- Part 1 - Phone call from ‘Microsoft’ about virus is a scam
- Part 2 - 2012 Update to the ‘Microsoft’ phone scam call about a virus
- Part 3 - Questions and Answers about the ‘Microsoft’ virus phone scam
The ‘Microsoft’ Phone Scam. If you receive a phone call claiming to be from ‘Microsoft’ or someone claiming to work on their behalf, telling you that you have a virus on your computer which they will help you fix over the phone, It Is A Scam.
Hang up the phone now!
Do not let them have remote control access to your computer and do not give them any money!
Note: There is a link at the bottom of this post providing an update for 2012 on this scam, some Questions and Answers and a virus malware removal guide.
The scam goes like this;
- Householders receive an unsolicited phone call from someone claiming to be from ‘Microsoft’ and they are told that there is a serious virus problem with their computer and the caller offers to help to fix the problem.
- The householder will get the hard sell from the caller regarding all sorts of bad things that will happen to their computer if they do not sort out the problem immediately.
- To try to gain the unwitting householders trust, the caller will direct them to the Event Viewer in Windows which shows details about various hardware and Windows software issues.
- This Event Viewer is always full of messages, even on a healthy computer, but the caller will convince them that these are the warning signs of the impending disaster.
- When the caller has their trust, they ask the householder to go to a website and download a remote control program that will help them fix the problem.
- After downloading this, the caller will take control of the computer, the householder will see their mouse pointer move around while various programs and folders are opened. The caller will claim that they know exactly what the problem is and how to fix it.
- Then they will ask for credit card details for a piece of software that will supposedly remove the ‘virus’.
Customers should hopefully already have alarm bells ringing at the mention of credit card details and end the conversation.
The software that they sell to fix the computer will do nothing except tell you every now and then that everything is fine, all viruses have been removed. But in reality, it could be downloading all sorts of malware to your computer.
However, part of the scam’s damage may already have been done when the customer downloaded the remote control software.
This software could well have the capability to sit in the background for months or years, stealing personal information from the computer like bank login details and other personal details that could be used for identity theft purposes.
These callers could also be using this software to infect your computer with real viruses and malware.
Quote from Microsoft:
“Microsoft takes the privacy and security of our customers and partners personal information very seriously. We are advising customers to treat all unsolicited phone calls with scepticism and not to provide any personal information to anyone over the phone or online. Anyone who receives an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft should hang up. We can assure you Microsoft does not make these kinds of calls.”
“For more information on this scam and how to protect yourself against this, please click here”
Our Tip:
If you receive one of these unsolicited phone calls and believe it is the Microsoft Phone Scam, hang up and do not download anything they ask you to download.
And definitely don’t hand over your credit card details, just because someone mentions the well known names ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Windows’.
If you have allowed them to take control of your computer, or you have downloaded their ‘fix’ software, it is possible they have infected your computer with a virus or other nasty malware.
To reduce the potential for identity theft issues and computer problems due to the viruses or malware that they may have downloaded, I would strongly recommend that you take your computer to a reputable computer repair shop to have it thoroughly checked out.
Better safe than sorry.
Useful Links:
- 2012 Update on the continued prevalence of this ‘Microsoft’ phone call virus scam
- Common Questions and Answers about the ‘Microsoft’ phone call virus scam
- How to get your missing desktop icons back
- How to Remove a Computer Virus or Malware Yourself
Great post, thanks for the information!
I had a phone message on my phone claiming to be from Microsoft and saying that I needed to call them because Microsoft had been compromised. I checked the number on my computer and saw that it was a scam number and didn’t call back. March 29, 2018
Got a call from them today, when I questioned them about who they were he told me to fuck off and a fucking wanker
Microsoft support have really upped their customer service
It funny reading these comments all the way back to 2011 and I still get people coming into my shop falling for there dirty tricks.
Next time some nuisance calls you about a computer problem that you are having…. tell them that you have a program called Acronis… which you use to restore your PC to perfect condition from another saved clean original image…
There is no way that you could be having a problem if you restore the computer from a clean image, and that you just restored it a couple of days ago..
Tell the idiot that he should look up the program and tell everyone to use it It only costs about $60 and works perfectly every time…
If he knows anything about such software, he will hang up.
————————-
One of my friends does not use antivirus protection…
He does use an adblocker and a popupstopper… and a Malware fixer called Spybot… All FREE
All he does is restore the image and all is well for a couple of weeks…
It takes about an hour to restore 100 GB, not just data, but every program on the hard drive, including the operating system
Ive never heard of them. I actually had a window pop up on my computer; it was grey and looked real to me. It said that my computer was at risk and cant continue to function at the rate of errors it was receiving. They had me press the windows key and press r and walked me through some steps that lead me to a report on my computer. There was a trojan horse, and evidence of seven hackers on my network. They showed me how my network security was turned off and there was (and still isnt) any way to turn it back on; the same goes for my firewall. Also that there were over 43,000 incidents of error and/or risks occuring on my computer every 2 or so hours. I never allowed them access and my computer has never been the same. I was offered a fix for it at 300 dollars and if I didnt do it every computer or device that i ever brought into the home would eventually be infected. That was 6 months ago. The same thing happened to me today. I wasnt home, but my adult son was. I got a call from someone that I hadnt responded to the warning window on my computer and that it was sending a sort of SOS signal to the main network server. Security breaches, errors, etc. I had them call me back later and sure enough it was the same kind of scam. The grey window sounds like they were already in my computer, so what do we do????
What were the steps that the scammer take you through?
It’s nearly impossible to find knowledgeable people on this subject, but you seem like you know what
you’re talking about! Thanks
Hey people,…on all those wanna help you blah blah PC bs scams…Notice all those green highlighted words in the scripts, just close them, and wipe them out, and your PC will be 95% it’s old self…Just pay attention sometimes it takes two or so clicks to dispose of that little miscreant…I got so fed up, I had to do something and I guess my intuition kicked in…
“merchant comerce international”called me they gave a callback number of 1-800-619-8779 and email address of commerce.com01@gmail.com. they told me to go to the computer viewer and said i had 643 stops. they wanted $500 for 5 years of antivirus. scam. just trying to help the next person who goes looking up this name. avoid. go buy antivirus at a real story.
I received a call like this today. The number was blocked, and the man immediately got irritated when he noticed my skepticism. I told him that my computer was working fine, and that Hewlett Packard scans my computer often to detect viruses. He was very insistent, and his tone was tense, so I just hung up.
I got a call today which pretty much went the same. I had this guy so angry that he finally just came right out and said ” you make me so angry ma’am. You don’t listen. You only have to sit in home and don’t understand computers and you need to trust me because I am trying to help you.” And then THIS little woman just laughed and laughed and told him all about my education and career, and about how I know in his country women don’t speak to a man like that. He says, whiny and angrily “NO they do NOT”! I reminded him in this country a woman is not subservient to a man, and that no whining little weasel with virtually no real grasp of the English language was going to call and make me do one little thing. I told him about a little button that he could push to make all his frustration go away. It was very easy, even for him! I then told him to look at his phone for a little button that reads END. I swear I thought this guy was going to have a stroke before I finished with him! Oh, and I don’t think he liked my Rumplestiltskin game either :'( you know, the “I bet I can guess your name game? ) Is it Mohammed? “What?” Oh, Ahmed, right! “What wrong with you lady?” Ooh, Jaffar, I bet it’s Jaffar! Or…..is it Bill? Steve? Nah, it’s Jaffar, huh? “Stop it lady. You stop laugh at me!” I’m sorry, I can’t help it, you’re cracking me up. (Or I was actually cracking myself up at his expense). “What you say I cracking?”
Omg, I haven’t had this much fun playing F with the scammer in a long time! He held out for 14 minutes before he couldn’t take it anymore!
ITEC Squad is Indian scam company. They call relentlessly and try to get remote access to your computer. Tell them to go to hell, and then hangup.
ive been getting blue warning pges on my Vista computer that you cant get off of unless you log off windows and have gotten phone calls telling me i have viruses and the only way to get rid of them is if i let them fix it for me so i ask him what do i have to do and then he told me there is a charge for them to fix it, i told him i didnt have any money to do that and he told me i had to pay to get the fix and he also said to me “you dont have any money to fix your comp and i said no” he more or less was pushing me to let them fix it , i ended up figuring it was a scam and i shut my pc down right away so they couldnt mess with my pc, now i started to get phone calls telling me the same thing, they argued with me that it has to be done if i dont want to ruin my pc, he talks in another language, hes suppose to call me back at 6 pm tonite but im not gonna answer the call, im so sick n tired of them messing with my pc, ive been running virus scans and come up with nothing ,my computer wont let me download another virus protection, PLEASE do something about this! please!!
I just got one of these calls, too, from the number 989-256-3068. Another guy with an almost-impenetrable Indian accent and a very awkward way of speaking, babbling something about how I was sending them “signals” that my computer’s infected. The guy even knew my name, and threw that in trying to be convincing. I told him my computer hasn’t been connected to the internet in over a year. He kept asking me, “How is this possible?” – like he’s going to argue me out of my computer being unhooked! I told him it’s possible because it’s how it is and he better take me off his calling list because I know he’s running a scam. He kept protesting “It’s not a scam” but eventually hung up. I see from all these comments I did the right thing! I hope they find a way to stop these jerks. They’ve been calling my mom, too. Luckily, she also knows it’s a scam.
The first i heard of this was a year ago when we got a call from same yadayada name john, and my dad was the one who picked up the phone, and he works at microsoft so he knew pretty soon it was a scam and told us about it. Next it was my turn a few months ago. A woman called this time and i continually asked how she knew the computer had viruses. She got really mad after 5 min and hung up, and we haven’t got any more calls. But i kinda wish they did so i could have some fun. Thanks for telling me and my dad are right!
This is the 5 th time I have gotten a call from “Sam”. Each time he gets nastier and nastier. Today I had it: I said: “don’t call me again you little brown piece of sheet.” Hung up. That won’t stop him but Microsoft should.
John from “Microsoft Computer Repairs” calls me several times per week, even though I’ve made it clear I’m on the “Do NOT call list” and I may report him. When I ask for his phone # he hangs up. This is now an annoyance call since I have made it clear I do not trust him. How can we stop these calls? I filter my calls often now, since I do not want to speak to this scam. That is the only company that makes calls any longer. Very aggravating and invasive.
I got a call from them this afternoon and was really caught off guard by the fact that the caller was specking English. I am in German-speaking Switzerland!
The English was perfectly fluent, but the caller sounded Chinese. She couldn’t tell me who I was, who my Internet Service Provider was and got really thick when I asked her to explain the procedure in full before I even turned on my computer. In the end, it was she who hung up on me because she was sick of listening to my questions : )
Just got this call again two times this week. Hard to believe we are unable to stop this. I never get spam email anymore – we really cant fix the phone system??
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Report via http://www.fcc.gov/complaints
When any of annoying phone calls occur like marketing and this, just play along. Be sure not to provide real information and in this case not a real computer connection. But play along, drag on, like an inexperienced senior citizen that needs to be walked through every step, hard of hearing….:)
Got a call from 665-622-5832 telling me my computer was sending error messages. Sitting in front of my computer I said, “Well that’s odd, I don’t have a computer.” “You DON’T have a computer??” “Nope!” “Oh, sorry ma’m.”
The one that called us was very nasty and made many threats. Our computers were not even on and were not turned until today. He had me so mad I wanted to explode on him. He told me to back to my own f’in country, I told him I was in my own country, he just kept going and going.
We received a call last night about a virus. The guy with the heavy Indian accent. Told him to take us off his calling list. He just became more aggressive and threatened us. Hung up the phone called right back call and demanded an apology for hanging up on him, told him and hung up again. He called back again and started calling me names and saying he is going to bomb our country and called me a fin dickhead. All together he called about 8 times. Called the state police and they told me they get 20 to 30 calls a day just in our county of 16,000. Call blocking did not work because it is an out of country number.
I also just got a call from a gentleman with a Heavy Indian accent and a poor command of the English language claiming that he was from Microsoft and that my computer had a serious virus.
I asked for the number to the Microsoft Tech so that I could call back later. He did not want to give me the phone number and finally gave me the following number 1(201)285-2011 saying it was a toll free number to Microsoft for fixing the problem. He still tried to hard sell me to fix the problem immediately even as I was thanking him for the number and hanging up. I then searched this number and microsoft online and came up with this scam info. I don’t know if this is a real number that he gave me and will not try calling it, of course.
I got this call a few minutes ago on my work line which is in a government office. The number on caller ID was (603)686-0788. Informed the caller with a thick Indian accent that he had called a government office and that I would be reporting this to the Federal Trade Commission. He disconnected after he finally understood what I was telling him.
Same call came to me today.
Came up on caller ID as US CELLULAR
Even rattled off an address that they were going to send a “legal notice” to. It wasn’t the right address though.
just got a call from “windows” phone
number (212) 414 -155. They said they were getting all kinds of warnings from my pc about my windows. I said IF I was it would be showing up and they said it is running in behind my windows. Very hard to understand because the accent was sooo heavy.
They are trying to get remote access to your pc.
I get quite a few of these calls so it may not help but I just ask them to hold on while I boot up the computer, then I set the phone down and finish watching my movie or whatever I am doing.
I have received 2 in 2 days. The last one was at 5:00 in the morning. The first one, I knew it was not authentic so I said, “Which computer?” and he said, “The one running Windows 2007.” I said, “I don’t have a computer running windows 2007.” and he hung up on me. The next time I am going to play it out until the end to see what they are trying to get me to do then I am going to report them…like anyone will be able to find them and bring them to justice. Just some poor slob in a cubicled trying to make a living…how sad!
Have been getting these Microsoft calls daily! Yesterday (a Sunday) Received 1 @ 9:30pm, my husband answered the one at 10:15pm, and we also rec’d one at 11:15pm (which woke us up!) The caller id shows unavailable. We got more today. What can we do? Help! I must have a dozen unavailable calls listed on my phone!!
I had this happen to me last week. I received a call from a man with a heavy Indian accent, and he asked me to turn on my computer like every one else. I figured it was some kind of a scam at this point. When I told him I did not have any Microsoft programs in my house, which I don’t, he got a little snippy and asked then why viruses were showing from my location. I told him I had no idea why this was happening because I only have Apple products…this got rid of him really fast 🙂 He said ‘thank you’ and hung up!
My house has been receiving the same Microsoft scam calls from a telephone with no caller ID. In each case, the caller was a male with a heavy Indian accent.
Yesterday, my wife answered the phone, and she said politely not to call again, and to take us off his list. The Indian person didn’t care and was really nasty and obscene. He threatened my wife and when I got on, he was belligerent and continued to threaten me and my family. This Indian telemarketer was laughing, saying “What can you do? I can say anything to you, your wife, your kids, and the rest of your family, and you can’t do anything.”
I tried to track this company down, and the sad part was, calling my phone company, Verizon, was no help. They gave me the run around, and in effect said that they can’t help me. I don’t know where to proceed next. I’m sure when we get home, the same Indian company will call back saying the call is coming from “Microsoft”. Sometimes the caller is female. In most cases, the caller is male, and in all cases, they downright nasty, and speak with a very heavy Indian accent.
I’m at my wit’s end trying to figure out how to stop this Indian company from calling my house with their “This is Microsoft” line. They probably successfully scam a small percentage of their calls. Since they’re calling from a foreign country (India), whatever information or money they extract from their victims, may not even be illegal in their homeland.
212 is a manhattan area code, but 212 is also the country phone code for india. every country has different digit amounts in their phone numbers, America has 10, (xxx-xxx-xxxx) India has 9.
This happened to me identical of statements here. She called at 730 pm told me to go to the computer. A box opened up rapidly and the mouse was going thru my files. I said you are controlling my computer,stop it !
She said You are bogging down our server at Microsoft !!
You see all your viruses ? A text message opened up and sure enough I did have 80 viruses. She said you have to get the fix right now or you won’t be able to use your computer. HERE ARE THE PRICES SHE DEMANDED just for the trojan viruses:
14 trojan found
1 YEAR $199
2 YEARS $ 299 N 8 MONTHS EXTRA
3 YEARS $399 N 10 MONTHS EXTRA
ONE TIME 120
707-681-5111
How the hell did she install that box on my desktop and where did it go ? It’s gone but she left the message above. So much for my hundred dollar safety program. Shouldn’t it have stopped it ??
