows it is to bring up a terminal or run program box I think, of course it doesn't work in GNU / Linux.
Eventually after saying this does not work 10 times (they were getting frustrated at this point), I asked what OS do you think I am running, I heard them say something about finding their supervisor, I hung up. It wasted their time for a good 10 mins. This just annoys them no end.
We should be careful, if you fall for it, you go on a suckers list as an easy target, how long will it be before we (as Linux users) are on a non windows list and they adjust their tactic accordingly.
There is a BBC program on in the mornings where they monitor these scam calls, one call centre seems to be in Calcutta.
All we can do in the meantime is raise awareness, tell people their bank won't ever call them in that way and to simply hang up and call or drop in to their nearest branch to tell them, and report what happened and also report to action fraud.
Paul -- -- Paul Sutton, Cert Cont Sci (Open) https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/ OpenPGP : 4350 91C4 C8FB 681B 23A6 7944 8EA9 1B51 E27E 3D99 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dcglug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: https://www.dcglug.org.uk/faq/