telephone hackers - can we upload something?
I had one of these calls yesterday - "your computer has stopped
communicating with the Windows server", or something like that. I used my usual: "hang on while I get the police on the other line"; that usually makes them hang up pretty smartish. However, thinking about it afterwards, I wondered: would it be possible to devise something that could do something to their systems, while pretending to do whatever they ask? I've never gone beyond the initial call - I have always seen through them so far, it's not been difficult! - so I don't know what they ask you to _do_. I suspect it isn't likely to be possible, but it would be _so_ satisfying ... (-: -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf .... "Peter and out." ... "Kevin and out." (Link episode) |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
I had one of these calls yesterday - "your computer has stopped communicating with the Windows server", or something like that. I used my usual: "hang on while I get the police on the other line"; that usually makes them hang up pretty smartish. However, thinking about it afterwards, I wondered: would it be possible to devise something that could do something to their systems, while pretending to do whatever they ask? I've never gone beyond the initial call - I have always seen through them so far, it's not been difficult! - so I don't know what they ask you to _do_. I suspect it isn't likely to be possible, but it would be _so_ satisfying ... (-: I've used a technique with spam callers who start with something like "Hello. And how are you today?" It consists of completely monopolising the conversation. They're paying for it; you can have a captive audience. Oh, I'm feeling very down today. My dad died and left me all his debts. And then my computer blew up, and shattered the house, bringing down the partition wall with next door. And then an alien flew in through the window, abducted me to a mother-ship in the sky and implanted God knows what in me. I'm finding that I've acquired extraordinary powers; such as I can fly like a bird, and my eyes give out a beam of light which can cut through solid objects like a laser beam, and there's a big S carved on my front, and ... Hello, are you still there? Ed |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
"Ed Cryer" wrote
| I've used a technique with spam callers who start with something like | "Hello. And how are you today?" | It consists of completely monopolising the conversation. They're paying | for it; you can have a captive audience. | The only problem with that is that it's likely you're talking to someone in India who's being paid pennies and will gladly keep you on the line for hours if there's a chance of getting you hacked. In the meantime, it's not really their time you're wasting. It's yours. It might be a good strategy for elderly people living alone, though. |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 09:35:14 -0400, Wolf K
wrote: I've kept some of these callers on the line by whining and whinging and pleading with them to tell me which of our three computers is the infected one. I once kept the guy on the line for almost 10 minutes. I know they are poor sods trying to make a living, but the organisations they work for are evil. There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
Ken Blake wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 09:35:14 -0400, Wolf K wrote: I've kept some of these callers on the line by whining and whinging and pleading with them to tell me which of our three computers is the infected one. I once kept the guy on the line for almost 10 minutes. I know they are poor sods trying to make a living, but the organisations they work for are evil. There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. I agree with you except for the bank robbers. That's a public service after all the banks have stolen from us. |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
"Ken Blake" wrote
| There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't | sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. This is really only a UK problem. The majority of the calls I get are scams. Both state and federal gov't have stopped enforcing DoNotCall lists. But CallerID means I never have to answer scam calls in the first place. In the UK they don't seem to have a CallerID function. But I agree with you. I always hang up on bank robbers without so much as a how do you do. :) |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , Mayayana
writes: "Ken Blake" wrote | There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't | sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. This is really only a UK problem. The majority of the calls I get are scams. Both state and federal gov't have stopped enforcing DoNotCall lists. But CallerID means I never have to answer scam calls in the first place. In the UK they don't seem to have a CallerID function. We've had one for years. There are even 'phones you can buy that screen calls based on them (you press a button to add them to your blocklist). We call it CLI - calling line identification. (Not sure why - maybe CallerID might be confused with the criminal investigation department!) I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. The CLIs are often spoofed though - for example, calls obviously from Asia show as UK ones, or they show as ones which if called back are non-existent. I've tried to argue that the telecomm.s companies are participating in the deception by passing on these faked CLIs (which ought to be detectable), but unsurprisingly I haven't got anywhere. But I agree with you. I always hang up on bank robbers without so much as a how do you do. :) (-: I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every police station in their country ...) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "There are a great many people in the country today who, through no fault of their own, are sane." - Monty Python's Flying Circus |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