Got 2 calls Nov.20th, 2013 from same number: The call showed up on my Direct TV screen as Illinois Call> (708) 669-0055… The Guy had the same format of Terrorizing me with the information that I had been Hacked thru opening my Spam Mail in my Yahoo email (HE EVEN KNEW MY EMAIL ADDRESS !!! ). Right away I knew this was a Scam, I never open my Spam and I have a Mac that doesn’t use Microsoft…. 🙂 I let him talk, not hearing him clearly and he had an heavy Oriental accent. He was full of Bad Information for me and was directing me to my computer and asked if it was on now ?? I said NO and told him I was Hanging~Up… He yelled that all my Banking information was compromised and More !! So I said, I am calling my Bank Manager now, got your number Sir and Good Bye. My husband called him back a bit later, surprisingly the same Guy answered, but the connection was real bad. So my husband said for him to call us back. We are still waiting…… My Bank Manager is a Friend and said she’d report the phone number, my recorded complaint and I had nothing to worry about, that other customers had the same “Microsoft Person” call. Holidays are Heavy Times for these calls, everyone is preoccupied, busy and this Stressful Call sometimes works on unsuspecting Folks.
Called my wife with scam…. NY number but not all digits displayed 212-414-155
Just got one of these calls at 8 am on a Saturday. The caller ID said it was coming from “3249” and the woman had a heavy Indian accent. She said something about “Windows” and “virus” and asked if I was in front of my computer. I said no, I don’t use the PC. She asked who does and I said my 13 year old son. She told me to put him on the phone and, astonished, I said, “You want to talk to my 13 year old? No.” She hung up.
I got one of these calls last night. The Indian caller identified himself as Jack Parker!!! (I almost laughed in his ear – how was your boat ride Jack!) and the caller id identified the calls as coming from “610” He gave me a phone number to call him back at and told me to specifically ask for Jack Parker. Rolls my eyes..
Same thing has happened to me earlier. I get so many calls from indians each day its bordering harassment. Not sure how to make them stop. I’ve just registered with the do not call register…don’t know how thats suppose to work but im hoping it does
I got the same call tonight. I didn’t go to my computer and knew it had to be a scam by the telephone number, 418-001-0070 and also because it seemed ridiculous that Microsoft would call me concerning my computer errors.
I received a call “out of area”and #000-000-0000 on my phone display. A man with a heavy indian accent told me I am sending dangerous messages to Miscrosoft.He told me to go to my computer and sign on and then he asked me to press the Microsoft button on the bottom of my keypad and then the letter “R”. I did that. And then he told me to put in some letters and press okay, I did that and nothing happened. I couldn’t understand him so he put some other man with an indian accent on the phone and then I hung up. I don’t think he got access to my computer. He called back today, but I didn’t answer.
They just called me with this same thing and NOW I worried about the time he keep me on-line.
Certainly hope someone can stop them. Thank you
You should file a complaint with FTC (Federal Trade Commission) – (877) 382-4357. They will give your complaint a number and you are to call them back if you are called again. NOTE: The “officer” told me that they can hack into your PC even if you don’t give them access. They will try to keep you on the line. I find this hard to believe, but that is why I am currently researching this topic. I didn’t give anyone access. Wouldn’t even go to the web page they tried to get me to, but I did stay on the phone for quite a lengthy time. I hope I haven’t been hacked.
just received a call from a individual (fraudster) (scammer) named Austin Dawson. Very well spoken man from Victoria, BC so said the caller ID. In his best english (obviously Indian) he told me how my little ole windows computer and it’s viruses was causing Microsoft servers issues for them. Of course due to my background in fraud, i inquired as to why he wanted me to go into my internal workings of the computer, how he got my number, why Microsoft has never called me before, and finally why my 2 layers of virus protection were showing my computer as virus free. As I informed him the call was being recorded, and that I would be reporting his number to the State and Feds, we some how became disconnected. Watch out, and I will have my close friend Linda Webb “The Fraud Dog” put out a warning.
Got The Call today. Woke me up, which pissed me off. The heavy Indian accent, crackling connection and call-center noises in the background immediately made me suspicious, as did the number which showed up as 1-855-383-2473 Petaluma CA on my caller ID, but when I hit the edit button to check it out, it came up as 1-707-658-7904, which did not work when I hit redial. But when I hand-dialed the 855# it answered as “Enterprise Technology Solutions and PC Trackers.Com”. Funny, that doesn’t sound like Microsoft to me! Gonna have to look them up on the net. Anyway, “Conception”, a guy, was extremely pushy and full of dire warnings and fear-mongering- “your computer could crash at any moment, don’t do any online shopping”. Seriously, the guy could write for FAUX News and the GOP. I made him give me some info to prove he was real, so he gave me my supposed Computer ID number, which I haven’t checked but he could have possibly got from somewhere, along with my phone # and name (which I hate that they can get so easily). He wanted me to do the computer thing, but I begged off, telling him I didn’t understand how to do it and he’d have to talk to my husband. Supposedly he’s going to call again tonight, but I will have already blocked both numbers from my phone AND reported this to our Attorney General, which I hope everyone does. I HATE SCAMMERS!
I received the same type of phone call on Friday (06/21/13). This guy also had an Indian accent and he told me that my computer was trying to download. I cut him off because I couldn’t understand him. So I asked for his number to call him back which was 917-677-2077. Today, I called him back from my work number, but he couldn’t help me without having my home so I just ended the call.
Just now, in France, on the 18th of June 2013 I was phoned by one of these creeps. The info on the phone stated it was coming from 0040389206034. Let’s have fun! Have everybody call them! (I think it’s Rumania)
Asked him which country he was phoning from he said: Liverpool.
I said, gosh, that’s interesting I was phoned a while ago like this and reported it to the Computer Crime Squad.
I’ve never seen anybody hang up that fast!!
Received this call yesterday and was telling my mom about it. She , too, got the same call. How are they getting our names and know what window program we have on our computers? They even knew what type of laptop I had. We both had different windows programs. The only other people that knew this was Best Buy where we both bought our computers, and the virus software I registered online. One of these three company’s as a security breech.
I have had two calls in two days from MS softwear tech telling me a “warning message” had been detected, they could remove my virus. Now, (Indian accent) Mike called from Tech Support from “Special Fusion Softwear, Las Vegas, phone 720-701-0536 to help me remove virus. He was very persistent even after telling him I had softwear protection through Dell, I hung up. I called the number from ‘last call return’ and he answered the phone and tried again. Can someone report this number with a fraud office. In fact, my computer has not been working right recently, had it checked out this morning and is now OK. I want to report this number to someone who can trace it. thanks if anyone can help in this.
Just got a call from someone name Sam Paul with indian accent claiming to be from Microsoft. He said my Windows 7 computer has a virus that prevents it from receiving updates. He asked me turn on my computer so he can help me remove the virus. I told him I’m at work so he said he will call back at 6:00 PM when I’m off work. he said to please accept his call when calls again. The phone number starts with 806 (I forgot the rest). He even gave me his employer # 120919G21.
I just got another of these phone calls.. They have been ringing me for about 2 yrs. So over it. Now when I see an overseas call come through, I answer with:
“Hello FBI Victoria (or your state you live in)”
They soon hang up ROFL
I got 2 calls from the same number 1-866-6820-649. The 1st one was 2 days ago for my wife (they know her name). The guy called Mike Thomas with a heavy Indian accent told that they represented MS Windows security and they had been getting security messages from my wife’s PC because it had been infected. I wanted to see what was going on and asked how I could be sure that the call was legit. To convince me he dictated me a “security ID” of my PC, then asked to run cmd, assoc and compare the number at the end of the list with one he provided. They matched (but it is the same number for all my three computers, I bet that it is the same for all PC using Windows). He then tried to convince me to set a distant session through http://www.teamviewer.com, which allows him to take control over my PC. After I refused and asked for a superviser, a guy called Peter Smith repeated me the same bogus story and give the phone back to Mike. Mike used other ridiculous arguments to convince me to give him access because my PC could crush any time (like: “go to event log; do you see errors there? tried to delete an error event from the log; you can’t! only we can fix your PC” or “go to MS services; you see that some of them stopped? it is because your PC is infected! local technicians can’t help you!”). I told him at the end that I would check my PC myself and call back if needed.
I googled the number and found several websites with the same stories. Gullible people who gave the excess were charged for the service, had their credit cards and personal information stolen, had to repair their PCs… This is a link to MS survey about these scumbags:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2011/jun11/06-16MSPhoneScamPR.aspx
Today I had another call, for myself this time. The same story, the same phone number, another Indian guy (Adhal?). This time I asked how did he know my name and phone. The answer was that when I bought the PC, the shop got my name and phone. I asked then where I bought the PC, he answered that he had to look in my file and hung up the phone.
BE AWARE!
I am getting similar calls now from +557 on my IP phone. I am not taking anymore but is anoying.
Got this call again (first time for 2013, got 2 calls from them last 2012 and once last 2010). Damn they are keeping my number in their database. I told them Im using Apple (even Im not),and he hung up.
I have just receivved this scam call today from an Indian sounding guy on the telephone number 0208 311 6688 I hung up
I have received these calls numerous times and truthfully it becomes very annoying. The one that I just most recently received came from 618-465-8138. Indian spoken Gentleman and as soon as he said he was calling from Microsoft Windows, I cut him down fast in his tracks and said, You’re going to tell me that there is a problem with my windows and a Breach has been broken. He agreed and then I explained to him that after I received this call over a Year ago the first time, I called Microsoft Windows directly and they CONFIRMED 100% they DO NOT Call Customers with Window or Microsoft Issues. Your system will always recognize issues and correct anything through your system when needed. They do not under any circumstance call customers. These calls are 100% a Scam and should be avoided immediately when they call. The number above I listed I called 10 Minutes after and it then said the Number had been Disconnected and is No Longer available. That says it all. He even tried to tell me that Yes Microsoft will not call but he was representing Windows!!LOL!! Who do you think is responsible for Windows?? MICROSOFT!! Anyway everybody just hang up on these calls.
Scam Buster here!
I’ve been busting scams all of my life, and a new one seems to come out every week. It s hard to keep up with! Some of you know about me, others will learn.
This is definitely a scam! As mentioned in above posts, they call you claiming to be from Microsoft and tell you have a virus on your computer but they will help you remove it.
If you notice, its always some who can barely speak English. Or has a deep African accent, while trying to sound English.
I have had this very same call, from 3 different people!
The best thing to do is just say “I don’t even own a computer!” and hang up.
This call is to load malware on you computer, so they can steal all you info (passwords, bank accounts, etc.)
I always like to play with them, because I bust scams. I keep them on the line for as long as possible, telling them my computer crashed, it won’t load, etc. to tie up their time. Every minute they are wasting on me, if a minute they aren’t ripping some unsuspecting person off!
When I’ve wasted a good 30 minutes, or longer if I can stretch it out, I say “this isn’t working. I can’t get it wo even load now. I have a friend that works there, his name is (I usually grab a phone book) and say “I need to talk to him, He built this computer. He knows it inside and out Please put him on.” The next thing I hear is “click!”
If you can’t beat ’em, hastle ’em!
–Scam Buster
I just received a phone call from one of these scammers. He told me he got my phone number when I registered Microsoft. He said one of my computers had been infected and he will help me fix it. I asked him which computer (I have several) and he got quiet, then said it didn’t matter because he can fix all of them. When I told him he’s a scam he told me to shut up and then he hung up! I called back the phone # 206-701-7392 and it doesn’t ring so it’s bogus. BEWARE OF THESE SCAMMERS!!
We had a call from one of these scammers. My husband repairs computers and was aware of this scam so he played along. When they asked him to turn his computer on he told them to hang on while he did it. 10 mins later he went back to the phone and they had hung up. When he replaced the phone they rang again and my husband told them that he had only just put his shoes on, which confused them. After another 10 mis or so of him saying how worried he was and how did they know there was a problem etc. he then asked them how long they were preared to wait because it would take a while for him to turn his computer on because he had to drive to work to switch it on and come back. At which pint they told him he was a F*****G A******e and hung up.
I just received this phone call – claimed to be from “Windows” which was when I immediately knew it was a scam. He tried to give me the whole story about how my computer was uploading security alerts to the Microsoft servers, etc, and that I had an “anti-social virus” – to which I responded “perfect, because I’m in a rather anti-social mood right now anyway. But I questioned how he got the phone number, and the name of the “registered customer” – to which he had my landlord’s name, who doesn’t even own a computer, but said the contact info came from the “windows registration” – that was when I asked to speak with a supervisor, to which he hung up on me.
I always laugh at things like this…but definitely feel bad for anyone who may not be tech savvy enough to realize that something like this is a scam.
My elderly mother just received a call like this on 9-27-2012. She asked if she could call back the man after she spoke to her daughter. She gave me his number but couldn’t understand his name, as he had a thick Indian? accent. I called and he said his name is Mr. Alex. His phone number is 631-832-1411. He first said he was with Microsoft. When I told him he was not with Microsoft and that I had performed a search of his phone number, he said he was with an independent contractor and that my mother’s computer had been taken over by malware. I told him never to call her again, and he said “As you wish.” Do not give this man any personal information or access to your computer.
They call me and I tell them that I’m running linux on all my PC’s.
Last time I called them and they gave their spiel about there is a virus on my PC and they need to fix it. I told them I had over 10 PC’s in the house which one was it. I told them they had to give me a host name so I knew which one they were talking about. That does 2 things for me. 1. Tells me they don’t know what they are talking about or if they did in fact have a host name then I knew I had bigger problems like my host name on one of my PC’s is readable on the web. They hung up when I asked that question.
This afternoon I was called (in the Netherlands), same story, my PC was infected. My PC had some trouble last weeks, the person knew my name and phone number so it all sounded quite reasonable. I gave permission to enter my PC remotely (stupid me) but as soon as started about the payment I quit the connection (both phone and network).
I am from Switzerland and I got a call last week from a guy who spoke english with an indian accent. He is calling from Windows Operating System. The guy told me that my computer was infected by a virus.
He asked me to switch on my computer, then to open a browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox or similar and to type in an address. At the bottom of the Webpage he pointed me to all the certifications they are awarded for.
Then he guided me to the top of the page and to click on the blue Remote Support button.
The file AA_V3.exe is downloading.
He asked me to run this file.
I asked him where he is calling from? He answered from London.
Then I explained him that I am using an Apple Computer and this type of File with the extension exe will not run an my computer.
The guy had to check internally and will be back soon.
He continued the phone call by guiding me to another website. Then he asked me to klick on the website on Share your screen. I recognized this type of remote control will work for Apple Mac too.
At this point I told him that I do not want to share my computer and I don’t trust him at all. He never explained in details what he will do on my computer even thought I was asking for several times. He always mentioned that my computer was invected by a virus and he will help me to solve this problem.
So I finished the phone call.
Here my advice:
Do not follow this steps in my descriptions.
Do not press any Remote Support button on the website.
Do not run file AA_V3.exe.
I do not know what they wanted on my computer nor how they will earn any money?
To share your own computer by a unknown person is not wise.
Very crazy ,I went on somthing while the wife was away for the day and clicked on the boob tube haha lol,,but anywho I got one of those things added on my pc,my first thought was omg im in trouble ,so i typed in virus scams this page was helpfull so i put in fake credit card and put my number in so the virus took me to a page that i was able to remove the prgram from my pc ,,15 mins later this guy called from another country saying did there program work I said to him huh then he said did it work for all the porn pixs Then hung up lol ,,but i knew that I only went on thin one site that had a virus. I also knew my pc was clean as well ,,but they got a nice fake credit card tooo …
TELL em you use an or mac apple and they go away
can’t figure out how they hide there phone number/s
get only a partial number on call id
or private etc
i was getting 3-5 calls a day
now that i said i use a mac they have slowed way down
I just received one of these scam calls today. I was out and about so the call came through my cell. The foney number showed up as 9999999999. I knew it was a scam from the beginning because I did not call Microsoft in the first place. When I asked him for a call back number, he hungup. Always use your common sence. If you did not solicite the call, then it is not legitimate.
Im so incensed. My husband been on phone this last hour with someone saying they’re from microsoft. I’m screaming “SCAM”. They said they would have to close his pc down unless he gave them his credit card details do they could take a payment. Does anyone know a good divorce lawyer!!!
Gaah! These tweakers keep calling us no matter how we respond… ignore them, reason with them (we’re two CS grads working in the computer industry and can refute all their nonsense), abuse them, etc. After yelling at them and hanging up today, I started answering the phone “San Diego FBI” and they got pretty quiet… “Hello? Is anyone there? Do you need help? Are you reporting a crime?” Next time I will sing!! Or maybe play the William Shatner album… decisions, decisions. BRING IT ON RAKEESH!
BT’s call centres are obviously not very secure-regardless of what company you pay your phone bill to, someone has clearly worked at BT and stolen/forwarded on large databases of telephone numbers, past and present, for these scammers to use. From most info it would seem they are calling from india, or somewhere close. I have had them call multiple times, and when I look the numbers up via the whocallsme website, it turns out to be the same people pretending to be microsoft. Sometimes the number is hidden so its hard to tell if its more than one ‘company’ doing the same scam or not. Just remember-microsoft would NEVER call you, so hang up that phone. Or better yet, as my incoming phone calls list is beginning to look like my email inbox (too much spam all after my money) for all numbers you dont know, just dont answer. If its that important and not a scam, theyll send out a letter. I never talk to banks or related companies via any call centre!
