My apologies to Karl for not being able to fit him in last week’s episode, so because of that, today’s episode is All Karl All The Time! What follows can only be described as performance art, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Pee Wee Herman.
- In his first call, a scammer called Karl Mailchimp and said he had a fraudulent charge on his apple account. Karl said it might’ve been his grandson playing farming games. absolute gold.
- He then tried to get Karl to connect to “apple secure server”, which of course really means some tool used to hijack people’s phones. (Warn your friends!)
- This week’s tool is called “Awesun Remote Desktop”. When the scammer tries to get him to search for his remote control tool, Karl tells him that his grandson set his phone to Spanish.
- Hilarity ensues as Karl takes him on a beautiful journey through the Spanish language. Eventually the guy goes on google and looks up instructions on how to change the language back to English!
- Some instant-classic Karl lines include: “Holy friggin’ cow!” and “I don’t even know what he bought!”
- When it comes time to download the App, of course the app store attacks for a password, which Karl doesn’t have on hand. He thinks on his feet, and more hilarity ensues. Even the scammer is holding back a laugh at one point.
He then gets a scam email urging him to call “Robin Hood Tech Support”. So of course he invents a new persona on the spot: “Pastor Cal Ripken Jr.”, and promptly takes him for a ride.
The scammer tried to scare him into thinking there was a withdrawal happened from Hong Kong. When he questioned Cal’s name, Cal gave a most indignant speech that had me in stitches. Then the scammer really gave himself away by asking if he had any Money in any other Crypto accounts! When asked for the name of his church, Cal came up with another subtle cultural reference on the spot.
So thanks to Karl for making my podcast way funnier than it usually is, and stay tuned for more mischief! thecomputerexorcist.com
Marc-Anthony Arena was born in the 80s, back when technology was hopeful. He's an honors graduate of both McQuaid Jesuit and RIT. He has been in the IT industry since 2000. He is the author of "How to Protect Yourself from Your Computer", the only Plain English guide to the concepts, scams, and scandals of the tech industry. After 10 years as a dynamic and outspoken local talk show host, he launched The Computer Exorcist Podcast, available anywhere and anytime. His message is this: ALL of the heartache, headache, and expenditures in this industry are completely preventable.
