Anyone else getting scam calls from "AT&T Support" on their home phone?

[nickdalzell]

Yesterday afternoon, I got a call on my home phone (landline, rotary Western Electric) and thought it was an update from the roofer (insurance claim and i've been getting calls regarding it, so naturally I answered) but this was what it was:

[heavy Indian accent] "Hello? this is [name] calling u about your AT&T account....

me: Yeah?

"AT&T": Yeah, hello sir....We are going VEGAN!

me: [thinking] great! Always nice to hear about people having concern for animals and the planet

"AT&T": So...Your AT&T...Your current landline serwice won't work anymore....You must upgwade...

me: OH...Sorry, scammer, you're not fooling anyone in this house. Besides what does going vegan have to do with my home phone service?!

**hung up**

This morning:

"AT&T": Hello, we're calling about you AT&T account"

me: Listen here! You try to scam me again, and keep calling, I will report you to the REAL AT&T. **I hung up**

That was at 7 in the freaking AM. I was still asleep.

What kind of scam is this? I paid my bill on time, got the confirmation codes, and dare I ask, what does going 'vegan' have to do with my landline?! Maybe I heard them wrong? But I can't find a word that rhymes with 'vegan' that has to do with tech or landlines. My home phone is still working but now I will likely be getting repeat calls until I report them. If this is some crazy futurist trying to sell fiber or something I'm not interested...Good lord! I can't get away from their dystopian digital crap even at home!

I don't understand the scam myself, but when I signed up for home phone service last year, I don't remember any of 'em having Indian reps. At least, not the two I talked to.

EDIT: This was indeed a scammer. I just called AT&T (the real AT&T) and as suspected, there is nothing wrong with my landline service or my use of a rotary dial phone.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I get every imaginable kind of scam call on my landline (AT&T, hardwired, real landline), my very favorite being those from Microsoft and Apple, telling me that my [fill-in-the-blank product of theirs I wouldn't use for a billion dollars] has been [locked, frozen, disabled, infected with a virus...], and that I need to pay $X to fix it. Then I have a FIELD DAY acting like a real bozo, "oh, no, you mean my [whatever] won't work? oh, no, what happened?! Oh, dear, what to do, what to do?!" Play it up big-time, acting like a totally naive, ignorant user, waste as much of their time as possible, choking down hilarious laughter, until finally deciding to lower the boom: "You're a worthless piece of shit, moron, I wouldn't use [whatever] in a million years. Go back to the cesspool you crawled out of!" Click.

 

[mikedt]

For scam calls from India..."Hello, I'm calling fwom Micwosoft Vindows..." etc.
I would play them along for as long as possible, to waste their time. Maybe use some Hindi cuss words and insults. For ideas see YouTube channels like Kitboga, Scambaiter, and IRLrosie.

 

[nickdalzell]

Kitboga I am not. I might try the Shango066 route and speak in gibberish if there's a next time. They weren't asking for money, just attempting to tell me (badly) that my copper landline won't work in a few weeks. What that had to do with them going 'vegan' is still a mystery. After the call to the real AT&T and them saying 'we will NEVER call if such a transition were happening, we'd send you a notice in the mail' I got relief. At first I thought this was a repeat of the whole 3G shutdown that I only recently circumvented by going with Verizon and gaming the system to restore service to my S4 Mini.

I sure hope nothing happens to my rotary phone line. I love my home being vintage.

I've never gotten calls on wireless or landline about windows scams. I HAVE however seen the 'fake websites' that plague Edge on Windows 10 at work though. Makes me glad Windows Vista can't support those fake sites. I've seen far more 'hacks' affecting modern OS than any 'out of support' OS.

 

[nickdalzell]

I get every imaginable kind of scam call on my landline (AT&T, hardwired, real landline), my very favorite being those from Microsoft and Apple, telling me that my [fill-in-the-blank product of theirs I wouldn't use for a billion dollars] has been [locked, frozen, disabled, infected with a virus...], and that I need to pay $X to fix it. Then I have a FIELD DAY acting like a real bozo, "oh, no, you mean my [whatever] won't work? oh, no, what happened?! Oh, dear, what to do, what to do?!" Play it up big-time, acting like a totally naive, ignorant user, waste as much of their time as possible, choking down hilarious laughter, until finally deciding to lower the boom: "You're a worthless piece of shit, moron, I wouldn't use [whatever] in a million years. Go back to the cesspool you crawled out of!" Click.

