Man brilliantly one-ups the scammer who tried to get control of his computer

Internet scams have become a common modern-day threat, with scammers often using calls or malicious links to hack into devices or accounts. In one such incident, Reddit user u/Starbucks__Lovers received a suspicious email link and quickly realized it was a scam. But instead of ignoring it, he decided to outsmart the scammers. "I'm a new dad, sleep-deprived and feeling sluggish all the time. After dropping my baby off at her grandparents', I saw an invoice in my email for $450 that I never paid to Norton Antivirus," he shared on Reddit.

So he called them and realized it was a scam, but it "as heck aggravated" him. He then pretended to be scammed until the point he was asked to give computer control to the scammers. He was talking to someone named "Melvin" and the dad told him that he was a dumb scammer and in response, the person yelled at him. Still, the dad didn't give up and as he had two Google Voice accounts, he called them again using those. He kept calling and asking for the same person, Melvin. "Sometimes, I'd get a new guy who didn't know my game," the person wrote. 

The dad shared he did not have much work that day so he kept calling these people. "At some point, one of the gentlemen let out an exasperated sigh, saying 'Oh my god, it's you again,'" the person wrote. He still did not stop calling them over and over again. He even told many of them that their lives are wasted. "I kept calling and calling until I actually had work to do and so I stopped," the man wrote.

A day later, he called the number again and realized they were "PayPal" that day. Again, he tried to talk to "Melvin" but didn't receive success, still, he kept calling him continuously for about 30 minutes. Then he took an hour's break and tried calling again but figured out they had blocked all the man's numbers, so he used a family member's phone and was immediately disconnected. "I win. It was a small, insignificant battle, but I won. No one can call that number anymore. Until next time," the man concluded his post.

The post has garnered over 3k upvotes. People shared similar instances on the platform. u/jueidu commented, "I do this too! I just call back from my own number. They already have it, so it's not like it matters. I also love to call, put it on mute, put it on hold, call them again and then link the two calls because sometimes I can get them to talk to each other that way. Also, I love to see how many simultaneous calls I can have open with them - tying up their lines and 'employees' and wasting their time. It's fantastic. Eventually, they block me, so I do it all again from my work phone." u/GuntherTheMonk wrote, "I worked at a bar and when we got scammers or telemarketers, we would put the phone in the old super loud beer fridge next to the fan. Walk away and pick it back up after serving a few drinks. Ask if they were still there and if they were, back to the beer fridge. Repeat. The bar patrons loved it!"

This article originally appeared 5 months ago.