Our caller said he was from Microsoft. He said the computer sends packets of information to Microsoft and they dectected that our computer was hacked. He assumed we had a computer… he wasn’t sure so he asked how many computers we had :/ My husband wasn’t aware of the scam, and he went to the website and let the man into the computer (which is new so doesn’t have anything on it yet thank goodness but that’s not the point I know) and the man said “see, anybody can hack your computer”. He said it would cost $499.00 for 3 computers’ protection, more than Window Live Essentials can do. My husband refused to spend the money and must have told the man 10 times and each time the man had a new rebuttal. I walked in when the man started getting louder. I said hang up (the man called back 5 times, we didn’t answer). The man managed to wipe out all of the desktop icons my husband had on his computer. We figured how to get back the main ones by going on the internet and googling it… but the rest we’ll have to go to each website and start again. Everybody’s else computers are fine and we changed all our passwords. We don’t store any personal info like credit card numbers, etc. in any files on the computers and neither did he ask for any of our passwords on websites which we definitely would not have given out.
I feel very sorry for the woman who a man took her to PayPal. Must have gotten her password somehow.
Just had another call from an Indian called ‘Thomas’ about my computer. Just laughed at him and informed him that I am fully aware of the scam and put the phone down. You would think that they would delete numbers when you have rumbled them. New number they are using displays as 001100000000000
I got stinged by these people. Then i found this blog. I should have read this blog months ago… Somehow one of their own cranked them… indiancallcenterscam.blogspot.com
I live in the UK, just received a call from a so called “Jack” with a strong Indian accent. He claimed to be calling from Microsoft, then said my Windows OS serial code had been leaked online, also the computer was sending error messages to their servers because of malicious files. I instantly realised there was something up at this point as I am using Windows 8 Release Preview, installed using a public code from the Windows site. So everyone has access to the code I am using.
The second alarm bell rang when he started asking what brand my computer was, saying once he knew he could pinpoint which machine had the problem. Well there are two Macs and 4 PCs in my house. So initially I said only the Macs where currently on, how could a computer which is off be currently sending error messages? He had no answer and continued pestering me for the brand. However I built the Windows 8 machine from scratch. So it has no “brand”. I said this and he hung up, obviously he hadn’t briefed how to deal with that situation.
I noticed afterwards not once had he said my name, or my father’s (household owner), he hadn’t stated even what version of Windows I was running. Seems a bit silly I stayed on the phone so long really. I hope he doesn’t call again.
ATENTION i got a call to but it is fake,
i contacted microsoft and they never call you never.
so it is just a trick because they just pick a random phone number
I received this call again today (08/23). They are so annoying. The voice has an Indian accent. I dont really believe them. So I asked so many questions like how they did get my number, how come they didnt know whats the version of my windows. And guess what, they hang up. So annoying.
I’ve had loads of these calls, sometimes 3 a day. I now start the conversation by telling them I have no money to give ANYONE let alone a scam artist.Then I don’t put the phone down, but I leave the room, when I return they have hung up.
I have had many calls over the past few months even one man with an indian accent claiming to be Peter Parker!! At which point I laughed out loud. Todays was the most persistent claiming to work on behalf of Microsoft, in the end they hung up on me as I asked questions like can I have your telephone number to verifiy you? How do I know you work for Microsoft? Don’t be taken in.
I got a a call like this today. First guy said his name was “James Taylor”. I told him that I doubted that was his name. His supervisor gave me his name, phone and “MIcrosoft ID#” – as if that was going to convince m of anything. I just kept telling him I didn’t believe him, that nothing he was saying was proof of anything. Best part was when he told me that the call was being recorded and I would have no recourse when I lost everything on my computer.
Got this call today, they knew my name as well. Mentioned microsoft, and Started going on about a virus my computer… Then asked me, do I own a computer at home? Surely they knew this answer if they know about a virus on it? I Didn’t stay on phone long anyway. Who are these people?.
Received this call today at 6:15 pm. from an “Unavailable” caller with Indian accent
I’ve had several of these calls. I either just put the phone down or wind them up and waste their time so much so much they just slam the phone down. This morning I asked the guy ( supposedly from Microsoft) where he was based and he said London and gave me a phone number. He put the phone down when I told him he just didn’t sound professional enough for me to take him seriously. I rang the number later which was answered immediately with a voice which sounded like an India who did actually live in the UK. I hung up buIf anyone wants to investigate further, the number is 0208 8191094
Warning to anyone sensitive… don’t play games with these guys they can be very nasty.
i just had a cal from a man called “Jim” with a heavy Indian accent. I knew it was a scam so when he asked me to turn on my pc i asked him “which button to press? ” thinking to waste some of his time. he responded immediately with “don’t you know how to turn your pc on?” then after i told him no.. that i had no idea.. he asked me if i knew how to get ****ed! then got really nasty and said that he wanted to do that to me and that the pain would last for a long time!
Iv was so shocked. I asked to speak to his manager and he said he was the manager and then he continued saying these kind of abusive things as I put the phone down on him.
I found this very upsetting and in future will simply hang up immediately.
I live in uk and got some guy from India saying that my pc had virus and messing up their system and he would access my computer.
So I asked his name and John was the name that came back , I asked how they got the name of the person they wanted to speak to ( me) I explains that I was a police officer and that the person they called and was murdered, I then told him we had his number and he was from India and my officer was going to to tell me any minute now what province he was calling from and not to move as my office will phone my counter part in India and will send some officers to question him.
The phone went dead and that was 2 mths ago and not had one call since then hahahaha.
So how do you get these individuals to stop calling? (We have received seventeen from October of last year until three days ago. While it is getting hunorous it’s also turning to being harrassment and we want it to stop.)
Yesterday I had a phone call from India, they told me they were from HP support and they asked me to go to http://www.support.me. So I did, and within a few minutes I was in the PayPal screen. They were so insolent to make a payment to a certain Shivalika Sharma themselves as they had already taken over the computer. Fortunately, I had no balance on the Paypal-account, nevertheless I have sent an e=mail to PayPal to warn them for scammers.
Got phone calls about this every now and then. I always tell them there’s nothing to be fixed since I don’t own a computer.
They always call you assuming you have a computer. How in the world did they know that you have a computer when you didn’t ask for their assistance in the first place?
How can they receive messages that my computer is in trouble if I don’t have a computer.
Even in first world countries certain family households don’t have a computer.
We can always go to the library and access the internet through the library or employment centers.
Today, I have received a call from an Indian from the number 1-206-397-1127. I have asked him to go f*** himself. and he replied the same way.
Just had a call from Indian lady, told her she was lying and put phone down. Thought it had gone quiet for a while as I have not had a call for several months. So they are at it again with the virus scams. The phone number displayed was 091797.
I just got a call this morning. I told the person I was a computer programer and he hung up on me. He was really beliveable. I did get on my computer and go to manage computer but I didn’t let him take over or anything. Nor did I install anything. Do I have anything to worry about?
Today, I received a call from John. (Who don’t Indian parents ever seem to give their kids Indian names?)
What bothered me about this call, is that he had my wife’s and my name, and our address.
I always like to put the guys on indefinite hold, after, “Can you hold for a second? I’ll be right back.”
Just got this call today too. Some Indian guy claiming to work for Microsoft Windows Anti-virus. His line kept cutting up which made me suspicious. I told him that I have Norton security for anti-virus on my computer and that I’d just scanned it with no detections but he persisted that Norton won’t help detect this virus. I told him, if I do get any problems, I’ll call them but he refused to give me a number and kept trying to convince me that I had a virus. And then he hung up when he realised he was going nowhere.
I received this call today and this is the second time in a month. I advised the heavily accented Indian man that I am producing my own malware and spyware and I have his current email address and I am going to send it to him. He got all quite then told me to F-off and hung up! haha I couldnt stop laughing!!!!! Give it right back to these scammers!!!!!
Funny as… Apparently they dont want to give me there home phone number and address so that i can come round with my computer so they can sort it out while they are having tea… he also didnt like it when i told him id like to talk to the manager of the company to explain that the abusive man on the phone was an asshole and should be sacked as he didnt want to fully help the customer!
Also, at the begining of the phone call the asked if someone by a certain name was there, and it wasn’t even anyone I know, and yet they continued their craziness.
I got this call today.
I’m not computer illiterate, however I’m not a programmer either, y’know?
I was extremely rude with them right from the start, however the first man I talked to was patient and dealt with it. As everyone else did I heard Indian accents in the background, and it sounded like a pretty low class place.
He said he was from Microsoft Tech, and that he had detected a virus running in the background of my computer which was affecting the Microsoft Mainframe. They told me that if I did not go through these steps for them, that they would remove my subscription to Microsoft (Which egged me to do it because I’m 17, and the computer is my life) So essentially they threatened me. At the time they called I was busy doing something else and told them I didn’t have time right now, I told them I would not be back for two weeks and they could call back again then; when I said this the man on the phone flipped out and said (paraphrased)No way! It needs to be done now! Now, believe me, I pulled him along for a good 15 minutes trying to tell him that I had no way of finding out if he was legit or not, and that I wanted him to prove it, he said he would later on in the process. He even gave me a phone number, which I will address after. Eventually (after a ton of nagging, rudeness, vulgarity, and language) I finally started his process. He used ‘run’ to run different programs So I started doing what he asked, he said that the virus was corrupting things, and saying that it was blocking the error messages that Microsoft had been sending me (Which is odd, because I had still been getting those annoying reminders to update) Then he took me a to a website, which I can’t remember the name of, (but I do remember he pointed out that it had a Microsoft certification image on it, which I said didn’t mean he was from Microsoft, I said any idiot can put a picture on a website) and made me download things which I currently can’t remember I know one was ammyy (which I really thought was weird, because that was my name, but apparently others also downloaded this) and another was like personalcarev2 or something. I gave them remote access to my computer and I watched as he did most things (again I had been being rude to them the whole time) At the begining, before I started I asked to speak with his manager and he told me he was the senior tech, then later, when they started asking about credit card information I started getting really really rialed up, and I was raging, and they just stopped talking, put the phone done, and got someone else. This person claimed to be the manager of the place and was EXTREMELY rude to me, I threatened to call the police, and he said he’d put me behind bars, I told him he needed to listen to me and he yelled NO YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME! which sorta tipped me off to get off the line (finally) I asked for his phone number and said I would call back after I phoned Microsoft, and he said he wouldn’t give it to me, and I said that I already had one, and I read it aloud to him, and he told me it was a fake. I ended up hanging up on them, and calling the real microsoft, whom I asked for help solving the problem, at the same time I called my mom on my cell phone to tell her about what had happened. The people at microsoft were extremely nice (and I was extremely nice back) and they helped me out. My mom wasn’t home yet so I couldn’t pay for the service the real microsoft offered. My family and I thought it over later, and we ended up taking the computer over to Best Buy, which is where it is now hopefully being completely cleared of everything malicious, and everything they downloaded. We all changed our bank passwords, and our credit card details, we are also thinking about getting a new router, but we will see what Best Buy says about it. I hope this helps anyone who went through with it!
Live technician.com. They claim to be in Sacramento. They are in fact in China. they will tell you that your computer is totally infected with viruses and that your own antivirus is useless.For $239.99 they installed AVG antivirus,scanned the computer using “Malawarebyte”
and after the scan they did not find any virus.Got all my passwords etc. Beware!!
I am from the Netherlands and received today for the second time this phonecall from “Microsoft”. Of course Mr Mark Johnson from Birminham in the UK could not give me the IP adres or anything else. He didn’t want to give me his e-mailadress either. On request he provided me however a, probably fake, phonenumber. I asked him or it was possible to call him back. The number: 01223968443 will probably be fake too.
I am not going to try it.
I have had many calls of this type. I always question them and have a conversation for as long as i can. The last call i had i told them i had spybot search and destroy installed and they hung up on me.
These folks called me and my neighbor across the street. We have phone numbers that are two digits off of eachother.
They are using a phone relay system, stealing peoples vonnage and skype phone accounts. Also they are just blind dialing with a robo-dialer.
They got on my neighbors computer and trashed it. They dont have a router in place because they’re using a 3/4g connection. He knew better than this.
Me being an IT manager for a small company, knew right away that this is a scam. Get the time, date, and any important information you can and report it to any authorities that you can.
Why isnt Microsoft attacking these people? I understand Mr. Gates is fond of that country and is helping the poor there, but this is absurd.
From Indian Mark.
“mark
I want share one thing to people
I read many comments on this page, but I haven’t read all because I am running out of time.
I am from India and unfortunately I work for a company who provide people tech support after showing event viewer and all that stuff.
It all started in January, before earlier i was self employed and somewhere in of Dec I was like unemployed because my work wasn’t going well.
so I started looking for a job and in jan I was selected for A company and that company provides technical support to US customers.”
3333333333333333333333333333
Mark you sound a bit like an apologist for these lias so it’s a bit unclear whether you’re fair dinkum or not. But it doesn’t matter, because your country has failed to police the various scams and poor service that emanates from India. Your country has been labeled totally untrustworthy in the international arena of computer technology and services. If you seek to do a service for your country and the world, you should be pressing your politicians to rescue its reputation. In light of the current situation, your input was entirely unconvincing. Reg. Sydney. Australia.
Hi there!
Victim of all the aforementioned scam yesterday! Very ‘helpful and convincing’ caller!
Luckily I was on the ball and as soon as he requested I access webpage and I needed an ‘access code’ – quickly opened another tab and found this page – I hung up.
The phone then rang over ten times in quick succession, needless to say I didn’t answer it, he even left a message with the access code!!!!! I don’t think so!!!
The callers number comes up as ‘international’ and having checked my log prior to yesterday, they have rung constantly.
No doubt he’ll be trying again!
oh another good one get an air horn lift em out of it chances are they have a head set on
i love these calls there great so ammusing so far iv asked for chicken recipies why my bum was itchy today i told em that there english was very good that she should get a job interpatating rather than fucking with people i believe next time ill ask her to marry me bring her away i cant see why people get angry have your fun with them if ya have kids hand em the phone let them talk to em that be funny
I tell the caller that I have a MacBook Pro and they immediately hang up
Way to go
I have had hundreds of calls from these people. Every night whne I get in their number comes up on my call list for the day. They appear to phone me very 2 hours. I have frequently hung up on them and I have to admit my husband got slightly abusive with them and they still won’t give up
I had a very similar call tonight, asking if I was the owner of the phone, by someone with foreign accent. When I asked who wished to know, I was called by my name. Immediately smelt a rat. Then he mentioned my computer, really smelt a rat and said I didn’t have a computer and hung up. When they ring back tomorrow I will be a Policeman and have some fun at there expense.
I had a women from ‘windows’ with a chinese accent. The connection was very laggy and due the fact that english is not my native language it was hard to have a conversation with her. I knew they have called to my house telephone once before so i knew that i could be a scam. Eventually i said i wasn’t experiencing any problems with my pc and that i would contact Microsoft by myself if i need help. She hang up immediately, lol.
Hopefully they wont call again, its pretty scary people want to scam you while on the telephone.
I just got a call from this piece of sh** calling from a blocked number. I only answered because my Mother and Mother-in-law both call from blocked numbers. He had a heavy accent and I fired off questions right away like what is your website? What is a number I can reach you at? Then he got pushy and asked “Ma’am, don’t want to know what is wrong with your computer first?” to which I replied in an angry tone, “No, I want you to prove that you are a legitimate business and not some scam artist trying to get info off my computer first” silence… then I knew he was going to hang up and cussed him out for trying to scam me.
Oh trust me when I say that these people, I use the term people loosely, are evil personified. I received a phone call from so called ”Microsoft” and I have to say that I was having problems with my brand new PC crashing continuously so didn’t even think twice that it could be scam by an unscrupulous individual.
This man was Indian but I have in the past needed to contact the real Microsoft and I did indeed speak to an Indian call centre so I thought nothing about the fact the bogus caller being Indian too.
He could tell me the exact problems that I was experiencing so why shouldn’t I have believed he was from Microsoft? After a few minutes of conversation I let his colleague take control of my PC and the mouse did start to move around all over the screen but when the person I was speaking to started to tell me that to fix my so called ”virus” problems would cost me just under 300 pounds I started to get suspicious. I tried my very best to stay polite and say no and that I was very happy with my current anti-virus program but he just kept going on and on whilst his colleague was messing around with my PC and my files. I eventually cut him off by putting the phone down but my PC was still being tampered with, I tried to shut it down but could not so I just pulled the plug out of the socket.