I'm about to play Thelma Harper on them the next time if there is a next time. Or Roy Mercer. I have zero tolerance for futurists trying to make me upgrade (about like I do anyone who would dare try coming into my home and replacing all my vintage stuff with modern stuff). The freak wasn't asking for money, just attempting to (badly) convince me that my copper landline would not work in the future. Since the call to the true carrier, and them saying they'd send a mailed notice if it were happening (and that nothing is wrong or will change regarding my current service or equipment) I felt relief. At first I thought this was another stupid transition like the analog TV shutdown, the 2G/3G/Non-VoLTE shutdown. The last thing I need is another corporation forcing me to use something I hate by kicking me off of something I love. I love vintage and retro, 2010 tech. I don't want modern tech. I already attempted to use modern many times and it always ended with migraines, frustration and anger.

The only thing I could find regarding any possible copper line shutdown was an old Dec 2020 article on AT&T's website that mentions you can still use anything from a rotary dial phone to a fax machine and the only thing that would change is that you'd have fiber and a battery backup/converter. No mention of needing a brand new digital cordless phone that I have zero interest in.

At one time I used an old DuoPhone dual-cassette answering machine from the late '70s to catch stuff while I was at work. Then one day I got two messages like this:

[rewind sound] BEEP! ......**silence** GOODBYE! click! (robotic female voice)

I have no clue what that crap even was but it creeped me out enough to ditch the answering machine entirely. I can't find much info online about it other than a couple of YouTube videos.

 

[no one]

I just tell them:
"It's done. But there's a lot of blood. This will be our last communication."

Unless, it's for an all inclusive hotel stay.

Then I reply:
"All inclusive? Cocaine and prostitutes too?"

 

[The_Chief]

I love getting those calls - with nomorobo I don't get as many... but if I have the time, I'll amuse myself by messing with them:

"We've been trying to reach you regarding your vehicle's warranty. Press 1 to be connected to..."
*Press 1*
"Thank you for calling, what is the year, make & model of your vehicle?"
"Well, it's a 1979 Schwinn 10-speed. It's got a little bit of rust on the chain but it's in good shape otherwise."
*CLICK* They hang up on me!

"Hello, this is Microsoft technical support, we are calling because our system has detected a virus on your computer."
"What virus?"
"Your computer is infected with a virus that is creating a log of all your keystrokes and recording every website you visit. It may also lock all your files and require you to pay a ransom to retrieve them."
"Oh, that one! Yes, I know. I put it there. I was wondering which one you were talking about."
"I'm sorry?"
"Yeah, I put that virus there. I install malware, adware, keyloggers... all kinds of viruses on my computer. I want to see how infected it can get before it stops working. So if you guys have something new I don't know about, I'd appreciate your sharing it with me and I'll load that sucker up, too."
*CLICK* They hang up on me!



UPDATE:

It's one day later and guess what just HAPPENED to show up in my Google Discover feed? A video titled "how many viruses did it take to kill this laptop?"
They're not even trying to hide their digital espionage anymore!

 

[nickdalzell]

No offense to Indians, but the instant it's an Indian with bad english I get skeptical. I'm no fool. The odd thing was I never get junk calls on this phone line at all. I've had it at least a year. Today, so far, no one has called. Maybe they finally got the message....I also NEVER give the number out (FYI if you put your real phone number, cellular or landline, onto any online form, you'll get an onslaught since the companies sell the info. I just give them a fake phone number. No one at Amazon or Netflix will ever call the home phone number anyway so why not use 867-5309?)

They probably figured me for some 80 year-old fool. Sorry, but my mind (and my tongue) is as sharp as a tack!

