Had woman ring today saying there seemed to be late night access to my Internet that they believed was hacking, that they represented Telstra. Being cagey, I asked for her number and she said the formal Telstra HQ line: (02) 8006 2031 In fact, this is also the number given for a life coaching service: http://www.empoweredcoaching.com.au/contact.html WIERD

Had a call from this number. Told me my computer had a major problem and my internet was downloading huge quantities of pornography and had been doing so for months. Had to go on to my computer and do a few things to give him access. Unfortunately for him I have a bit of knowledge about how things work. My internet and telephone (was for my business) had only been connected for 2 days which I told him therefore I could not have been downloading pornography for months. He also told me Telstra monitors all internet in Australia and owned all phone and internet infrastructure, told him not so other providers have their own infrastructure even though Telstra owns most. It did not matter how many lies I caught him out on he just kept going. In the end he told me he would lose his job if I didn't let him fix my computer - told him I didn't care, that he was a scammer and I wasn't letting him anywhere near my computer. I even answered another phone call and he stayed on the line. Ended being about 30 minutes on the phone, but I was still working while talking to him. At the end I got fed up and hung up on him, but the 30 minutes he wasted with me stopped him from conning some other person who doesn't know better, into giving him access to their computer and ripping them off.

I received a call from John Wright from Telstra technical department. Said we can call him back on (02) 8006 2031. They are at 231 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. He said we had hackers and he had put a block on our phone so the hackers couldn't get on our service but he needed me to get on my computer and type in some commands so he could get the information about the hackers. When I realised he was trying to connect to my computer, I said I needed to check it out. Found this information and realised it is a scam.

I just had the same call with a person claiming to have the same name, who gave me the same callback number. She never got as far as giving me a price to "fix" my computer because I asked her why Telstra was calling me about this directly instead of my ISP. I insisted that she tell me which ISP I buy my net access from before I follow any of her instructions and she hung up instead of giving me some lame excuse to avoid answering my question.

(02) 8006 2031 Michell Johnson rang me, told me she was with Telstra & would secure my computer from Hackers, that had accessed my computer, for the price of over $500. If I didn't agree she would disconnect my Internet. I told her I didn't want to continue. She wouldn't accept my choice. I had to hang up on her 3 times before she stopped ringing.