MS techinical department is calling

[Jim_Rogers]

I just got a phone call, on my cell phone, from Microsoft technical department. The fellow who could hardly speak English said my computer has been sending them messages that it is infected with lots of viruses and needs help. Yea, right.

I told him thank you very much for that information, and hung up on him.

Jim Rogers 

scam, scam, scam..... for sure.

[Ozarker]

I've gotten two such calls. First one, I played the guy forever, letting him walk me through all of it, before thanking him and telling him that I could fix it now. Even got his "supervisor" on the phone with us, to tell me how serious it was, and that I wouldn't be able to fix it. I assured them that I could, being that I worked for MS for years, and would definitely be able to handle it. They were beside themselves, were positively apoplectic, after having spent so much time reeling a big one in, then losing it right at the bank.  ;D

Second call, I didn't have time to play, so told the guy that it wouldn't be a problem for me to fix, and got off the phone.

Next time, if there is a next time, I'll suggest that they get honest work and quit scamming people.

[Ron Wenrich]

My wife brought home an email she received at work.  Seems like somebody thinks we have a debt that they should collect.  My wife told them there is no debt and asked who from.  They wrote back about some payday company.  If we didn't pay up, they'll take us to court, the sheriff will be out to our house to give us a summons, and they will garnish her wages.

She told them that she has contacted the legal department in the company and they are looking into it.

Their final message was "Okkk then meet you in court just higher a attorney who will prove you and save you by arresting by local police have a bless day".    :D

We aren't worried. 

[Magicman]

One followed me to Ohio this AM.  Apparently my auto insurance is in serious jeopardy and she wanted to "help" me out.   :D

[sandhills]

Ron neither would I, I know my debts but it is something when you think there's actually people that fall for this stuff and I'd hate to think of how many get away with it  :-\.

[woodmills1]

I just start yelling, asking for their home number and saying send me one hundred dollars.

[Onthesauk]

My wife got a couple of those, claiming they were from MS and she had a problem.  She said she had a mac.  They hung up! ;D

[Brucer]

We've been getting them for years. My daughter got one in 2009 and contacted Microsoft to find out if it was legit. They said it wasn't and explained to her how the scam works. I've played along several times just for fun ...

The caller (usually from "Windows Support") will take you through several steps over the phone, eventually getting you to a log of "events". Some of these are flagged as "errors" and the caller will tell you that they are serious. Then you are asked to connect to a website (this is where I have fun -- see below) and upload some software. That will allow the caller to analyze your computer (as in, take control of it), after which you find out that A) you have a serious problem, and B) for a modest monthly fee they can keep your computer free of dangerous "infections".

Some of these calls are out-and-out scams. Most of them, however, actually go in each month and remove those "error" events. The thing is, they aren't a problem in the first place. The scam is that the caller makes you think that an ordinary event logger is indicating a problem when there isn't one.

So first, a couple of words of caution. Do NOT ever sign onto the website they ask you to. If you do, and then refuse to sign up for their service, they can seriously damage your computer system.

I know of one guy who DID sign onto their website, and load their software, but with a full understanding of what he was doing. The thing is, his computer ran UNIX as an operating system and he simply ran a Windows emulator inside UNIX. This meant that the scammer "saw" Windows computer, but it was simply a facade. The guy eventually told the scammer he knew exactly what they were doing and had no intention of falling for their scam. Within seconds they trashed every file on his "computer" (except it was just the facade that got trashed, not his real files).

If I want to waste their time, I let them get me as far as the "sign onto this website" part. I usually act like a slightly confused, not-computer-savvy, "old" guy -- so everything takes longer, with lots of typos, etc. Then when they ask me to go to their website, I ask them what I'm supposed to after that. They say, "Just tell me when you're signed on, and I'll tell you what to do next". I then ask them how they are going to do that, because I have to hang up the phone to use my dial-up access ;D.