I'd be worried about faking them out by acting like a murderer though (the quip above about blood and being done) because in the USA, after the so-called 'patriot act' the government can and does listen to records of phone calls especially old copper landlines (not encrypted at all) and that can get you in big trouble. Hell, I deleted Play Services from my phone because I read that article about the biker who got listed as a prime suspect just because he biked next to a recently robbed home, and Google used his location history against him. Then there was that dad who sent photos of his son's 'sensitive area' to a doctor and got labeled unfairly as a pedophile and is still fighting it.

If this is the future we're going to see I can only hope I don't live to see it. From the perspective of 2010, when I was snuggling Daisy, using the best in top-notch smartphone tech, the future looked wonderful. Today, especially post-COVID, it looks more and more like either Black Mirror, They Live, or Oblivion.

MikeDT, is that Cheetah Mobile robot still a thing? and doesn't tech like that sorta creep you out as well?

 

[MoodyBlues]

I love getting those calls - with nomorobo I don't get as many... but if I have the time, I'll amuse myself by messing with them:

"We've been trying to reach you regarding your vehicle's warranty. Press 1 to be connected to..."
*Press 1*
"Thank you for calling, what is the year, make & model of your vehicle?"
"Well, it's a 1979 Schwinn 10-speed. It's got a little bit of rust on the chain but it's in good shape otherwise."
*CLICK* They hang up on me!

"Hello, this is Microsoft technical support, we are calling because our system has detected a virus on your computer."
"What virus?"
"Your computer is infected with a virus that is creating a log of all your keystrokes and recording every website you visit. It may also lock all your files and require you to pay a ransom to retrieve them."
"Oh, that one! Yes, I know. I put it there. I was wondering which one you were talking about."
"I'm sorry?"
"Yeah, I put that virus there. I install malware, adware, keyloggers... all kinds of viruses on my computer. I want to see how infected it can get before it stops working. So if you guys have something new I don't know about, I'd appreciate your sharing it with me and I'll load that sucker up, too."
*CLICK* They hang up on me!

Thank you, @The_Chief, for making me actually LAUGH for the first time since Joy Noelle died. When I get the car warranty call, like you I press 1 and wait for the fun to begin. Your response outdoes any I've come up with, as I normally turn it around on them and ask them which vehicle they mean. They stumble and fumble for words and a lot of uh, uh, "your vehicle, the warranty is about to expire!" (Like, yeah, you said that before!) "I have FIVE vehicles. WHICH ONE are you talking about? The Lamborghini? The McLaren? Or what? It can't be the Triumph TR3 since its warranty ran out 60 years ago! " Some more "um, uh, um..." Pretty much that yields a click. Other times I ask them to tell me all the info they have, just to make sure we're talking about the same car: its make, model, year, how long its manufacturer's warranty is, etc. Of course they can't, so then I move on to the above. Click.

BTW, I really appreciate your thoughtful messages. Thanks, buddy.

 

[nickdalzell]

Not too long ago I had a 1984 Chrysler Fifth Avenue. I sold it when Daisy died. (drove it to see her and other deer in my life so it had old memories--plus, it had suffered the fate of all M-body Mopars, where it ate the insides of the front tires every couple thousand miles. They had a fatal front end flaw and mine had long reached it.)

I got one of those 'warranty' scams then as well. I told them 'Really?! I wasn't aware my 20-plus year-old car HAD a warranty! Who'dve Thought?' and they hung up.

I still haven't figured out what the creepy 'GOODBYE!' message was about though. It sounded creepy. All I could find online was someone's YouTube video I posted here where they had something like it. They thought it was funny. I found it creepy. Imagine what it'd do to an 80 year old woman!

BTW just why do Indian scammers swap the W's and V's around anyway? Oh and they have what I call 'scammer-isms' like 'each and everything', 'DO NOT REDEEM!!!' and other phrases. Kitboga has his 'Edna' character always making fun of one of their swear words in Hindi

"What is a 'mother toad?'"

 

[MoodyBlues]

BTW just why do Indian scammers swap the W's and V's around anyway?

My best buddy in college was a young Indian woman, whose family lived in England prior to coming to the US. She spoke flawless English, which she'd learned as a child, no accent whatsoever--but she still had issues with "v" and "w". She told me something about that at one time, but I'm afraid I just don't recall what she said. Seems like it was something like in their native tongue, there is no comparable sound...I just don't remember. But it's across the board, not just scammers!

