Every once in a while I answer the phone when I don't know who's calling. This time I was enticed by the message being left by what was obviously a noisy call center with an operator who didn't know his called had not been answered. When I did answer, he asked for my wife. I tried to get as much info from him as I could before ending the call. When he asked about her Windows-based computer, I knew I could have some fun. I informed him she has a Mac, so he asked if I was the one with the Windows-based computer. I asked why and was told that I have a problem with my computer that I don't know about and no virus protection software could stop. I said I didn't have any problems with the internet; he insisted I did and that is why he was calling.
During all of this time, my wife was trying to get me to get off the phone, so I told him I was not interested. Rather angrily, he asked how could I not be interested in my own computer. I had to get in front of the computer so he could explain the problem. A few more times I said no thank you and he questioned how I could say that and then I hung up.
Within a minute the phone rang again and stopped when the answering machine picked up. Then immediately again and again. I picked up under orders to state not to call again and hang up. I did more than that.
Interspersed throughout the previous conversation, I kept asking what company he was calling from and kept trying to get specifics. All I could get was he was in the department that dealt with online issues at a company called PC Wizard, "Maybe you've heard of us on TV?" This time, I asked how he got my number and he said they were just calling everyone with a Windows-based computer to help them with this issue. I replied that was most people and he got angry saying people had computers based on Mac and Apple (I liked that one) and Linux. I again asked how he got my number. He got mad again and said he didn't have that information. I then asked him to stop yelling at me to which he responded that he was just trying to tell me about a problem my computer has.
At this point I decided to try to get more information from him, so I asked him what the problem was. He said I had to be in front of my computer. I asked him to describe the problem first. He started yelling again that he was calling from PC Wizard about a problem on my computer that could not...blah blah blah. I asked him how much it was going to cost to fix this problem and he assured me that there was no charge to diagnose, but if I thought my computer important there would be a fee to fix it. At this point I asked him not to call again and he started getting very angry and just wanted me to confirm that my computer had a problem and that he didn't think I understood anything. I asked him why he was insulting me and that he called me, unsolicited. He said it was not an unsolicited call. I informed him that I did not ask for him to call me, so that made it an unsolicited call and I did not appreciated being yelled at and insulted and I did not want him to call again.
He kept getting more and more angry and finally agreed not to call me again. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I had fun.
Then I looked up the phone number and saw the results were a PC Wizard scam. Wow. Totally surprised.