Afterwards I realised that a virus had been left behind and doing a system restore did not help so I had no choice but to do a factory reset but I was still plagued by problems even though I ran scan after scan and nothing showed up.
I have since abandoned Windows and went down the expensive route, well it’s not that expensive considering that I’ve had 3 Windows desktops and 3 Windows laptops over the past 6 years……..the answer to my problems was of course a MAC. I now have a MacBook Pro, an iPad and an iMac. No virus’s involved….ever.
I string them along to waste their time and therefore hopefully saving one more person from this scam.
My record so far is 22 minutes – they get dead grumpy when they realise. 🙂 Also, when they ask how many events are in event viewer, say “Zero” – this causes much confusion as it takes them “off-piste”.
Same thing going on here. Got a call from an man with heavy indian accent saying my computer was relaying information to his company indicating it had download malicious software/virus and was going to crash at any moment and was trying to direct me to avoid such a situation. First flag, I’ve had viruses in the past and I’ve never received a direct call from anyone from IT, so I knew something was wrong right off the bat. He then wanted to confirm if i was running windows xp or vista and I inquired why he had to ask since he supposedly was getting information from my computer…second flag. So i hung up and googled the number and found this forum….third flag. After I hung up, I got another call from 866-289-9940 from same man…last flag….definitely a SCAM! I’m trying to post this on as many sites to help people from becoming victims of these scammers! Word of advise…if seems fishy…it’s probably fishy. And when in doubt…always google the number!!!!
Yeah, I’ve been getting these calls for a while, I have wiped the floor with them on a few occasions, as I knew Microsoft would not have access to my details.
Whatever you do do not let them get access to your laptop through remote access, otherwise you will get your panties pulled down.
To Kevin above, I would make sure remote access has been deactivated, it isn’t a virus if you give them permission to use remote access, so a scan will not show anything.
To ANYONE out there, If you have not asked for the call, then put the phone down.
i live in the netherlands , and i also have been called by someone with a indian accent claiming that my one month old computer is been infected by a virus … but fortunately his story was so stupid that it sholdnt fool any one , SO PEOPLE IN NETHERLAND , ( HOLLAND ) Watch out.. and do not be deseived easily , and keep questioning this kind of people and suspicious phone calls … Good luck
My mother-in-law (living in the UK) mentioned today that a month or so ago, she had several calls over a day or two from someone claiming to be from a company, saying that her computer (3 month old laptop with Anti Virus software) had become infected with malicious spy ware or viruses or somesuch thing. She tried to tell them she wasn’t interested but they kept ringing, until she eventually gave them her debit card details to pay £20.99, and allowed them to remotely control her computer. I was extremely alarmed when she told me this as it sounded very suspicious. I therefore phoned the number on the website relating to this company. Someone answered and I outlined my concerns. He said he would investigate and get back to me. In the meantime, we phoned the bank and cancelled the bank card and pin number. An hour or so later, someone called from the company. The woman told me, very convincingly, that they worked in partnership with Windows, and that they had been made aware of this malicious bug in my m-i-l’s computer and had fixed the problem and installed software to keep the computer clean in the future. She sounded plausible, so even though I had been concerned enough to cancel the relevant debit card, I came off the phone believing it to be above board. However, once I got home from my in-laws, I phoned Microsoft to enquire whether they would have phoned about such an issue. I was told that it was absolutely NOT genuine. I have since found this site, which sadly points to the fact that my poor, trusting, 80 year old mother in law has fallen victim to a fraud. She is going to visit the bank tomorrow to make sure she hasn’t had her account cleared out. I feel so angry on her behalf. We will now have to have her almost new laptop cleaned up to make sure there is nothing dodgy on it. I am amazed that given they fraudulently claimed to be working in partnership with Microsoft, they actually phoned me back to address my concerns and to repeat their claims about malicious bugs. I wish my in laws had asked me before they spoke to these people, but they are ‘old school’ and believe in being polite. Please beware.
I have just had a Indian man call me from windows telling me that my computer is running slow and that he was going to sort it. He somehow had a ref number for my machine which was a bit odd at which point I put the phone down.
I got the call today, in New Zealand. He got very rude and absuive after a while, and finally he hung up. He said he called from Bluesystemsupport. They did have a website. I called them back at Bluesystemsupport.com on the New Zealand number and was connnected to India. I told them I was now reporting them to the police which I have done.
just had a phon call about this .i was stupid but give them access to my computer. i feel so stupid but i am 6o and just learning.i noticed them going into my pay pal so i went along with them a.i told them i had no money at the moment and call me back in 4 weeks.i hav cancelled my pay pal account should i do anything else
From the looks of it they have reach Canada with their scam. I was able to get rid of him by asking to speak to someone in French; looks like they only provide service in English…
I just got this call. I was stupid enough to give them access to my computer. I already feel really dumb for falling for this, but I have been having a lot of problems with my computer. I did eventually catch on and did not give them any credit card information. I don’t think they downloaded anything, but I don’t know for sure. Right now I have the computer unplugged from the router. My question is, if they did download some program, would a simple factory restore (dell) be enough to get rid of it, or should I just take it to someone to have it looked at?
i have just had a phone call from a Indian man named ” peter morris” saying that he worked for Microsoft, and that i had viruses my anti- virus wouldn’t pick up, he gave a a number ( 02030515735 ) as i am only 16 i phone my Nan who said she had heard about this scam on the TV so i instanly broke of the connection on the phone, but be careful as this man is very pushy and convincing, he asked me to take my mum and dads credit card details and fill in that he was my parent so he could purchase the anti-virus thing for me!
Hi,
Im from England, i have just recieved the same call from an indian lady, judging from her accent im guessing she was calling from a call centre in india. She was very insistant that i turn on my computer so she could show me error reports and how unauthorised people were using my internet, she was dodging questions which made me feel it was suspicious, when i hanged up she had even called me back. I googled the company which she said was ‘micro systems repairs’ which she said an authoirised agent of microsoft, it was a good job i did this as i found it was all a scam!
I’m in England
I just had a call from an Indian Microsoft support woman telling me I have a problem with my computer it has lots of viruses.
I thaught eh I never asked for support and I’m unaware that Microsoft has the ability to automaticly get details on which computers in the entire word have viruses. I thaught I will see there the conversation leads.
She asked me to turn on my computer and do it now before I loose all my files I told her I cant turn my computer on right now and she hung up without a goodby or anything.
I’m lucky I didn’t have a credit card and that I was minor, they told me they would call me back when my mom got home. I looked it up cause it seemed suspicious I don’t even know why I downloaded the program. Luckily my anti-virus kicked in and we had a friend who could check our computer. They called me back two days after I said they could call me back, I just told there was a mistake and I don’t have a computer. He just got frustrated and hung up.
I have been getting this call for months now and in the past 2 days several times a day. I have asked them not to call me anymore and then another one of them will call. The numbers they are calling me from are 206-708-2804 and 206-777-3657. Sometimes though it comes up as an unavailable. This is harrassing phone calls and I have been very mean and rude to these folks. I have spoken what is on my mind and they just continue.
FYI – I’m in the US and I’ve received calls multiple times per day to my home phone (listed #) for the past week or maybe even longer. For those who have caller ID, the number on my phone comes up as “Unknown Name 1-123-456-7890” or “V06151441000021 123-456-7890”.
I finally answered (not knowing about this scam) and it was the same song and dance others have experienced (thick accent, noises in the background, etc.). I was asked about our “Microsoft computer” which already had me suspicious and then I insisted on being told their company’s name and when I said I did not know that company, they said they were hired by Microsoft (at this point I was pretty sure it was a scam). Not being comfortable with continuing, I offered to take down their information and then have my husband call back. They refused to give me a phone number (said they weren’t allowed — scam alert!) and repeatedly stated that I had some sort of “very dangerous” virus or something. Definitely an attempt to scare me into staying on the phone and doing what he wanted. He claimed he would call me back since he couldn’t give me the number — I will be interested to see if that happens!
I am posting here in the hopes that this will help others avoid these calls or at least not get sucked in as so many apparently have. Thanks to other posters since you confirmed my suspicions! 🙂
After several weeks of not hearing from them, “Steven” from “Windows System Care” called my work in the US again. He even stayed on the line when I put him on hold for a few minutes. This time I acted like I was concerned about my computer virus but a little skeptical of how he knew it had one. When he started directing me what to do on my computer, I pretended to follow his directions. When he asked me what I saw after a few clicks I was suppposed to be making, I asked him what I was supposed to see since obviously I wasn’t where he thought I was. At that point he said “ok” sounding annoyed and hung up. I guess they’re catching on that people are catching on they’re a scam!
HI, Today I received such a call from an indian claiming to be called ‘Mark’, obviously from a call centre as there was a lot of background noise (indian accents). I stupidly gave the technician he put me on to access to my computer. Fortunately I didn’t have certain numbers he asked for (registration possibly) but he said he could get that himself. This idiot kept me on the phone for an hour, trying this and that, checking back with his ‘supervisor’, connecting to someone in the US etc. Because my keyboard had been doing strange thigns the last few days, I assumed there mustreally be something wrong with my computer and went ahead and gave the guy remote access to it. I later found out this was a big mistake, Luckily, when it came time to process the stuff I was asked to purchase through PayPal, the alarm bells started ringing loudly and I broke off the connection and hung up the phone. But now I am left wondering what damage has been done and should I clear my PC of everything on it or is that even possible. I thin I’ll have to get my computer tech look into it … Why don’t these bloody Indians and anyone else involved go jump in a lake and drown? As for pussyfooting around about ‘racism’ etc – stuff it! I am unapologetically non-PC!
Just had a call from them…they are so pushy, insisting my computer is sending back messages to microsoft that I had been hacked. asked for a name and said id ring back. “No” said the Indian voice, “I can take you through it all and help you fix it” – hope no-one falls for this pushy, illegal. Was given this name and number so beware
James Brad
01655 22061
I have a lot of fun with these people. If I’m not an English second language speaker, then I’ll be completely computer illiterate but so thankful they called. Other times I will do everything they ask, repeating what they tell me as though I am doing it along with them, when it comes to paying I give bogus numbers but swear that they are correct and there must be a problem. One time I pretended I had my son with me who was the one on the computer and I was the middle man telling my son what to do, this totally frustrated them, I told them that he couldn’t take the call as he had issues with telephones. At the end of the day I guess it’s about my own self entertainment and about totally wasting their time as well as frustrating the hell out of them. Every time they end up hanging up on me. Strange thing is, I don’t get so many calls now? I must be a marked man on their books. MorrrrHorrrrrHorrrrrrHorrrrrr
Got the call several times this week. Said they were from windows support and they worked for xinitytech.com.
Left his name as Mark at toll free number 1-800-408-3290 or 315-506-4544.
VERY PUSHY. Kept calling back.
Kept telling me that I had to take immediate action and he was here to help me for free. Just let him take charge of my computer and he would fix the problem for me.
I just received a call from a man with an indian accent saying that they were calling for Bubble Sports PC – Windows and that I had a serious virus that will cause my computer to crash. I had to have him spell what the name of the company he was calling from because I had trouble understanding him. I asked him where I’m supposed to find out where this “virus” was and he said he would tell me what to type. I told him I would not type anything into my computer from someone who just called me from who knows where. That if there’s a problem, Windows will let it be known. He said, so you will just let your computer crash? ok. and hung up. I would never trust anyone who called me like that. I’m glad there are places like this where you can research. 🙂
Had a call today from our ‘Indian’ friend saying he was from Microsoft and my computer was being used for ‘malicous purposes’
He wanted me to tell him my computer incription number so that he could acess my computer!! As if!!
WHen I put the phone down on him he rang back twice!!
Just ignore these calls and put the phone down!!
I keep getting the same calls. One time I screamed at them over the phone. Today I started swearing at the dude and told him I wanted to speak to his f***ing supervisor and his response was the f word back. Is there any way to report them to the National Do Not Call Registry?
My Dad fell for this the other day, sadly. When he couldn’t pay them, they told him to leave his computer on and they’d fix it anyway.
They then proceeded to move money from lots of (presumably phished) NatWest bank accounts into a bank in India, until he finally got suspicious enough to pull the plug.
I had him report it to the police so that at least he doesn’t get done for conspiracy/fraud himself, but does anyone know if/what back doors they’re likely to have installed? I can’t find anything with the usual tools…
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I had a call this afternoon, exactly as described. I just said “Yes”, “Yes”, “Yes” and carried on watching YouTube. After about two minutes, I put the phone down. But they knew my name: I wonder how they got hold of that.
A call today from a ‘John’, with an Indian accent.
He worked for MSoft, and apparently he could see that 75 users in my area (He quoted my address) were downloading problem files. Could I just click Start, and he’ll talk me through sorting out my computer.
Even after putting down the phone, it rang again – this time left unanswered.
Well well well. I just got a call from an indian man, I suppose. He did exactly what this forum said. He took me into the computer and showed me all of the ‘error’ and ‘warning’ signs. Fortunately, I caught on once he mentioned paying money.
They called me yesterday 6/06/12. I am in California USA. I knew right away it was a scam. I let him talk for a bit then hung up.
I’m from Scotland and received a call from an Indian guy yesterday. He wanted me to switch on my computer as I may have a virus in it from downloading info from Windows. I told him it hadn’t been connected for over a year and we were using laptops and we hadn’t downloaded anything from Windows, but he was quite persistant – and so was I! I told him I wasn’t switching it on and then my eldest daughter said it was a scam and to hang up. So I did. If he phones me again he will get a mouthful. Please tell your friends to be aware of this scam.
Just tell these idiots that they have the wrong number because you don’t own a computer. They will leave you alone.
i have also got a similar phone call in Denmark, they have asked me to visit the website
http://microsoftcorporation.yolasite.com/
and telephone number +45 36967993
and they make me download Advanced Windows Care Personal v2, and provided me with the user Name and ticket number to login at https://www.fastsupport.com/
Dear all,
got a call from the UK claiming beeing from Microsoft and my Computer would send permanently error messages…
The guy had and Indian accent and asked me to go to my PC…. I told him that I do not have time and asked him how he got my name, IP address and how he knows that it is my PC. Then I told him to call again next day. He did not call again. The number the call came from was 00442032869062
I received this phone call many months ago. It was obviously some call from India. The guy told me that my computer was in serious trouble and was infected. I just said sarcastically, “Oh really … How do you know that?” In my head I was thinking that no one should know anything about anyone’s computer unless they hacked into it. The guy kept talking and I just hang up.
Co. with Indian employee called and said they are from “www.happysoftware.com”. The web site is not them. Called twice. They said they know my computer is infected. I said which computer, I have 3. They said “XP”. I said I do not have XP. They said “ah, Vista?” I said you are a scam and hung up. Researched and found scam.
Get help with your stuff, don’t accept help from strangers!
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You’ve made some decent points there. I checked on the net to find out more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this site.
I just received a call like this at work in the US, 7 times in a row – when I would hang up telling them I’m not interested they would call back immediately asking why I hung up on them! They were clearly calling from a call center in India, and I had to speak to a “supervisor” because I could not understand the guy who originally called.
OMG I have just fallen for this….What do i do now???? Like an idiot, I downloaded the program he told me too, gave him the pc activation code etc, then told me it was going to cost me £100.00..I put the phone down and switched my computer off. Would my Mc Fee have picked this up?? I FEEL LIKE A RIGHT IDIOT!!!
I just received the same call from 618 462-7824
“I’m calling for Microsoft. We’ve had a report from your internet service provider of serious virus problems from your computer.” Dire forecasts are made that if the problem is not solved, the computer will become unusable.
I said who are you?
He said we are calling from UK.
I said I will have to investigate and would call him back.
Anyhow I did NOT go to my computer.
a couple months ago I got the same call….stupid me let them in to my laptop….the guy said he’d fix the problem for $800.00…..told him I couldn’t afford it…..how about $600.00? No…..the guy then said….” OH…you have the money you just don’t want to spend it!”
Got another call last night….I yelled at the woman….”You are full of s- – -! ” She hung up on me…..
oh I hope these people get stopped….
Hey guys. I get these calls all the time. I know where your coming from. They are really annoying low lives and ultimately will pay the price, but there’s no need to be racist and imitate the Indian accent or talk about camels which actually don’t even live in India. There are low people in all forms of race and societies but picking on the race and society they come from isn’t right. My best friend is Indian and he’s a real stand up guy. I think that isn’t fair and is racist and judgemental.
Had these guys call me twice in a week. First time I just hung-up, but this morning I thought I’d listen to what they have to say and wind them up a bit. They talked me through opening up windows event viewer and all those scary errors they could fix. I asked them a few questions casually – They admitted they don’t work for microsoft. I asked them why the MS updates and patches I install regularly aren’t enough, they couldn’t answer with any technical knowledge. I asked them why they were offering this service for free “oh but there will be a charge sir if you decide to take our help!”. I asked them what PC I was running, my ip address, it’s O/S, etc, etc. They couldn’t tell me ha ha!