PS Your comment about using 867-5309 as your phone number brought back great memories--and now I can't get that damn song out of my head!!

 

[nickdalzell]

Oh I lived the 80's. It was my childhood. Great music, the birth of the PC market, and great video games and movies.

I don't miss flat UI though. Not one bit. I lived it during CP/M, Windows 1.x, and Tandy DeskMate (as well as GS/OS, BATmenu, and the MS-DOS Shell) so when I look at modern tech and see the 21st century equivilent, I am so glad I chose to keep Windows Vista and my S4 Mini alive and well. Ironically enough I don't have nearly the security issues I had with Windows 10 or 11 (nor the frustration). But whenever someone says that Vista and Android 2.3 look 'dated' compared with so-called 'modern' UI I get angry and say "ain't nothing modern about flat. It was done in the 80's and seeing it today will always look dated. All this screen capabilities and resolution to pull off modern EGA graphics is a lot like spending tons on an 8K TV and only playing black and white movies in 4:3 aspect ratio on it."

I might be just getting old but I will NEVER see anything in UI today as 'modern'. it will always look dated compared with Android 2.3, TouchWiz 4.0, or Windows Vista.

By all means, call my home which is an eclectic tribute to the 50s-70s mixed with 2010-14 dated, call my rotary phone dated, but NEVER say that Vista looks dated compared to what looks like a modern take on Windows 1.x (Windows 10+)

Also, calling Android 12/13 'modern' is like calling the UI of a Nokia 5100-series phone 'modern.' Both are flat, both look dated to me. I still wish we'd have kept the pace we had in 2010-13 going and maybe we'd have sci-fi level tech with holographic screens like that one seen in the Iron Man movies. Instead developers wanted to revisit the worst part of the '80s.

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator, known as the very first 'smartphone', in 1992, had a flat UI design. So did the Apple Newton, Tandy Zoomer PDA, and the Nokia 5100-series phones. Sadly we've been stuck in this lapse since 2015 with no sign of going back to the future.

 

[mikedt]

BTW just why do Indian scammers swap the W's and V's around anyway?

I'm sure it's to do with different phonetics of Hindi and English. Similar with Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, etc, and English.

Oh and they have what I call 'scammer-isms' like 'each and everything', 'DO NOT REDEEM!!!' and other phrases. Kitboga has his 'Edna' character always making fun of one of their swear words in Hindi

"DO ONE THING" Which just about every Indian call centre scammer says repeatedly.

"What is a 'mother toad?'"

FYI Hindi swear words and abusive phrases.
https://www.youswear.com/index.asp?language=Indian

BTW the robocall scamming situation also happens in the Mandarin speaking world, with the scammers in Taiwan apparently(they usually have Taiwanese dialect).

 

[nickdalzell]

"Why are you using your mind?"

"Ma'am. Ma'am MA'AM!!!"

"Tawwwget gift caard! Get Tawwwget gift caarrd!"

"Dublu dublu dublu dot..."

I know Hindi swear words, that "What's a mother toad" was just a quote from Kitboga doing Granny Edna during the insane Steve mental breakdown 10+ hour call.

 

[mikedt]

"Why are you using your mind?"

"Ma'am. Ma'am MA'AM!!!"

"Tawwwget gift caard! Get Tawwwget gift caarrd!"

"Dublu dublu dublu dot..."

I know Hindi swear words, that "What's a mother toad" was just a quote from Kitboga doing Granny Edna during the insane Steve mental breakdown 10+ hour call.

I'm sure it's the scammer's poor English, and their native language, where the Hindi word is "madarchod". and to Granny Edna it sounds like "mother toad"

 

[nickdalzell]

That's what makes it funny. Granny Edna is my favorite Kit character. Even though the same voice is used for Dawn DeWitt, Paula and many others. Same personality, same obsession with the mailman, etc.

When he goes full cosplay with the dress and wig, he looks a lot like Thelma Harper (Carol Burnett Show "The Family" and subsequent spin-off Mama's Family)