| I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. | | The CLIs are often spoofed though - We don't pay for it anymore. Here, also, it's often spoofed. And a recent trick is for fundraisers to use a personal cellphone with a local exchange, so it seems legit. But the nice thing is that I can tell if a caller is someone I know. Few are legit. So I just ignore them, unless they're someone I know. The few people who get blocked can leave a message. The whole thing used to drive me crazy when I answered each call. Now I use a lot of email and usually only need to glance at the phone when it rings. | I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, | but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would | work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their | systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private | lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every | police station in their country ...) I don't see how that might be possible. You're on a phone call. There's no server connection going on. Were you thinking of a case where they want access to your computer? Even then, if you let them run some kind of remote desktop, you'd have to be a very clever hacker with knowledge of bugs in that software to attack them back. |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
I had one of these calls yesterday - "your computer has stopped communicating with the Windows server", or something like that. I used my usual: "hang on while I get the police on the other line"; that usually makes them hang up pretty smartish. However, thinking about it afterwards, I wondered: would it be possible to devise something that could do something to their systems, while pretending to do whatever they ask? I've never gone beyond the initial call - I have always seen through them so far, it's not been difficult! - so I don't know what they ask you to _do_. I suspect it isn't likely to be possible, but it would be _so_ satisfying ... (-: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvJQxgtJW94 You can also report the spam call at 800notes.com, so others will know that phone number may be from a scammer (or it could be spoofed by the scammer) when they do an online search on the phone number (rather than pay for all the lookup services pretending they'll give more details). For landlines and VOIP (from ISPs), you could subscribe to NoMoRobo (nomorobo.com) to get rid of the robocallers. It's free. At most, you hear one phone ring and then it stops if NoMoRobo decides it was a robocaller (not if a spam call by a human but by a robodialer). If a human caller is mis-identified as a robodialer, they are presented with a 4-digit CAPTCHA to complete their call. You can also report robodial calls to NoMoRobo to help yourself and others. Alas, while they also have an Android app, it isn't free. I do use NoMoRobo on my cell phone number, plus I added it to my aunt's home phone (Comcast Voice). You can use Google Voice (if you're in the USA or Canada). They have their own anti-spam caller blacklist. At one time, I got rid of telco (POTS) service and just had a cell phone number. I moved it to Google Voice after testing for a few months. It was the same phone number that I've had for over 40 years (except the area code changed when my area got split up into multiple area codes). It was the number that family, banks, employers, and everyone else ever got. Cost me $20 to migrate to Google Voice. I even got an Obitalk VOIP box to use with my home phone with Google Voice, and got rid of my ISP's voice service. Since then the number of spam calls has gone down a lot. In fact, I can go to voice.google.com, login, and check on the Spam folder, plus I can designate new calls as spam or otherwise choose to block them. With screening turned on, unknown callers (not in my contacts list) must say their name, my phone gets called, and I can choose to accept their call (press 1) or let it go to voicemail. Wrong number callers hang up after hearing the screening prompt or when hearing the outgoing voicemail message, so I'm not bothered with those calls. Human spammers go away at the screening prompt. Robodialers don't ring longer than about 3 times and they don't respond to the screening prompt, so they keep ringing and hang up after their 3 or 4 rings. A robodialer that makes it to the screening prompt won't know to give a name for me to hear, so I hear their robotized spiel when I press 1 and just hang up, but I get extremely few of those calls. You cannot use NoMoRobo with a Google Voice account, so no combining their blacklists. After getting the robodialer to react to your voice and transfer to a human scammer, interrupt yourself by saying there's an emergency and put them on hold. Leave them on hold. The longer they are hold, the less time they have to afflict other victims. You could interrupt them by saying, "Okay, I understand, but I'm wondering if you've heard about the power of Jesus, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah. I'd like to tell you about salvation, brother, and how you, too, can be reborn." Even if they start speaking, just keep talking while ignoring anything they say. One scam trick is to pretend they are from Microsoft who has somehow divined that your