When I told them I work in the IT industry and know my way around a computer (and that I run Ubuntu most of the time) they suddenly weren’t so keen to ‘help’ me.
Good for a laugh this morning but feel for those who get lured into this scam.
I just had a call from Indian Steve, said lots of infections and viruses worms and all that stuff on my pc, I asked which pc he said the one that you use, I let him ramble for a bit and gave him a few sentences from a book without giving him any chance to but in , he then said he was a hardcore malware specialist …..lol I then asked him what was the biggest worm he had ever removed … he couldn’t answer and gave up when I told him I didn’t do pc’s……….
I do look forward to these calls as I find them hilarious but also understand these people are only trying to make a living as well from gullible people only too eager to give over there hard earned money ….
Just got this call in Australia at about 2pm, it was an indian man obviously.
I picked up the phone and nothing happened so obviously knew it was a scammer straight away, I held on for a bit and then the indian dude said hello mamn, do you have a windows computer.
I just said no and then he said do you have a computer, I said no. Basically you just have to convince them you don’t have one. I hung up after the 3rd time he asked but it would be interesting to keep on talking.
ANYONE WHO GETS THIS TYPE OF PHONE CALL NEVER EVER FALL FOR ANYTHING THEY SAY AS MUCH AS IT SOUNDS TRUE. THEY CANT PROVE THEY ARE REAL ‘MICROSOFT’ PEOPLE UNLESS YOU GO TO THE STORE.
Sounds so dodgy as soon as they speak so anyone would be able to pick that up.
Just had the same call, was sus to start with, then asked which pc? when the report was from? so i could work out which pc, if you have such info? ” the one you are using now” oh ok so its a LINUX/UBUNTO non windows OS problem too is it? “I’ll get out technical expert to explain” phone goes quiet with background chatter “oh no its your window 7 one” oh ok, get the expert to tell me why windows has such a problem, phone goes quiet, background chatter then – a clear “F*** YOU! ” line goes dead. I am fuming! who thinks they can cold call me then deal me that! I hope that a plague sweeps whichever God forsaken dogs a**e of the world this scamming scum call up from!
I have the same phone call. People claim they are from BlueSystem care http://www.bluesystemcare.com/ and were trying to convince me to connect to http://www.ammyy.com to get access to my computer. They introduced themself as Handy Smith (initial call) and the Jim Swatson (expert). The BlueSystem did not answer any calls. The site is registered in Kolkata.
I asked them what computer I had. it really scared them and they hung up on me. dont let them fool you. Usually after you say hello there is a delay. Straight away you can tell if its a scam.
After yet another call of this kind, I was concerned to find that the caller somehow could remain on the line after I had taken the normal action to close the call. The only way to shut him up was to disconnect the telephone line from its socket. This is less than amusing.
“Michael” called me today with this scam. I went along with it for awhile to see what he was up to, but the connection was so bad I could hardly hear him, his Asian accent so strong I could barely understand him. Losers, I tell ya, Losers!
my family had this call. we are in switzerland. This prick is indian ( ask him to say thirty and he’ll say dirty) . I told him that my father works in MIcrosoft. He started to panic and tried to convince me that he can really help me out.
A friend got a call. He runs to his wife with the phone in hand. In a panic, he states their PC has a virus… She looks at him, shakes her head… “We don’t have a computer dear, just hang up the phone now.” TRUE story I swear!!
I got the same call a few minutes ago and I cussed him out.
I had that call like 5
One of these guys called me the other day, the same guy has been calling us for a while now. So I imitated his Indian accent and started harassing him. I was trying to explain to him how I ordered a turbo camel from him and didn’t receive the product from his company and he didn’t seem to comprehend. Then I went on to act confused and started yelling at him in my horrible fake accent asking him “WHY YOU PUT VIRUS ON COMPUTER??” and he quickly said nonono your computer has send me an error message, then I asked what company he was from, he claimed Microsoft, then I told him I had a Macintosh and he got angry and hung up.
Do not lead them on thinking you are wasting their money and time. These scamsters are mainly just telephone centre operators who bill their central office or maybe even Microsoft for ‘support time’ given. The central office doesn’t check the actual call, and pays them. The best you can do is hang up on them.
I got this call—-wow, and I haung up on him, but I keep getting calls from this strange number.
just got this call in the us. the guy was a dumbass and i just hung up the phone. im young but i’ve built a computer and i know my way around them and knew it was a scam almost immediately
Yes, had the call again yesterday. Did the needfull & strung him (back to man) along for quite some considerable time before telling him I had traced his number. Much to my disgust I don’t think he even understood what I had said so with that I had to use the F word, loudly & several times over before he hung up.
Next time, if there is one, I shall continue to string them along, if I have time that is.
As I said in my previous post, it’s the ederly & vulnerable people who shall suffer, not the likes of us on here who are computer literate.
I wish there was something we could do to catch these people. It’s dreadful what they’re getting away with, not to mention REALLY ANNOYING!
Let’s mess them about as much as they mess us about I say.
I received a call on 5-9-12. I am in California (USA) Man with strong Asian accent said he was from Misrosoft technical support and they received a report saying my computer was seriously infected and could/would affect my hard drive. He said he would help walk me through the process to fix it but I needed to be at my computer. I suspected it was a scam but wasn’t sure. Luckily I was in the middle of something and could not do what this guy wanted me to do with my computer. My husband came in and I explained. e believed it was a scam and it certainly appears to be.
thankyou all for saving me. I did ask the guy to call back tomorrow but was going to ask him for call back
# and email to verify before giving him anything first. Guess it would not have mattered, since it’s a SCAM~!!!
I fell for it at work. Didn’t give them cc # or download anything but did give them access. Computer is now frozen and in the shop. Weird thing though, the website, http://www.supportmywindows.com has a phone # and when I called it I got the same place that the guy works at. I thought that scams wouldn’t leave that kind of traceable info, but I guesd they do. SICK!!!
So i get a call in the morning just before going to shower and i was off college because i was so ill. It was a fresh Indian guy claiming to be from microsoft and his name was mark :\ which clearly is no where near an Indian name. He started saying that my PC is downloading malicious files from the internet and that he can help me fix it. I got shit scared :\ and put the phone down saying that my house is on fire.
I’m getting a bit sick ot the Indian woman who has now phoned me at least 4 times in the last week. “Please maaam, can you switch on your computer?” Yeah right. I had a few at the end of last year but that was an Indian man. Anyway, I usually say “yes, I’ll just go and do that now”. Then go back to peeling my spuds or whatever.
Next time I’m telling them I’ve traced the call using my other phone before I tell then (again) where to go forth & mullitiply. Maybe they’ll get the message.
The number which comes up is 01234 567 890 which doesn’t exist. It’s the elderly, vulnerable people I feel for. There must be lots of them out there getting caught out.
Just got the scam in Norway. Pretty scary since i`m home alone and all..
I received the very same call about 10 minutes ago. He began to say I was i liar because i could not see a code that appeared in the command box. I knew it was a scam, but hey i wanted to crack this guy. I played a long with his banter, got bored and told him that i am infact a computer program engineer, I know it is a scam and his call was being traced by internet scamming services. i put the the phone down… 2 minutes later he rang me again with broken english abuse, it was hilarious. i told him that swearing is a total lack of vocabulary… again i put the phone down… phone rings again… this time I unleashed my total lack of vocabulary… I won
Don’t be fooled by anyone that wants to access your computer remotely. just put the phone down straight away, unless you want a bit of fun
My dad recived the phone call and as a result of them I’m now banned form his laptop because they pinned it on me!
Evan though my dad knows it’s a scam!
My wife was up early this morning. The phone rings, she picks it up and, after about a minute of conversation, hands the call to me. I’m still in my pre-coffee stupor and all I get from this guy is “Microsoft” and “virus contamination” and something about error reports coming from my computer (never happened – I always pick “don’t send” – I’m not on the Microsoft payroll). This guy is laughable; he all but demands that I go to my p.c. and run a program from the website he gave me. Right. I asked him for a phone number or a secure website I could visit to verify his claims, but he ignored me, keeping up with the instructions for running his program. I said, Thanks very much, thank you, have a nice day, don’t let the door hit you in the *ss on the way out’. Really. I might have been born at night, but I wasn’t born LAST night. Believe me, Microsoft will NEVER call you, not even to let you know about a new e-mail tracking software they’re launching….
I want share one thing to people
I read many comments on this page, but I haven’t read all because I am running out of time.
I am from India and unfortunately I work for a company who provide people tech support after showing event viewer and all that stuff.
It all started in January, before earlier i was self employed and somewhere in of Dec I was like unemployed because my work wasn’t going well.
so I started looking for a job and in jan I was selected for A company and that company provides technical support to US customers.
After working few days with company I many things comes to my knowledge:-
1) how my company is working.
2)also now a days there are lots of so called tech companies.
3)why you people get phone calls even if you have registered yourself for do not call/ do not disturb service.
4) not all companies providing tech support are scam companies but they use unethical way to sell their tech support plans.
so when I was aware of these facts i started searching internet for more details in my free time. And i found that there lots of people who don’t know much about people.
1 thing i must share that , i work as solution engineer at that company and I have met 90 years old people using computer its really amazing and I have no words to describe it.
ok so now I am back to my topic, so i have found that while working in that company and also after searching the internet that these greedy scamers area ctually robbing money from innocent people.
There are lots which I want to share but It won’t be possible for me to share sall the things over here
and also I have posted comments on diff. websites but i will not paste their links here(because I have seen this on some websites if i share any link, they delete my post and I don’t want that)
So basically this tech scam is a hot trend in India and also their are some people from your country are involved, why I know this because there is a American guy( or may more than one )
who is providing buiss. to my company and how he is doing it, I only have the basic idea which is base on my research on the internet and after meeting the people who have spent 4-5 years or more in call center industry, I won’t b able to explain here how my company is getting buiss from that american guy.
So the reason/aim of my posting in to several forums is that , I want to create awareness against these greedy people who rob innocent people who don’t know much about computers.
and also I want to start a service in which I want to help these people so that at least they can get a little protection from scamers,
very soon I will leave my job because i don’t like working there and I don’t wanna cheat people but I am not able to leave my job at this moment of time due to some complications.
and I have decided that very soon I will leave the job and I will start a service to help the people who don’t know much about computers.
Mark
2nd tim ethese people rang me the 1st time i said wrong number – then they said it was Microsoft errors that I had sent – fourtunatly there window = R button thing did not link – they said go to Int explorer I looked at the you tube one scam – deleted all cookies with a special program – Virus check and Disk clean up – I check all error messages just in case – I found one Kernal I deleted – I dont ever keep bank details on my PC or even buy online – Cos of these kinds of scum – Microsoft needs to find these evil assfaces and have them imprisoned like forever – To think this stupid wanna be Indian woman if she even is – thinks people cant clear errors and fix problems themselves – strewth I hope they get electrocuted or something worse
I received a phone call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft on 4/28/12. He said my computer was sending viruses to Microsoft. He had me go in to computer/manage/event viewer and look at the crypt32 errors. He said these were all from a virus and I needed to give him remote access to my computer to remove the virus. I did not let him do this.
Anyone that does not have automatic updates turned on in Windows will get Crypt32 errors. Most people would not know that so I am guessing quite a few people would allow someone calling like this to get access to their computers. They could do this by downloading a script, such as Go to Webinar does. If the owner of the computer clicks ok to remote access the scammer can do pretty much anything he wants. They can search the computer for information or even use it to send spam emails from.
I’ve been getting calls from these idiots almost weekly for several months. I was on to them a long time back and have told them so but the calls persist. I now tell them that I don’t have a computer and “click” at the other end is very quick! My latest calls have been coming early in the morning, 6:50 a.m. yesterday and 8:30 this morning. Caller ID is Washington State, 206-456-0661. Wish I had a magic button to push that would fry their phones!
By chance at home with a nasty cold. Same routine – call from an Indian woman today [1 May 2012] claiming to be from “Windows Company” or “Windows Service Centre”. I didn’t even start the routine she asked me to run on the Laptop, although I was unaware of the scam I could smell a rat and was not about to start going onto unknown sites at her direction.
I asked for the company location and telephone number to call her back and was told Cardinal Place, 80 Victoria St London – which appears to me an MS office. I was given a phone number 203 5193 389 which I haven’t called back – but I don’t know anyone in London who does not quote the “0” before the “203” on their number.
I have had yet another of these calls this morning, while I was in the bath! I was told by an Indian sounding lady that there were serious problems with my computer, and she would talk me through how to fix things. I’d had several of these before, so I strung her along, letting her believe I was online, and pretending that I was pressing this button and that. When she asked what I could see on the screen at various times, I asked HER what I should see? She’d then tell me there was this box or that to click on, and after about 10 minutes she was going to put me through to Microsoft support, but first asked me what the screen was saying? I’d had enough by that time, and needed to get out of the bath, so I said that’s funny – it says put the phone down, this is a scam! The phone did go down, pretty quickly! Unfortunately for this lady, I didn’t come up the river on a bicycle!
I just got a call from somebody saying that my computer have a problem with woindows and it needs to be repair…
Luckily, I am not that silly, I just follow the game until he asked for money to pay for a plan. He said his name was Sam and his phone was 213-221-3528 and also said he was from LA California. His accent sounds like somebody from India and seems he had a lot of knowledge about computer. He told me if I would not add this plan he wants me to buy, my computer will go blank. He got upset and raise his voice when I told, I did not care much about, if that would happen, I would buy a brand new one, LOL! It was here in San Diego California.
I can’t wait for them to call me back my phone battery died as soon as I picked up. I’m going to f*ck with them hopefully they call while I’m drinking!
Hi, (Norway 27-04-2012)
My wife received to one of these calls, and she told them that they should call back after 5 pm today because I would be home then. She told them also that I was a system administrator and that it was me who takes care of our pc’s. I wonder…. will I even get the call after all that information 😀
Will keep you posted 🙂
I just got this call –
Male with chinese or indian accent, telling me that my computer has been downloading files and is infected, and that he works for Windows service center and he wanted to fix my computer…I did not believe him and asked for his name and phone number, he told me Adam GUILD at 187 7753 9167. I went on line, this phone number is listed with Micro PC Care company located in South Carolina and the phone number on their site is strangely listed in the same order as he had given me.
I too received a call with 500 virus on my computer, after starting my computer,they excessed my computer without my permmision, and then wanted to sell me a anti-virus package, I am wondering if they hacked any of my information.
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WARNING ABOUT VODAPHONE !!!
Just want to warn all you good people about a phone porting scam that has been operating in Australia (and probably other parts of the world) that impacted me recently. Last November some scammers (probably from Nigeria, Phillipines or damn India) managed to get hold of details of my on-line account and all they needed was my VODAPHONE MOBILE SECURITY PASSWORD. Vodaphone actually RELEASED THE PASSWORD to them and then they used it to empty a very large sum of money out of my account. How did they get my account details? I have no clue because I am absolutely scrupulously fastidious about NOT giving my details to anyone, I hold a post office box address so nothing comes to my home and I shred every piece of paper with any personal details on it. The only thing is that (somehow) spyware was downloaded on my laptop. In any case, they could have done NOTHING if it was not for the fact that VODAPHONE RELEASED MY PASSWORD !!!! NEVER, EVER use a VODAPHONE account as they have no respect for your privacy. The staff at VODAPHONE were rude, offensive and useless. I put the matter into the hands of the Mobile Ombudsmen and will pursue the matter. The warning signs for this scam are:
* All of a sudden you lose your mobile connection (for no apparent reason). This signals that someone has actually taken your mobile number and “”ported” it to another location;
* When this happens, immediately phone your mobile phone provider and ask them to cancel your number immediately;
* Immediately notify your bank(s) and ask them to freeze all your accounts until further notice (set up a complicated system of passwords)
* Use a dedicated EMAIL ADDRESS just for your banking. Do not use that email address for anything else.
VODAPHONE cannot be relied on. Don’t use them. I blame them for releasing my number DESPITE having it on their record that someone TRIED FOUR TIMES to attain my password !!!!!! Unbelievable. I also reported the whole thing to the police who are aware of this issue.
We have been getting a number of these bogus calls. Always a person with an Indian accent. Sometimes they say they are from Microsoft and other times they say they are from some dodgy company called “GIS” (Global Internet Securities). I never give my details over the phone but (just for spite) let them dangle on the line for ages and ages whilst I pretend to go into my computer (which I don’t, of course). In this way, I have the pleasure in knowing that the phone call from these disgusting, predatory thieves is costing them a FORTUNE!!! Once I’ve let them hang on for a considerable time (up to around 30 minutes sometimes, if I have nothing better to do), I let them know what I think of them! These criminals will stop at nothing to get download spyware onto your computer and hack into it to locate your banking passwords etc. My advice to everyone is to let them hang on and on and on and make them PAY DEARLY for the phone call and attempt to scam you.
