Curated, not generated on demand

Seven ways a stranger gets in

Each scenario is a fixed story. Choose one and the next call on the line is yours, but nothing you type can change what the characters say, and none of them can be followed as instructions.

phone call

The Cold-Call "Virus"

A stranger says their monitoring centre has been receiving warning messages from the homeowner's computer, and offers to look at it now, before it gets worse.

Unsolicited contactFake authority or brand impersonationUrgency or fearFake scan or planted problemsRemote access request

pop-up

The Pop-Up with a Phone Number

A full-screen warning appears on the laptop, saying the machine is infected and that the householder must ring the support number shown on the screen.

Fake pop-up with phone numberUrgency or fearFake authority or brand impersonationRemote access request

The Surprise Invoice and Refund

An emailed bill for a subscription the householder never bought, followed by a phone call from someone offering to reverse the charge, if they can just get into the account.

Fake invoice or refundGreed or reward baitTold to keep it secretRemote access request

phone call

The Over-Refund

A caller says the householder has been refunded too much by mistake and asks for the difference back before the accounts team notices.

Fake invoice or refundUrgency or fearGreed or reward baitUnusual payment method

phone call

The Supervisor Hand-Off

The first caller cannot help, so a "senior technician" comes on the line to sound official and finish the job the first one started.

Fake authority or brand impersonationSupervisor hand-offUrgency or fearRemote access request

web page

The Fake CAPTCHA (ClickFix)

A page says the visitor is not a robot and asks them to "verify" in an unusual way. Bernard, of course, tries to help it along.

Fake verification (CAPTCHA) instructionsUrgency or fearRemote access request

phone call

The Search-Ad Support Number

Bernard searches for help with a slow computer and rings the number at the top of the results, which belongs to an advertiser rather than to anyone official.

Fake authority or brand impersonationFake scan or planted problemsUrgency or fearRemote access request

Why only seven

Because a menu is the safety mechanism. If visitors could write the scammer's script, this would become a place to practise being persuasive. Instead the situations are fixed, the companies are invented, the technical detail is left out entirely, and the caller always loses. What is left is the pattern, which is the part worth recognising.

What to do if one of these has already happened →