computer is infected. They'll take you to Event Viewer to have you see all the errors listed in there. Tell them there are no errors, no warnings, and all entries are info only. They'll be astonished. Keep pretending to do what they ask but don't bother and just report anything that contradicts their intent. Toy with the ****ant. You could tell them you don't have a computer. When they get pushy, say "Hey, you called a public telephone booth and I answered the call while sitting on the bench waiting for the bus." |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Mayayana writes: "Ken Blake" wrote | There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't | sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. Â*This is really only a UK problem. The majority of the calls I get are scams. Both state and federal gov't have stopped enforcing DoNotCall lists. But CallerID means I never have to answer scam calls in the first place. In the UK they don't seem to have a CallerID function. We've had one for years. There are even 'phones you can buy that screen calls based on them (you press a button to add them to your blocklist). We call it CLI - calling line identification. (Not sure why - maybe CallerID might be confused with the criminal investigation department!) I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. The CLIs are often spoofed though - for example, calls obviously from Asia show as UK ones, or they show as ones which if called back are non-existent. I've tried to argue that the telecomm.s companies are participating in the deception by passing on these faked CLIs (which ought to be detectable), but unsurprisingly I haven't got anywhere. Â*But I agree with you. I always hang up on bank robbers without so much as a how do you do. :) (-: I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every police station in their country ...) Have some harmless fun. Do you remember the old dial-up connection sound? Record this; https://youtu.be/PDE9b5iU8vI and keep it handy on a phone or tablet. Next time you get a call, just give a whistle and play it into the mic. Ed (:- |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
Ed Cryer wrote:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: In message , Mayayana writes: "Ken Blake" wrote | There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't | sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. *This is really only a UK problem. The majority of the calls I get are scams. Both state and federal gov't have stopped enforcing DoNotCall lists. But CallerID means I never have to answer scam calls in the first place. In the UK they don't seem to have a CallerID function. We've had one for years. There are even 'phones you can buy that screen calls based on them (you press a button to add them to your blocklist). We call it CLI - calling line identification. (Not sure why - maybe CallerID might be confused with the criminal investigation department!) I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. The CLIs are often spoofed though - for example, calls obviously from Asia show as UK ones, or they show as ones which if called back are non-existent. I've tried to argue that the telecomm.s companies are participating in the deception by passing on these faked CLIs (which ought to be detectable), but unsurprisingly I haven't got anywhere. *But I agree with you. I always hang up on bank robbers without so much as a how do you do. :) (-: I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every police station in their country ...) Have some harmless fun. Do you remember the old dial-up connection sound? Record this; https://youtu.be/PDE9b5iU8vI and keep it handy on a phone or tablet. Next time you get a call, just give a whistle and play it into the mic. Ed (:- If you have an answering machine (where you can listen to new calls to screen them by waiting for someone to start leaving a message and then pick up the handset if you want to talk to them), you could add the "service disconnected" tone to the beginning of your outgoing voicemail message. Robodialers will not remove you from their calling list if you hang up on their call. You'll go back into their queue. However, many robodialers are calling non-verified phone numbers and will update their list when they hit a disconnected number. They only have so much time to make so many calls, so they don't want to waste time redialing a dead number. Only add the 3-tone sound to the start of your outgoing message. Do not add "This line is no longer in service." You want the robodialer to hear the tone and remove you from their calling list. Real humans will hear the tone which is immediately following with your real outgoing message to them. https://lifehacker.com/182989/stop-t...ted-line-tones You need to hunt down a recording of just the SIT (Special Information Tone) sound - just the sound and not followed by a human-like explanation. You want to confuse the robodialer, not human callers. I had to find someone that had recorded just the tone. At Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specia...rmation_tones), record their vacant SIT. You only need one copy (wiki pays the tone twice). I did find another copy at: http://www.yourhomenow.com/sound/sit-tone.wav Your outgoing message would be something like "SIT You have reached yourname. Please leave a message after the tone. Thankyou." The robodialer will drop the call after hearing the SIT. Since most robodialers will disconnect after the 3rd ring, they won't hear the 3-tone sound at the start of your outgoing message. Most answering machines won't let you configure them to answer on shorter than 4 rings; however, some