Get this call all the time, sometimes its a man sometimes its a woman, Indian accents. same story about my windows computer yada yada yada. caller ID always says “unknown caller” wish there was a way to get them to quit calling. i live in Alaska. they called at 10 PM last night which did not make me very happy.
Phone call today from an Indian sounding creep who said that my computer was badly infected and he could fix at a price which meant that he needed my credit card info.
I asked him if he was from Microsoft to which he ended the call.
Telephone number: 00333600512. For a matter of info, I called the number which was not recognised.
Had lots of these calls. Let them talk me through all the process, (left click this, right click that, press windows button and R together etc………) Did as he asked (NOT)
then screamed down the phone that all had gone blank, and cried as I was panicking I had lost all my photos, work etc. He soon put the phone down. Oh and I don’t have windows. Loved wasting their time :o)))))))
I got a call just now
The guy said he is calling from Microsoft and there are viruses on my machine
The phone number he called me says 20 460 2300
I told him not to worry I will ask the tech guy in the company I worked to look in to that ( That is me)
when i redial the number it does not go thro
I dialed *69 to see who callled it says it could not find the number who dialed
Be careful
Also received a call twice from an indian man saying our computer has been sending reports to windows and our computer could crash at any moment. We sais we needed to check with our IT Guy and we asked for a phone number, which he could not provide, we then asked for an email and he said to give him ours…. we hung up.
Its just started in Spain,had a call today telling me i had a virus.I told him i work for microsoft and i helped write windows.he hung up.
I am from New Mexico and my mother in law got this phone call at 9:30 pm here. Never heard of this scam until tonight. A night Indian lady named Nancy was talking to me. Seems that they try to get people to believe their bullcrap by repeating a windows # that is on every windows operation system and not the windows ID #. The number is this: 888DCA60-fc0a-11cf-8f0f-00c04fd7d062. What a f’n joke this is. Their targets are pretty much retarded people and elderly that really have no clue in a sense.
Just got this call around 16 pm in Norway. I was supposed to have a microsoft problem and needed an update. It was a man with a heavy nigerian accent and claimed he rang from” US California sir”.
I’ve been called several times. Generally someone with an Indian accent so strong that our respective accents are almost mutually unintelligible.
Since my PC runs linux, its obvious they’re lying, and fun to try to follow their instructions. Somehow the malware installation just doesn’t work, and the scammer gets more and more frustrated. (I don’t have a start button!)
And the longer I lead him on, the more time he’s wasting that he could otherwise be using to rob someone.
Don’t they get abusive when you let them know they’ve been wasting their time!
Just got this call. Guy was getting angry when I refused to go to PC. He asked why not. I hung up- The number was withheld and guy sounded Indian. lots of background noise as if from a call centre. Claimed to be from Microsoft support, and I had a serious fault with my computer.
My mother got the call a few days ago. It was interesting, she couldn’t find the right start menu, or event viewer, had him rather frustrated – then explained “my son runs Linux Mint on this computer, how do I find windows?”. End of conversation, bugger hung up.
Now the scam is also performed in Denmark. Just got a call from “Microsoft” but were clever enough not to turn on my computer so they hung up.
Just recieved one, indian man telling me about a virus going round and he asked me to look for the run search bar, then i was passed on to his ‘technician’ who told me what to put into the search, at this point i hung up. knew something was dodgy.
Just got the call — same M.O. as others who posted. Claimed there wuz a virus. Said he wuz Microsoft. And I just hung up.
The tip off for me was when he said my computer wuz reporting errors. I have my “Error Reporting” turned OFF. I also never registered my computer.
Furthermore, I have a firewall on “Remote Access.” But the REAL tip-off wuz this: Microsoft is NEVER that helpful to actually reach out to their customers.
I’ve received this call several times. After getting angry several times and hanging up on them several times, I have made it my mission to have them hang up on me. I ask them how the weather is in Seattle, if they know my cousin, who works for Microsoft, etc. Basically, I keep interrupting their speech with friendly, but irrelevant questions and after a few minutes they hang up. Very satisfying.
Just had same call saying was on behalf of xp my pc has a problem they like to help me.could hardly hear him with foreign accent and thought it sounded dodgy so put phone down.glad i did reading this,mind u id never give my details out over phone.
Just had a conversation with one of these guys a minute ago… unfortunately number was witheld, so I can’t follow it up. Got to speak to “his supervisor” (whose English was better) as I was obviously asking too many questions. Amazingly the guy got more and more angry with me because I wouldn’t just do what he said! I kept asking where he got the telephone number from and he told me it was when I filled in the registration form for my Windows licence…. I’m a computer professional and the laptop I was using was supplied by work with a generic licence.. no connection to me at all, but when I do buy licences I never put my telephone number in anyway. For a laugh I strung him along for five minutes, but he became so angry and insistant I just ended the call. I’m sure I’ll get to talk to him again though 🙂
Got a call today from ‘Microsoft’, thick indian accent. Had my name, and close to my IP address (but guessed wrong). Name was Mike Parker … haha. I asked to call him back, his number did not match the caller ID. Hung up.
BEWARE – they are after credit card info and claim to be working for microsoft and based in Basingstoke – they are a call centre based in new delhi
google the company and see for yourself
lets stamp this nonsense out
Got a call today from a ‘private caller’ but the tell tale pause was there when I picked up the call so I knew it was a telemarketer or something similar. Was a man with an Indian sounding accent – couldn’t make out the name of the company he said he was with but that for several weeks my computer has been informing them… and that’s where I shut him down. Told him I knew that this was a fraudulent call, and that if he called here again I would be contacting the police. He sounded confused but said okay thanks and hung up.
I’m almost positive this was the same people who called me a few days ago asking all kinds of mortgage questions.
I have had this call 3 times. The first time they rang was a week after had just bought a new pc with Norton anti virus installed so I knew instantly he was lying and I ended up shouting down the phone that he was lying and I would call the Police if he rang again. Since then 2 women have tried to pursuade my wife, but after the first call she heard me dealt with, she knows what to do!
Beware, they are able to correlate your windows registration number back to your telephone number. I am guessing windows XP will leak the number when browsing in Internet Explorer? Maybe because my telephone and internet are both through telus?
i also got that call today
I just had this call, and like a fool got as far as the download before my brain engaged!!!
Now I have to scan my computer and everything to check these scum are not collecting data.
I must be stupid for not thinking straight to start with, and then going along with the sweet talk. It was the insistence that he was Microsoft that lulled me, only as I “woke up” did I click.
just got that phone call today, indian man saying i had 57 bugs needed fix!!!! when i sayed iam not interested he asked me ” DO YOU NOT LOVE YOUR COMPUTER” BRILLIANT……
Just got two call in two days. The first time my wife just hung up on them. The second time they called I played along to see who they were. He directed me to the Event Viewer just like it says above. The funny part was that he said his name was Bill in the beginning of the call but later when I asked him again what his name was he said James. Eventually I told him that I didn’t believe that he was telling me the truth and that’s when he hung up.
I also received a call (March 29th 2012) from a man who had a thick Indian accent. There was a lot of background noise. Since I have a new phone number, I knew that there was not a computer that had my number registered to it.
He attempted to convince me that my computer was showing THEM error messages, but I kept asking him how he got my number.
After almost 5 minutes, he finally disconnected the call.
I did not give him any information.
SOLUTION FOR TECH
claiming to be based in Basingstoke ( but actually are in New Delhi) are currently operating this scam
beware – they will hassle you and abuse you
check google for info on them
and to amuse yourself look at some of the reviews posted about the company
I just got a call (march 28th 2012) from a man who also had a thick Indian accent. I guess this is going on all over the place, I am from western Canada. Basically he said he represented microsoft and wanted to report that my computer recently installed ‘malicious malware’ (which I could barely understand in his broken english. I knew this was a scam right away and toyed with him for about 5 minutes. It was funny seeing him get frustrated as he tried to explain to me where the windows key was! He then asked me to run event viewer to see if I had any errors on my computer. A bunch of stuff came up (as I knew it would) he then said I had viruses and offered to help me. He then wanted me to add a ‘sensor’ so he could gather ‘information on my area’ for administrative purposes. I then told him, you are not getting my IP adress, credit cards numbers, or remote acess and began to laugh at him loudly after telling to f off. then he asked me how old I was and I hung up. It is a scam (they ask you to look at your event log) then I would imagine he would want me to install the ‘sensor’ from a website and steal information etc.
I have had many calls over the past few weeks but today was the first one that I was in to answer This Indian man with an american twang in his accent claiming to be from microsoft said my computer was sending error messages and my computer may not be showing them to me.I sussed something suspicious right away I told him that there was nothing wrong with my computer he said that there was regular error messages being sent to microsoft. When I asked how he could gain access to my computer as it is not attached to a server he said it didnt need to be it was microsoft messages , he continued to ask me to switch on my computer and when I said I couldnt because I didnt have it he said ‘what you cant switch on a computer’ I said no because my husband had it a work he asked when he would be back with the laptop when I said I didnt know I asked him how he would be able to gain access and that the call was a scam he said it was a legitimate company and they deal with Scotland England Ireland and Canada ???? I then said well If you are legitimate you will have all my details and you have my number which is exdirectory so what is my name he went away for a few mins and came back and said Ms Kerry I laughed and said NOOO you at at it you con merchant at that he hung up. Roll on the next call Im ready
Got a phone call this morning saying my computer was receiving warning message so i just told him to fuck off lol then he put the phone .
Just had a call from Indian chap claiming to be from Windows Service and that my PC was reporting problems. Told him that I have worked in IT for 23 years and never heard such crap and hung up. He then rung back a further 3 times. Eventually I told him if he rings again I will report to my local authorities and he said go on then and I will keep ringing back. Clearly rattled him enough to admit they are a scam.
Someone rang up and said our computer was infected.
Phone Number : 02081444775
Name : James Wilson
Be Warned That One IS A Scam
Also had this happen just now, Indian called claiming many error reports and wanted me to look atevent viewer and then press CTRL and R, but hung up quickly after questioning.
* thick Indian accent – If you could please correct in first line before posting. Thx!
I received a call from 222.555.7777. A man with a think Indian accent introduced himself from Microsoft as doing maintenance to make sure my computer didn’t have a virus that would be undetected. I told him, I use a virus protection program and that this phone call was very weird to be receiving. I wanted to see where it would go, so I frustrated the first guy by letting him take me to the start menu then my C drive, but then pretending I didnt understand further then that. He then handed the phone to a 2nd very aggressive man with an even thicker Indian accent who then brazenly asked me my age. I said why do you need to know my age? I then asked him to explain to me the purpose of the phone call. He said, no need to worry, we are making this call to thousands of people as routine maintenance. I really wanted to beat them at their own game. So I said, while I have you on the phone I’m going to google this information about Microsoft offering this service. He got very quiet while I did my research. I let him know, Yup! It says here that this is a scam and I am going to report you!!! That was the end of that call. I felt so violated. These low life’s need to be stopped. How do they sleep at night?
Had 3 calls now, best one today when he told me i had problems with my computer then went on to ask me if i had actually got a computer , driving me mad would like to get my hands round their necks, having fun winding them up though.
Ive received this call 3 times in the past 3 weeks or so and i live in Australia! The first time, the connection was extremely bad and i spent 15 minutes trying to decipher his first sentence. He did get very frustrated 🙂
Just today i got the last call and the sound quality was extremely clear.The quality of call has improved progressively and i think this will lead more people to be scammed!
It has, been all 3 times an indian man claiming to be from microsoft and that my computer has been downloading viruses.
I’ve got to the point now every time I get a call from someone with a thick Indian accent , I become as obnoxious as possible. Asking them what exact problems and how they actually know this information at the start of the conversation yields some pretty interesting conversations.
They may be doing a job someone has set out for them, but that’s not to stop you from being rude, they know what they’re doing is wrong, so they should expect some crap in their faces.
I got a call at work from a guy with an Indian accent (who askedd for me by name) telling me that the computer I was working on was infected. He said he was from the Microsoft Registry and they had been monitoring my computer. I asked him which computer was infected and he said the one you’re working on right now. I said you mean this Government issued computer inside of the government building where I work is infected?? How do you know that? He said No…the computer you have at home. I said, I have several computers at home can you tell me which one it is. He said they are all infected. So I told him If this is true, then as soon as I shoot the idiot at Microsoft that told you it was ok to call me at work with this Bull@#&^ I’ll call you back. I then hung up the phone. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY OF YOUR INFORMATION.
on march 19th @10:06am .i got a call from an east indian saying he was from microsoft ;he also told me my PC was 98% infected.which its not as i get it look at regularly and only last week i installed windows 7ultimate,i use microsoft security essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.i have call display and this is the number 1-718-783-8997 i treid calling that number and i got a recording saying the number is out of service,an obvious scam.
We get these calls frequently, but when they learn that we are only on Dial Up, they then hang up. The last call we received was late last week and so I explained the Dial Up thing but offered to do ‘whatever’ once he hung up so that i could Dial Up. I then took all the information of what to do, writing it all down carefully and repeating it back, with many, many mistakes to the ‘gentleman’ on the phone so that I could use up a lot of his time. He promised to call back fifteen minutes later, and as of today, I am still waiting for him to call back!
I got this call saying from microsoft.that my system is going get crashed in 2 hrs.just hang up the phone.they will take u to event viewer and show u some errors and say that they r spyware.i asked them why microsoft is calling me?
Ask them why microsoft are monitering your computer and if they say the government have past on the imformation ask them why the gov are spying on you – those two questions can keep them going for at least ten mins. when they fold tell them that you want to know what other info they have on you and why they keep it – thats another 5 mins – keep asking the question until they have answered it – they can’t
ask them the names of the virus or trogan – if they dont know the name then how can they get rid of it? then ask them how they get past your encription?
keep them on the phone as long as possible, they are paying for the call..
I got a call on March 11, 2012 from a man who had a Indian accent. Like everyone said before, this person didn’t ask for a specific person. He started talking about how I have a computer in risk and that this call is very important.
“THIS CALL IS VERY IMPORTANT. OK? YOUR COMPUTER IS DUE TO CRASH IN A WEEK!”
He even told me my computer will not work in a week (You cannot tell the future DUDE!). It was a funny conversation because I kept on asking what he was saying and wanting me to do on my computer. He sounded very impacient. I told him if he can call tomorrow because it was already midnight, but he wouldn’t want me to hang up. It was obviously a scam.
i had this on monday 12th march 2012, an indian woman claiming to be from microsoft telling me i had a virus on my laptop and thats why my laptop kept sending error reports to microsoft so she wanted me to log on and she would show me where it was so i could remove it, i told her i didnt have a virus and i didnt keep sending error reports but what i didnt tell her was mine is a brand new laptop but she still insisted i had a virus untill i told her i wouldnt turn my laptop on and said byee to her and hung up.
This happened to me a few weeks ago. An Indian accent, very persistant. I almost fell for it until he asked me to go to the remote control site. I said no way would I hand over my computer to a stranger. He was very persuasive ” you are right to be wary! etc,and in the end said he was “tired” of trying to persuade me and put the phone down.
I just got a second call from an Indian named Steve Wilson ???? – He told me the typical story that my PC was loaded with viruses and I would be having problems. I knew right away it was a scam, I asked for his phone # and proceded to give me a NY landline 718-414-6518 (although he had told me he was calling from India). I am having a blast with these people asking them all kinds of questions and playing the dum ass paer before hanging up.
I look forward to unsolicited cold callers – makes my day. If you have caller display on your phone you immediately know if it is a scammer by “UNAVAILABLE” or “INTERNATIONAL”. especially when you dont expect to receive international calls. If you dont want to talk to them hang up. No need to say sorry or make excuses – say what ever you like or nothing at all – but if you want a laugh act stupid and say you have never heard of Microsoft and that your windows have been cleaned by the window cleaner on Monday. They get so annoyed – I had one going for 35 minutes last Saturday. I gave him a mouthful when he told me I hade to go to a website to download software. I knew I upset him him when he phoned back and said very bad things will happen to my computer.
I just received a call from someone named David Webb with a thick Indian accent,He said he worked for Microsoft in California and he could see everything I was downloading on my computer. I asked for his number this is the number he gave me 1-866-820-2156. I called it back and the call would not go through.
Got a call today from an unknown caller. Decided to answer and the speaker said he was a technician from Microsoft and my computer was sending error messages and if it wasn’t fixed, it would crash. I started wishing I hadn’t answered. He told me he could help me get this problem fixed. I told him I didn’t trust the call. Was looking for a way out of the call and told him I had an appointment to go to. He stated again about the computer error and I told him my appointment was at 4:30 and it was now 4:05. I had to go. Finally hung up and googled the phone number and found out it was a scam calling.
