f13.net forums - How am I getting scammed?

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July 18, 2025, 08:39:04 AM

we're back, baby

I need a few more brains here, as I'm having a hard time finding an angle on a weird incident today.

Long-time readers may recall that I'm running an IT consulting business; I take walk-in customers for computer repairs for pocket money. A new customer came on Monday with an infected HP desktop, wanted the viruses gone. Everything went normally, scans, cleans, update security patches, install AVG, very run of the mill job. I call her today to let her know the work is done. She comes, I fetch her computer from the work room, hand her the invoice, swipe her credit card, and as I'm coming back with the receipt, she tells me, "My computer doesn't have this white panel on front, this must be the wrong computer."

Huh, I think, this is the only HP I've worked on this week, that can't be right. But just to be sure, I carry the computer back, hook it back up, and fire it up. She comes with me, and points to a dead husk of a HP on the floor, a rather old and crappy one that a customer abandoned when it turned up dead like a year before. "That's it," she says, "That's my computer." I know for super-sure that the thing on the floor isn't her computer, and the computer on the desk dutifully boots up to her desktop. "Well those are my icons, but that's not my case. That one on the floor is my case."

By this point, I'm feeling more than a little skeptical. I'm sensing an 'oh you broke everything but I'll take the shattered remains and not pay you good day sir' around the corner. So I say, "Well, I can certainly put your computer in that case if you want, no problem." and start stripping the motherboard out of the old case. It's not too long before she decides that the case actually wasn't the one, but she's still sure that her computer's not in the same case she dropped it off in. She adds that she has invoices for her computer proving that it isn't the model printed on the case.

That's kind of a stupid thing for her to claim, given that I can pull up the model's info on HP's website and verify that the hardware in the case matches the model number on the case. I don't mention that bit to her, because at that point I'm suspicious as hell and am not in any hurry to give her any useful tidbits. Eventually she takes a flash drive, copies her financial info from the computer onto the drive, and leaves, promising to return tomorrow with the proof of what is evidently my nefarious scheme to switch a worthless HP case for another worthless HP case.

The possibility exists that the woman is simply very very confused and genuinely thinks that the computer I have isn't her computer.

I'm leaning a bit more towards thinking that she's trying to pull one over on me. The problem being that I can't see her angle. I have her computer. It's worth more than the seventy-five bucks that I charged her for cleaning it out and updating it.

1. She just wanted to get the data she pulled from the drive.
That doesn't work, her computer was bootable and ran, just with popups and annoying adware. She could've pulled the data at any time. That's why I let her get the files.

2. She means to get the computer back and 'forget' to sign the credit card slip, then deny the charge.
I'm giving this one a 'maybe'. She took the credit slip with her, so I could see her coming back tomorrow and saying "oh silly me that is my computer, my bad thanks", and taking it while hoping that we don't remember to get a signed copy of the slip. Given that I printed out a new slip before leaving the office today, that won't be happening, but she might be hoping.

3. She's going to try to claim that we swiped her computer.
Well, maybe this if she's utterly ignorant of the fact that I can (and did) pull up HP's website and run their hardware-detecting applet to prove that the hardware matches the case. And printed out the computer details.

Aside from those, I can't think of any potential cons for her to pull tomorrow. So I throw this out to the wisdom of the intertubes to see if anyone out there has any bright ideas.

I'd go with #2 but I'm a suspicious bastard. More likely she's just your average idiot who can't recognize their own car in a parking lot, much less an appliance they look at for 1/2 a second when switching it on every few days.

Some girls leave their panties. This one leaves computers.

I'd go with just completely clueless average pc user that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the wall where their computer is concerned.

Hell, people not knowing what the space bar is is far too common for me to have any faith at all in people knowing anything about their pc.

Did you clean it? If it was dirty and you wiped it down before you gave it back, she probably doesn't recognise it anymore. Your fault!

I'm voting 'really stupid'.

Give her the one on the floor too.

Tell her she can figure out which one is hers at home.

Quote from: Cadaverine on July 15, 2009, 06:19:36 PM

This, most likely. She's confused about her system and tomorrow she'll figure it out. If not, just give her system back and chalk it up as a loss. It's ultimately her property and you can't hold it. If you're insistent on being compensated, give her system back and take her to small claims. You'll lose, most likely. But you retain your sanity and credibility with other customers.

I wouldn't go switching out components in systems though, and I'd get a inventory tagging system together for future repairs. Even if it's just soft-sticky labels that you can match up or something. Should prevent that in the future.

I'm not sure why you aren't being more firm and telling her that no matter what she thinks, you know which is her computer. The fact that you were willing to swap the computer between cases (I really didn't get that part) shows there may be some doubt on your part. Don't give her an inch or she'll want a mile.

The sad irony of the whole thing is that I offer a satisfaction guarantee. Anyone wanting to stiff me on labor need only call me a couple days later and be all, "My computer sucks now, I'm unhappy, money back." Stiffing me on parts is where I draw the line; I did take a guy to court over not paying for a laptop screen replacement, as it was a good $200 in parts out of my pocket, but I'm willing to write off labor.

