GHOST IN THE INFERNO vs Help Desk Scammers

This is how determined I am to finish GHOST IN THE INFERNO.

You might have heard of the “Windows support scam” phone calls. Basically, a scammer calls up a victim and claims to be from Microsoft, saying that the victim’s computer has been generating error messages at Microsoft HQ. Then the scammer has the victim go to Event Viewer, locate some perfectly innocuous error messages, and claims these are indicative of a serious problem. After that, the scammer will usually install a piece of “security” software that is useless at best and actively harmful at worst, all while making off with the victim’s credit card number to pay for this useless software. (More details on this kind of scam are on the official Microsoft site at this link.)

Anyway, I sat down to edit GHOST IN THE INFERNO…and I got a call from one of these scammers!

My delight was immense.

My delight was immense because I have been in IT in some capacity for another for a very, very long time, and I know every single way to screw with or lie to a help desk person. Every. Single. Way. I know every single way because I’ve had them all used on me at some time or another. All the tricks are in my head…and here comes this scammer like a sheep wandering into the lion pen at the zoo.

To put it into RPG terms, this must be how an Ancient Red Dragon feels when some level 1 adventurers in unenchanted leather armor wander into his lair and start quoting BEOWULF.

Gleefully I fired up the virtual machine I have for just such an occasion, thinking of all the many ways I was about to amuse myself at the scammer’s expense. If I did it right, and feigned the right amount of ignorance, I could probably waste his entire day…

But then I wouldn’t get any editing done, alas.

So I hung up on him and got through three chapters of GHOST IN THE INFERNO.

It was for the best. Work must take priority over amusement, after all.

I just hope he calls back when GHOST IN THE INFERNO is done. 🙂

-JM