Sorry, wrong packet, IP was 61.16.148.75…
Just got a similar scam (been getting phone calls for months, finally decided to see what they were about). Wasted a lot of their time letting them play around on a temporary virtual machine while I ran a packet sniffer in the background.
They used the url http://www.support.me
The ‘remote assistance’ came from 61.9.194.49 (India, powered by TATA internet).
If only DoS attacks weren’t illegal – it would be great to bring down this IP…
I get these phone calls at work frequently and after they ask “Can I speak to the person who looks after your computer?” I say “sure” and then I leave them on hold indefinitely. We have 8 lines at work and so I can do this without tying up the phone line. Eventually they hang up.
Got a call from an extremely Indian sounding, man calling himself Brian Mcarthy from Washington saying he was Windows Operating System or something along those lines. The minute he said his name was “Brian”, I thought, ‘Brian, huh? Are all the Indian guys named Brian these days?’
He then proceeded to tell me about a hidden virus/germ in my Windows XP computer while I sat on my bed flipping through a copy of Us magazine. I got bored reading about celebrities and their woes, so I checked the number that came up and it was a 707 area code.
Me, already not believing any of what he was saying, looked up ‘Area code 707’ on Google and Wikipedia. It’s a Californian area code that covers Napa, Sebastopol, Vallejo, Benicia, Fairfield, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Fort Bragg, Crescent City, Eureka, Clearlake, Vacaville, Ukiah, and northwestern California.
I say, “What state are you calling from again?”
He was quiet fo a bit before he said, “Seattle, Washington.”
By this point in time, I’m smirking. I reply, “Really? Then why do you have a Californian area code?”
My dear Indian friend, “Brian”, was quiet before hanging up the phone without another word. Tut-tut – didn’t his mother ever teach him that it’s unpolite to hang up without saying goodbye?
I’ve just been scammed this afternoon. Downloaded a new anti-virus over the weekend and the laptop has been going slower than usual etc so when this call came in from MS OS it all fit. (I know, i’m dumb) but when he logged onto my laptop without my permission I new it wasn’t right. Thankfully I’ve a friend coming to sort it all out and ensure i’m safe. I ended up putting the phone down on ‘Paul’ with an indian accent. I feel a right plonker now:-(
Got one of these calls this evening. Told the gentleman that I must be getting the viruses from all the gay porn I watch on line. He told me to f__off and hung up on me. Too bad i was just warming up!
Nick, is it possible that they now have access to passwords? You should change them all. I would.
I got a call at work, yesterday, from a man with an Indian accent. I knew what was happening from the beginning but, I thought it was funny so I humored him for a few moments. This is exactly what he was trying to do with me.
I like to act like I havent got a clue, so I can waste as much of these scammer’s time as possible.
He knew my name.
And, this morning, I got 2 phone calls at 5am. I didnt answer either, as the area codes were unfamiliar. When I awoke later, around 8am, There was a message from this number. The same Indian man, who had called me at work yesterday, was now calling me on my cell. He told me to call him back.
My wife got a call at 8:40 am today saying that your Windows Operating System is infected. My wife bluntly said that she didn’t notice anything. The woman claimed that it might not be obvious so if perhaps she could log in. My wife knows a hoax when she hears it so she called out her hoax and for fun, called her something unmentionable and hung up. Had it been my in laws, it might not have gone so well.
I get these calls at least once a week. My normal response is to tell them that as I work in the IT department for a government agency (I used to but not anymore), I would be interested to know how they have breached our security to gain access to my PC. They soon hang up 🙂
I have been getting these phone calls, i think it so funny, cause i act real stupid on the phone, and tell them i cant find anything, they get very agrevated, you can tell it in their voice, i kept them on the phone this morning for over a hour and finally managed to open the event viewer, as far as they knew…lol, they finally told me they would have to call me back, lol, i cant wait gonna have me some more fun with these tards, and btw it is some kind of middle eastern accent
Got a call this morning 08.45, had been having serious problems with laptop, I allowed the remote service but got suspicious when I noticed the change on user accounts. I did not give any bank details only name and email address. I feel like an idiot for not noticing sooner. What risk is there to me? Off to PC world this afternoon obviously!!
Still going on. My mom got one of these today in Florida. Fortunately, she knows to call me first. 🙂
In UK.
Been having these calls for awhile.
I now get to the stage after a girl says
*Hi my name is Lisa” I reply thats nice and put the phone down
Same story as all of you, cold call from 02538 020308, Indian guy called “Greg” in Manchester, Microsoft Gold Partner apparently. Could not stop talking, asked questions like “Do you use a laptop or a computer?”, stumped him for 2 minutes by saying “both”, he could not even understand that!!!
I know this is a scam, had calls like this for about 6 months, had to hang up on him as he was not going away. The sooner authorities find a way to fish these guys out and deal with them the better. I really feel for those without the knowledge or understanding to know that this is a scam. They must be making some money out of it for it to keep going.
Just to let you know have had the same call today from 02064560661 perhaps would be best if we see the call number come up on our phones to avoid answering. The indian lady said could I turn my computer on – I said no sorry I’m too busy because my mum had already warned me she had these phone calls – they don’t ask for you by name and if you try to ring the number back it says the number you have called has not been recognised – I will be more cautious next time and think I might pretend to turn on my computer to see how long I can waste of their time.
Mother in law had about ten of these calls. I happened to be in one day,
first call: a woman with an Indian accent told me she was from MICROSIFT! and that the the computer was reporting errors I told her I was using windows 3.1! she told me that yes this was the system reporting errors! BYE!
second call an hour later! : from ‘Megabytes’ this time, same thing about errors told them I was running a Linux distro! Oh she says! NSS!
Third Call!!!!! : Hi your computer is…. etc ok ok then what do you want me to do? I replied
I kept them on the line with a load of yeahs and nos and whatnot, then she said your just playing with me arnt you! I replied yeah that way you arn’t scamming somebody who doesn’t know better!
This morning, Feb. 18, 2012, I received a call from an Indian speaking person, stating that he was from a company connected to Microsoft. He told me that my computer has been sending out error msgs, and my computer was corrupted. I told him that I didn’t have time to sit at my computer right then. He insisted that he had to help me right away. It ended up my asking if he understood English. I then asked him for a phone number that I could call him back at. When he refused, I told him that I didn’t believe who he was. He then said if I didn’t want help, he would say goodbye. Goodbye. I then googled microsoft and found this site.
Just got a call from an Indian accent caller who claimed that he’s from microsoft warning me that my computer has downloaded a lot of viruses without my knowledge and that his technical team will assist me in cleaning out the virus over the phone.
I didn’t even wanna give him a chance to talk. I told him to stop the bullshit because I am very sure that he’s part of some scam.
Be very careful, folks. Microsoft will NEVER call on their users in this manner. After I hung up on him, he tried calling several more times. What assholes these scammers are!
My computer got infected by a virus in the form of an anti-virus software that downloaded automatically.
It was called “2012 Smart Protection” or something
Then on the next day I receive a call from “microsoft”
The guy’s name: Brian from # 299 657 9291
They talk nicely, but my IT professional came to my house as I was about to enable internet and he made me hang uo. GOOD
Received several phone calls this weekend from these goons from Fremont CA and Seattle WA. they continually hound me about getting into my computer. When I asked to speak to an English speaking person they just handed to phone to another Indian. When I tell them can not have access to my computer they hang up. Can’t anyone do anything about this? They are calling my work phone several times a day and getting in the way of me completing my work.
Received a call from a person with a middle east accent claiming he was from Microsoft and saying that my computer was sending out error messages and that he could fix it. It was a private name, private number on caller ID. I advised him I do not handle things like this on line from people I can’t identify. He claimed he could prove it. I told him I had antivirus software and that I didn’t have my computer sending out error messages and I hung up on him. Obviously a scam.
I have received 3 calls from this scam this week! They hang up after I tell them I have an Apple. Why do they keep calling back?
So stupide stupide I am! I opened my computer for the scammer! Installed a computer performance program (a later version of a program I have had before, maybe IOToolbox). Showed how many thousand of registry problems I have). Asked for 350 dollars for a repair program with lifelong validity but I refused. No credit card number given. Realised afterwords the stupidity. Disconnected immediately the cable formatted the c: and reinstalled windows Xp. Do you think I am saved from future problems?
received a phone call from a male with an East Indian accent claiming to be technical support from Microsoft. The guy says that they called us because they identified us via the genuine Windows product and claims that for the past couple of weeks, the computer is downloading virus’ and there is a problem. Sounds fishy from the beginning, told him the user isn’t home and the guy says he will call back the same time a week from today. Just hang up and don’t waste the time with’em
Got a call 5 mins ago 14:39 8/02/2012. Scammer said I am calling in regards your PC and your internet provider BT blah blah. I responded hi I am not with BT. etc etc then your windows PC is infected? really what version of windows am I using reply: laptop windows 7? what make and model? reply: dell. ding “wrong” its a mac? he hung up.
My Mum just got the call and she’s panicking. The Indian Scammer knew her laptop serial number?! How come? Please Help!
I haven’t seen anyone mention in their posts as to whether you were asked for by name. These people know my name and address!
Got one today from an indian call center (I’m with BT). told me my OS was corrupted (usual BS). tried to get me to run remote access, I got angry and told him he was a scammer and to get off of my line, he told me to “get lost” and hung up. all I can say is that its really fun if you’re internet savvy but if you have e.g. parents who aren’t it can cause the user a lot of trouble.
even I got a call from a UK female today morning
Cool I just had ‘the call’ and I am not even in the UK – played a bit with the guy on the end of the phone. It was obvious from the beginning that it was a scam – called him a liar. tried to see how far he would go to try and convince me. but he was not really persistent . Asked him what he really wanted – he eventually hung up. Hopefully the cost of his phone bill increased a little. maybe next time I will see how long I can draw out the conversation to cost them even more.
I get a call from these people at least once a month. It started off at 2-3 times a week, then weekly. So I’m hoping it will fizzle out eventually. They are very persistent and argumentative.
I’ve started getting lots of these calls. The current batch are saying they are from 24/7 computer support. They give a Western sounding name but there is usually an accent. I try to give them the run-around. I kept telling one guy that I was doing what he asked without even turning my PC on. Then I simply accused him of trying to steal from me. He got very upset when I simply laughed at him; he then swore and told me he could shut down my PC forever. He got even more upset when I laughed harder at him and hung up.
It’s a cold-calling method that’s being used. What’s good for themm is a quick answer – if it’s no then they go on to the next call. Wasting their time is the last thing they want.
We received two calls yesterday afternoon from a 206 area code and the person pretended to be from Microsoft. My wife is computer savvy and hung up the phone. I’d be interested in picking up the phone next time they call and letting them go through their spiel and let them talk and maybe ask a lot of useless questions and frustrate them a little. Questions could include why did MS choose the colors they use in their logo, what technology allows them to receive these messages from my pc… etc…
Next time anyone gets this call.. Please play the role and post the website and domain info that they tell you to go to..
I got the call from Angus ph# 206-456-0661
These guys are part of / or enabling this scam. The scammers in india use CLECs to hide they’re real contact info.
To learn more about International Telcom
Address:
International Telcom ltd.
417 Second Avenue West
Seattle, Washington USA 98119
Phone
Local: 1.206.312.1598
Toll Free:1.866.312.1598
Fax: 1.206.479.0009.
Email us at contact@ITLtd.net
*K7 Users please email K7cs@itltd.net for assistance.
now just do a whois on itltd.net and get more info..
I don’t think that BT’s call centres are secure. I’m very strict about giving my landline number out to any company online or otherwise, even my bank doesn’t have it. I’ve found that if you are not careful then your number finds its way to spammers.
I’ve just moved to BT Infinity and needed to call one of their Indian call centres as they had my contact numbers totally wrong (as in numbers I’d never used) within 12 hours of me registering my home number on my online BT account I get spam calls.
I’ve not had one in 2 years before this point.
I’d heard of these scams so was wary when the caller said he was from Microsoft. An Indian sounding chap who asked for me by name, saying he was from Microsoft and he knew I was sitting in front of my computer. I said you’re goiing to tell me I’ve got a virus. He said no it’s not a virus, but it’s some other bad software that has been downloaded to your computer. He asked me to press one or two buttons – the Microsoft icon next to Cntrl and the letter R. I said I’m not pressing anything until I’ve checked this out. He put me on to his manager who also spoke in such a thick accent I couldn’t understand most of it. He gave me an email address which he painstakingly spelled out: micro.solutionsonline@gmail.com I googled and it came up with nothing. Then he gave me a web address: http://www.solftsolmicroresolve.com – which also didn’t come up in a google search. I said this is a scam again and he assured me it wasn’t. He said he’d wait while I checked out the addresses he’d given me, but in case doing so might play into his hands I said I’ll do it in my own time. I also said my security system tells me if a website is legitimate or not. He said ok check it out in your own time and said he’d call me tomorrow. I’ve yet to decide what I’ll say to them tomorrow if indeed they do ring again…The number on my caller display is 02127773456. I won’t ring it in case…
Just received this call today from someone with an Indian accent. His English was good, but it sounded like they were using Sype because while the response time was good, the harmonic distortion was bad. Same MO as indicated here. I asked them to not call back and hang up. The number the called from was 480-389-1203 which I plan on reporting to the FCC.
I contacted BT and they said that it’s a widespread problen and the solution was to buy Truecall for £99. Was hoping for a cheaper solution then that.
Are these people randomly calling UK households or have they been passed our information from somone at the Mircrosoft Indian centre?
Since I work in the IT field I knew immediately this was a scam. I not so politely told the guy where to go and hung-up. He called back multiple times until I finally answered the phone the next day. He then repeatedly told me he would ‘f*** me’ to which I laughed each time. I am now getting the occassional call from people who are looking to verify the authenticity of these calls – they must be providing my telephone number when someone challenges the validity of the call. Though I am having fun with this, my recommendation when receiving a call like this is to immediately hang-up the phone. If you have any doubts, call a reputable computer repair shop.
This is just after happening to a friend’s parents. They did not supply any details but did allow them control of their laptop.
I have since taken the laptop, run malwarebytes and got zero detections. I also installed new anti-virus and ran a full scan and it came up clean.
Is it safe for them to use it again or should I be looking for something else such as an installed app?
There was an installed app that I removed named something like Microsoft Security Centre but the install date was back in Oct 2010
Sick of these Indian sh!t bags. They ring, they knew name and address. Got one chap to mail me so I can get his ip address.
Today I got more calls Same scripted crap over again makes no difference what you say morons keep the script going. I laced in to this chap today gave him both profanity barrels I’m sick of these phon calls.
I work all day with pc & mac theses guys don’t know the difference between day and night. Waste if time and space. Worse thing is com reg in Ireland can’t do a thing about it not can the service provider. Would like to say it only happened when I moved lines from Vodafone to O2 anyone else similar? Maybe Vodafone sell off details?
I’ve no patience and more for them. I used to play along tell them stories to waste time but no alas no. I called him ever name under the soon and then even a milf for a laugh… He eventually got pissed off and hung up.
We had our second call from these scammers today, after the first call we were almost taken in untill they asked for remote access, when we smelt a rat and rang Norton (who we use) they warned me that they were trying to sell me products that i did not need. They rang back today and said no Norton did not protect me and my computer was in immediate danger, plus any future computer would also be in danger. I said that ok its insured anyway!!!! at this point he was still doing his best to convince me so i just put the phone down.
i just got my call this morning like two days ago and a mont h ago, anyway today i told them sorry i but i dont use windows just linux and the guy hand up hehe two days ago when i ask can i speak with your menager lady idian hand up, anyway its a lot of fun;)
i had a call this morning, my third one in about 2 months. All from a male using what sounds like an Indian accent.The previous 2 had used the name microsoft but this one only said windows computer applications ! my son bluffed the last one telling him we didnt have microsoft but anothr one and the caller argued with him saying we did !! this time i let him speak then said “i have already had 2 calls and he imediately hung up. i checked the number which was 0010361031 and low and behold it didnt exsist. took achance redialling actualy as it could have cost me a fortune !1
2 calls today – first an Indian woman who claimed th be from windows security essentials … I think… couldn’t understand half of her spiel… Told me to turn pc on and she’d tell me what to type. Told her I couldn’t as laptop power supply was broken.. so she said she’d call back in 10 mins… I asked what the company was called … Said it was Dechassist . Told her it would be a week before I could use laptop then put down phone. 1 hour later., similar call from Indian chap saying he was from Microsoft and that my pc was sending continuous error messages to him… Same basic story, but now the company was caled “Globalised Solutions” I said I’d call back when laptop was working in next week or 2. Asked for his number … 12145060044…but 1471 came up with 04259981533.