let you send all calls to voicemail. With monitoring (aka screening) enabled on the answering machine, you could hear it was a real human and perhaps someone you want to talk to to interrupt the voicemail to take the call. Lots of answering machines have screening. Been too long to remember but I once played with an automated phone system using my computer, analog modem, and some software. When a new call was received, and just like the voice prompts you get at large companies that make you drill through their menus, this setup would have callers press "1" to forward the call to you. All it did was have the modem ring an attached phone. Robodialers cannot follow instructions. Since the instruction was issued during the robocall and before any human spammer picked up the call, they wouldn't hear the instruction to hit "1" to forward the call. |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , Mayayana
writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote | I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. | | The CLIs are often spoofed though - We don't pay for it anymore. Here, also, it's often We don't pay for CLI, either (well, it depends who your telcon. provider is and what tariff you're on). I was referring to the blocking 'phone when I said I didn't see why _I_ should pay for it. spoofed. And a recent trick is for fundraisers to use a personal cellphone with a local exchange, so it seems legit. But the nice thing is that I can tell if a caller is someone I know. In UK, all fobile numbers start with 07. I've only once had a marketing call from one of those. [] | I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, | but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would | work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their | systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private | lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every | police station in their country ...) I don't see how that might be possible. You're on a phone call. There's no server connection going on. Not initially, but ... Were you thinking of a case where they want access to your computer? Even then, if you let them run some kind of remote desktop, you'd have to be a very clever hacker with knowledge of bugs in that software to attack them back. .... yes, that's what I was thinking of. Pretend to do what they ask but instead, upload something nasty. However, as you say, almost certainly not possible. Too many bad movies (Independence Day, I'm looking at you ....) [Actually, I enjoyed that movie - if you ignored the technical errors, it was a good romp. And IIRR that was the one that had some very gentlemanly and unrealistic Brits in it.] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Never make the same mistake twice...there are so many new ones to make! |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , Ed Cryer
writes: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: [] I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every police station in their country ...) Have some harmless fun. Do you remember the old dial-up connection sound? Record this; https://youtu.be/PDE9b5iU8vI Ah, that was a later one - V42 or X something. Not like the old 300/300 (or, if you were posh, 75/1200) ... and keep it handy on a phone or tablet. Next time you get a call, just give a whistle and play it into the mic. Ed (:- I'm beyond just wanting to waste their time (though I like the old one someone linked to about simulating a crime scene). I want to do their systems some harm ... -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Never make the same mistake twice...there are so many new ones to make! |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , VanguardLH
writes: [] Been too long to remember but I once played with an automated phone system using my computer, analog modem, and some software. When a new [] Did you get through to any good games companies? Such as the one that had "Global Thermonuclear Warfare"? -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Never make the same mistake twice...there are so many new ones to make! |
telephone hackers - can we upload something?
On 7/20/2018 3:26 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
I had one of these calls yesterday - "your computer has stopped communicating with the Windows server", or something like that. I used my usual: "hang on while I get the police on the other line"; that usually makes them hang up pretty smartish. However, thinking about it afterwards, I wondered: would it be possible to devise something that could do something to their systems, while pretending to do whatever they ask? I've never gone beyond the initial call - I have always seen through them so far, it's not been difficult! - so I don't know what they ask you to _do_. I suspect it isn't likely to be possible, but it would be _so_ satisfying ... (-: If I am sitting at my PC when the phone rings, I sometimes have my PC's Fax application answer. I told my daughter that, if she calls and hears Fax synchronization tones, she should hang up; wait a full minute; and then call again. -- David E. Ross http://www.rossde.com/ Attorney-General Sessions claims the bible favors imprisoning illegal aliens. However, God repeatedly commanded us to welcome the stranger in our land. For example, see the following: Exodus 22:20 at http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=22#P2 131 Exodus 23:9 at http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=23#P2 151 Deuteronomy 10:19 at http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=5&CHAPTER=10#P5 200 |
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