If this woman wanted to get out of paying me, it'd be easy to do with a much simpler lie. But coming up with a really bizarre lie has aroused my interest enough to be merrily gathering inventory and photographic records to more than amply prove it's the right hardware.

In the (very) old days when I did computer repairs we wrote down the serial number(s) on an estimate form and had the owner sign it. Do you do anything like that?

I'm guessing she just doesn't have a clue what her computer actually looks like. However, I tend to suspect stupidity over maliciousness as a given.

When hearing the story, it first sounded like the woman was either wanting to intentionally cause a problem or couldn't remember what her computer looked like. Her having a Flash drive and wanting to copy data was likely the ultimate goal, and she probably copied everything so she could stick you with the computer, whether the case was the issue or not. She probably got another computer from someone or bought new, and I believe that depending on the Credit Card she might still be able to dispute a charge.

I would've been more worried though if she was taking pictures of the computers themselves for a lawsuit crazy nutcase who is lashing out over shame that she was polluted by porn bots.

If she didn't sign the first slip, I'm going to go with #2. Isn't disputing a charge, waiting for it to process, getting a new card, etc. way too much of a hassle for $75 though?

She's hitting on you.

Sounds fishy man. First thing that came to my mind was she stole it from someone she knows, and dropped it off with you so theres nothing attaching her to it, but then I couldn't get around why she didn't just swipe the damn thing before leaving it with you. Either way, someone pulled something similar at my shop, bells would be going off and flags would be waving.

Here is her angle:

She makes you open her computer, swap cases... then leaves. At this point she is right, that her computer was tampered with and no longer in original case. She denies ever asking you to do it. You get sued. You lose because computer was tampered with and you have no record of her authorizing you to do it.

I'll go with option #1, she wanted the data but was afraid it would be contaminated by the viruses or malware that was on the pc. She'll never come back to pick up the old machine.

lac's theory is the only one that makes sense in terms of a scam, unless there's some plan to haul you into small claims court and hassle you into giving her money to go away. Otherwise I'd go with "really confused about computers".

--Dave

Quote from: tazelbain on July 15, 2009, 09:24:40 PM

She's hitting on you.

Playing hard to get.

Please let us know how it all ends.

#4 She's off her medication.

We get a lot of that kind of stuff at the library. We had one schizo woman (diagnosed) who was going to sue the library after we infected her computer with a virus, which infected her disk, which she sent to her publisher (oh yeah, she published psychiatric journals lol). She said she had evidence, every time she put her disk in our computer it said it was loading a virus on it. Every time she booted out computer, it said it had a virus.

She was talking about the antivirus scan messages. The one that scanned the hdd on boot-up, and the one that cleaned her disk every time she came in, of the viruses she re-infected it with at home. I checked the log against our sign-on book, and the only hits on the log were just after her sign-in. Asked her what kind of anti-virus software she used at home (none). Sent copies of the info to our lawyer and her publisher, end of story.

Except she swore we were out to get her, haven't seen her since.

I'm more likely to believe that she doesn't recognise her own computer.

But it could be what Walrus said: it might not be her computer. She might have just wanted the info, but was scared about transmitting viruses between machines. So she gets you to clean it, gets the info and won't ever come back. If this is the case, it is probably the PC of someone she knows.

If she doesn't come back, you probably should check to see if someone has reported a missing HP computer to the police.

It's possible that this is a combination of someone intending to pull a scam who also doesn't know anything about computers. E.g., she doesn't know that you can tie the computer to a specific HP registration, and was planning to pull something like, "That's not my computer, he stole my real computer".

Quote from: UnSub on July 16, 2009, 08:01:41 AM

I'm more likely to believe that she doesn't recognise her own computer.

But it could be what Walrus said: it might not be her computer. She might have just wanted the info, but was scared about transmitting viruses between machines. So she gets you to clean it, gets the info and won't ever come back. If this is the case, it is probably the PC of someone she knows.

If she doesn't come back, you probably should check to see if someone has reported a missing HP computer to the police.

I'd go with UnSub's theory. She had you clean someone else's computer.

Quote from: Khaldun on July 16, 2009, 08:13:39 AM

"That's not my computer, he stole my real computer".

If it's a scam, I think this is most likely. She'll accuse you of stealing her computer and demand you either replace it or pay for a replacement.

I hope that doesn't sound sexist, but I can totally see a woman not recognizing her own computer. Every time I ask my girlfriend specifics about hers (her computer is older than the time we are together and standing at her place), I get a blank stare. And she is quite a smart woman. She just doesn't care about those things.

Update: She called while I was getting lunch, and told my partner that I was shady and had clearly stolen her 'hard drive case'. Apparently a verbal dispute ensued on the phone, and now Mr. Policeman is on the way over before she gets here.

OMG this is so exciting. She's clearly whacko.

She sounds like a master criminal to me. Caped vigilante justice sounds like the only way to deal with this to me.

Find some...ah...questionable images/videos from the intertubes. Put them on her computer. Report her for said images/videos.

Profit.

Quote from: Kitsune on July 16, 2009, 11:49:55 AM

Well, consider this a learning experience.

From now on put inventory labels on everything, take photographs of equipment that comes in, mark down serial numbers and install a video camera. I am sure the cop will have some tips for you too.