I didn’t give access or details. And will not speak to them again!
Can’t believe I was initially taken in today. Normally would have hung up but by sheer coincidence call came shortly after I was having a problem with my printer and so began to believe the Indian guy called Alex ! really was from Microsoft. He told me they were receiving lots of error messages from my computer. He gave me loads of spiel and that all these errors meant that we hadn’t been receiving updates from Microsoft and that’s why my computer had crashed plus loads more so called technical information. Couldn’t understand him most of the time and not being technically minded when he showed me how to bring up all these error messages I was horrified, however when he wanted to pass me over to his colleague who would clean up my computer and make it like new again I began to smell a rat and said that I wasn’t prepared to do that without them speaking to my husband who is an IT technician at which point he rang off and said he would ring on Saturday which of course he won’t unfortunately as he would get a brilliant reception!!!
Interested to read that this scam is still around. Interested, too, that the number 04259981533 has already been reported to you. I received a call from that number at 1533 this afternoon (7 Jan 2012), also one from 085219890146 at 1143 this morning. The scammers are keeping pretty busy. Why can’t they be caught?
Got a call again this morning after a two month break,sounded Indian but I doubt it—after I kept the chat going for a while the guy realised that I was taking the mick, then in an English accent I got “f—K off” and he hung up. Surely this 04259981533 number could be traced.
I got a call TO DAY and i have so meany virus’s i must pay 800 RAND TO get my virus’s removed for 2 years and programs with it……!!!!!!!!!
Got a call yesterday from an Indian sounding guy who asked for me by name, I told him sorry she;s at work can I take a message (my standard response to cold callers). He then asked if I was related to Mrs so and so and I said yes I was her neice. He then proceeded to tell me that I have a laptop which I should turn on and listen to his instruction, I told him I don’t have a laptop and he said he knows I do. I told him he didn’t even know who I was or my name so how could he possibly know what I owned, he then hung up. My husband took a call from the same number today and he straight away interrogated the caller. My husband asked him where his company is registered and he said “in a country”, when asked what country his reponse was “a country in a country”. After more baflement from my husband he eventually hung up.
The scammer said he was calling from Systems support care and the phone numberon our caller display is 04259981533
Thanks for confirming this as a scam.
I received an international call yesterday am from a chinese / american sounding woman claiming to work for Windows. When I queried the company she worked for, she made no sense and alarm bells rang when she asked me to switch on my computer. Unable to tell me which computer had the problem, she wanted me to power up all of them. Told her I had no time at present as I was about to go out. She offered to call back later but not surprisingly, didn’t.
We don’t usually answer unidentified calls and are ex directory so where did they get the phone number? I see from other postings that this scam is quite active in UK at present. Well done for the warning info.
I’m fed up with these calls. I’ve had several over the past few weeks. I play them along for a while, then finally tell them they can’t possibly know my Windows computer has a virus because I don’t use Windows .Then I politely let them know I think they are a bunch of criminals and they hastily hang up. Next time I’m not going to be so polite.
Got 2 calls today. Noise in the background made it clear this was a “boiler room” operation.
I had a similar call today but with a twist – I was threatened with legal action if I didn’t do as ‘Microsoft’ asked. The caller was very pushy, trying to talk me down and insisting I turned on my computer.
All these calls show on my phone as International – I have friends and family abroad and feel it is necessary to pick up the phone. Surely the phone companies can trace the origin or help provide a solution
father in law in South Africa just told us that he had this call, they gave him a cape Town phone number.
They totally fooled him but fortunately he did not have his credit card at hand…
I have just been called by these people as well and they laid on the guilt trip about our computer holding up the network due to all the viruses etc and ” think of all the other people on the network………….” and this was the last time they were going to try to help me. I asked what they were selling and was told they get paid for helping others fix computers. He gave me the same unit serial number as I have just read in another comment in here. I managed to hang up on him only to be rung back by Michael, the “manager”, who laid on the hard sell again. I managed to fob him off for an hour and have found this info, waiting for another call and hope he hasn’t got delicate hearing. Thanks!!
Got the scam call from 206-701-0285 – some indian guy
last week i received a phone call from an Indian person saying that i had a virus on my computer so i was doing all the steps . then my son rushed upstairs and looked it up and it said that it was a scam so my son ran down stair s and told me not to do it so i pressed cancel and shouted to them this is a scam and slammed the phone down but today i had another phone call from a Indian called Lisa claiming they were from Microsoft so we put the phone down.
just had call from man with indian accent.from uk number 01212773019
I got this call today…the indian chappie told me what manufacturer of notebook i was using…..i asked him what a virus on my notebook had to do with him….and then when i told him a virus on my notebook was none of his business he hung up on me….
I received three of these calls this morning – having told the first one that I don’t take unsolicited calls, he then rang me back. When the second conversation ended in him getting nowhere I thought that was it. A few minutes later a third call came through from someone else – after speaking with him for a couple of minutes he passed me to his “supervisor”. When this one started to direct me to type things into “Run” I explained patiently that he had to understand I had no way of knowing if they were genuine. Then the line went dead and – so far – no more calls.
I then took the opportunity to investigate online and found this website and many others, confirming to me that I’d almost been conned.
The point I’d like to make is this. I’m not a techie, but I’m also not naive to these scams. However, the fact that they rang me back – twice – had me starting to doubt my own common sense. It seems to me that their approach was aggressively persistent, which is quite worrying.
I got one of these a while back claiming to be Microsoft and another one today claiming to be BT.
Amusingly as a PC Tech by trade I had to laugh myself silly the first time they showed me the Apps folder as ‘being full of a terribad virus.’
Interesting to note they are trying to use IP providers names now.
I received a call from “John” yesterday. Same story: calling from Microsoft because of the number of errors they’d observed on my Windows PC. I asked for his phone number so I could call him back and he gave me 888.851.0953. This number works and has John’s voice on the call tree. I asked for his company name and address and he gave me WeFix at http://www.wefix.biz. That address is bogus as it turns out. The call went south pretty quickly after that because I revealed that I’m an employee of Microsoft and started asking him detailed questions about the nature of his company’s arrangement with mine.
I have had several calls from a man with Indian accent who said he was from the Windows security whatever and that my computer needed to be repaired which he could do of course. He said my “Windows computer” had virus’s and other problems. As I did not call anyone about my computer I told him not to call me again and hung up. They must think we are all stupid over here. He still keeps calling. This is the number displayed 999-910-0103. I live in Canada.
I have had several calls from a man with Indian accent who said he was from the Windows security whatever and that my computer needed to be repaired which he could do of course. He said my “Windows computer” had virus’s and other problems. As I did not call anyone about my computer I told him not to call me again and hung up. They must think we are all stupid over here. He still keeps calling. This is the number displayed 999-910-0103.
Got a call from these infected tonsils today and i live in a tiny little town in zimbabwe. How do they get phone numbers and names. Told them i had no airtime in my modem to download their piddly program
Great blog and thanks for sharing it. I will differnelty look out for these scams.
Are they all called John? Based in the UK and also had a call today – second one in 3 weeks. Obviously a scam – asked him if they were a Microsoft company to which he answered no and that was the end of the conversation as far as I was concerned. It would be great if this people could be traced and stopped – they do seem to fall outside the UK Telephone Preference service.
I get this call every day. I love it. I always try and think of new ways to mess with them. The other day I just repeated everything back the way a kid does when they are trying to annoy you. He hung up. Im going to try to keep them on the line for an hour.
I just received a phone call from ‘John’ at an Indian call centre advising me that he was from Microsoft and they had detected my computer was infected with viruses. John had sent me a number of message and I hadn’t replied – my fault. I said I checked my email and my spam folder regularly and I hadn’t seen any. Then he said that the messages in another way direct to my computer… blah de blah…
I knew it was a scam from the start.
He said to prove that I could trust him he would tell me the serial number of my computer: 00C04FD7D062. Of course that isn’t the serial number of anything. He wanted me to click a few things from my desktop so he could prove I could trust him. I didn’t.
At this point what had started out as something I was interest to see how the scam went became boring. But I wondered if he would give me any information in return. I said I was busy and I could call him back. He scuffed around for a couple of minutes and then gave me his phone number. I haven’t called it, but it may be of interest to someone else: 44 20 35 82 96 19
Just to be clear – THIS IS A SCAM BY CRIMINALS
I think those who have received a call and download what they want you to download, run a scan immediately, and just like the post said, take the computer to a repair shop immediately.
Oh Gullible Me……..I got stung thinking this Microsoft Tech Support phone call scam was ligit. Bottom line.. in the end I refused to use my credit card to pay their $209 price tag for life time support. I allowed them remote access (DUHH) previously
so they were able to wipe my icons off my desktop after I hung up. Question: What is recommend at this point. What other damage have they done.Their threat to shut down my computer because it will infect the servers out there in Internet Land is obviously BS as I can still access my programs via internal means. How do I get these icons back to their rightful place. Also, I’m concered if they have deposited malware etc,
Most likely they have just hidden your desktop icons, rather than deleted them.
To get them back, right click somewhere on the desktop, click on “View” in the menu that comes up, then click on “Show Desktop Icons”.
A guy from India has written the inside story of these people and how they are operating such a big scam. Have a look on the blog indiancallcenterscam.blogspot.com
I think that with all this going on for so long now that any company that has any IT business in India or anywhere else in that part of the world should pull their business back to North America where it started and actually belongs.
Yup….Just got a call at 5:30pm in Darwin……I told “John” I knew nothing about his company and asked that he send me an email about it. He said he would…..I then hung up without giving my email addy…..As the number came up as “Private Number”…..Feckers!!!
i let the indian person talk this time instead of reaming him a new a hole this time…he went thru his talk about this and that and going into the event viewer and said all those yellow things are viruses and the red error messages are also viruses…he passed me on to the tech but i told him i will call back and to give me a number to call and he gave me 1-647-930-5680 ! which is a UPS mail tracking number! scammers!!!!!!!!!
Got a call this morning from Javid Morgan, “Microsoft Engineer”‘ saying my computer had been hacked by a “Malaysian virus” but if I turned on my PC, they could fix the problem for me. I had heard of this scam, and as it was raining and I was bored, decided to play along with it. I told him that as I was disabled, it would take me a while to get to the PC, so please bear with me…. I fed the cats, washed up and did some press-ups, whilst occasionally picking up the phone to say “sorry dear, just looking for my spectacles”. I managed to keep him on the phone for a massive 1hr 30 mins & have not had so much fun in ages! He though he had hooked a perfect sucker, but Ya Boo you Javid! You are the sucker! Ha Ha!
Got a call this morning from Javid Morgan, “Microsoft Engineer”‘ saying my computer had been hacked by a “Malaysian virus” but if I turned on my PC, they could fix the problem for me. I had heard of this scam, and as it was raining and I was bored, decided to play along with it. I told him that as I was disabled, it would take me a while to get to the PC, so please bear with me…. I fed the cats, washed up and did some press-ups, whilst occasionally picking up the phone to say “sorry dear, just looking for my spectacles…”.
After twenty minutes I went back to the phone, but the line was dead, I hung up, only for him to immediately call me back.. (this happened five more times!)
Over the course of our conversations, he established that I mainly use my PC for online banking, and shopping, I live alone, and if I had to pay £400 to get the problem fixed, it would not be a problem for me. None of the above is true, but I so enjoyed hearing his excitement of having hooked a perfect sucker!
I received one of these calls in Singapore this evening, insisting that I was called Mrs ‘husbands first name’. I kept saying no it wasn’t me, then she said she was calling from Microsoft regarding my Windows operating service. My husband received a similar call about 3 weeks ago and his mother about a week before had a call in the UK and unwittingly gave control of her laptop to them. Could our details have been found on her laptop?
It’s possible, but more than likely it’s just a coincidence.
I just received a call and while “Ricky” was rambling away I googled “Fix my computer Microsoft virus” and was led to your website. So THANK you for saving the day! I started laughing so hard at Ricky telling him NICE TRY! Appreciate your post and have shared it with my Facebook friends to help spread the word!
Received a call from these sub human life forms last night.
Since this is the THIRD time that scum, with an Indian sounding voice, has called here, I played along for a while to see what I could learn. The problem with doing that is the initial moron was so stupid he could not even follow the simple script he had been provided (by the way, in the background, you could hear this same script being recited by others.) A second con artist, amusingly calling himself “David,” took over the call but by this time I had become bored and launched into an invective laced tirade.
Received this call in Montreal , Sept 2011 didn’t say Microsoft but a strange name. My computer has problems they can fix. I am a computer instructor. I got mad and said I could trace the call and call police, they laughed and said go ahead. The number is not traceable on my phone and out of country. This scam is really old and was surprised it is still active. Will warn all future students our group gets.
Received another of those unsolicited phone calls today. A chap with an accent from the sub continent told me he was from Microsoft windows and he would like to fix my windows. I told him that I was glad he called as I had been wanting new windows for a while and asked him if he could fix double glazed windows. He said he could. Told him that I was very pleased and said I would like new ones for my lounge room and asked him when he could come around. He said he didn’t need to come around and would I turn on my computer. I told him that if he couldn’t come around how would we fix the windows. He said he would do it over the phone. I said, do your windows have aluminium frames? He became a bit confused at this point and must have dropped his phone, because the line went dead.
Live in Canada – just got this call which I had heard about. Indian accent claiming to be Microsoft getting error messages from my computer told me to look in prefetch folder. When I told him there were 122 files in there he said very bad etc…I knew it was a scam right off the bat but wanted to see where this would go.
I just received this call. I told them that unless they could prove to me they are microsoft, I would not speak to them. They got angry and hung up. He said “so bye bye.”
they’re definitely still doing this, i just got a call from an indian man working for what he said was windows operating systems, asking about my computer and when i told him i didnt have one regarding the number he had called, i dont because i’m staying at a friend’s house and they dont have a computer, but what was it regarding, he immediately hung up on me, and then in a curious moment, i *69’ed the number, and i get back that its not in service
Mike – watch out! I’ve had these scammers for weeks now – not taken in, have ended phone call in polite terms. Two days ago, fed up, I told the fellow to “stuff off”. Next day, another phone call. I didn’t use the ‘f’-word, but I did say “I told your colleague yesterday to stuff off. Now I am telling you the same in even stronger language” and I slammed the phone down. So, guess what! My internet connection is suddenly unreliable. Might be coincidence! And I never gave them the opportunity to get into my computer. I’ve checked my anti-virus set-up and I can’t find anything there, but who the hell knows!
I had the same problem recently. I reckon there are leaks in BT call centres in India since it all started shortly after I changed my phone number. The scams come from India too.
Had the same thing. Indian guy claiming to work for Microsoft Windows Anti-virus. He rang earlier in the week, but the line was choppy and he gave up. He rang today – twice! They are very persistent. I told him it was a scam, that I wanted my name removed from their database, that I would call the police and he still carried on… Eventually I told him to f*** off and slammed the phone down.
I just had one of these. I knew from the start it was fraudulent but I let the guy talk anyway.
He said he was working for “Windows Operating System”. I told him there was no such company and he must be working for Microsoft, but he stubbonly stuck with his story – he was calling from their office in London (sounds of lots of talking and shouting Indians in background). I sid I thought it was a scam but that didn’t put him off. He said he wanted to help me get rid of the malware that they had detected on my computer because “we love Windows and we love our customers”.
I asked him how they had detected that I had malware on my computer. He said they had done an “electrorouter survey” and asked me if I had heard of that. I said no (not surprising because it’s not a real thing). I was about to ask him how it worked but the phone went dead. His supervisor probably twigged that they weren’t going to get anything out of me and pulled the plug.
I think they are relying on people’s gullibility. They take control of your computer, claim to have removed some malware, then ask for money.
I got two phone calls, a day apart. The first one was a woman with an accent, using my name. I had my suspicions, partly because of the background noise behind her, partly because of the language she was using, highly charged and descriptive. The second call was the same woman, but she called me by a different name, then blissfully went on trying to sell me several hundred dollars worth of goods for “just $99.”
I kept on saying that I was not interested, but left her enough room to conclude her scam was fraudulent. Should I have called police? This happened a few days ago, just when Microsoft was in the news for its new acquisition.
This is just after happening to a friend’s parents. They did not supply any details but did allow them control of their laptop.
I have since taken the laptop, run malwarebytes and got zero detections. I also installed new anti-virus and ran a full scan and it came up clean.
Is it safe for them to use it again or should I be looking for something else such as an installed app?
There was an installed app that I removed named something like Microsoft Security Centre but the install date was back in Oct 2010
I would suggest running a few other scans, just to be sure, but it looks good so far. Maybe try a scan with SuperAntiSpyware, TDSSKiller and check the logfile produced from HiJackThis for potential issues.