Fake calls from Microsoft to get access to your PC

[Bird Brain]

I haven't got a problem because most phone calls I get means they are after my wonga.

 

[goo_mason]

Had a few of these and I like to string them along for a bit, before hitting them with the stuff they can't answer. They then get very insistent, and it's always a giggle when they start yelling, "BUT MY GOD, MAN! YOUR COMPUTER HAS A SERIOUS PROBLEM AND I MUST HAVE ACCESS TO SORT IT!" in a thick Indian accent.

My Dad was plagued by them. Each time he hung up, they called back getting more and more frantic and insistent that they got access to his laptop. In the end he had to sit & ignore the phone going every couple of minutes for the rest of the evening.

 

[Coco]

That was a hoot! Like a Monty Python argument.

They are so insistent.

"If you go to my web page you will see your computer has a virus"

"If you go to www.apple.com you will see my computer doesn't have Windows"




Great fun.

 

[guitarpete247]

I had a call this afternoon from an Indian sounding guy who asked for me by name (worrying). He told me that my ISP had reported my Internet connection had a problem and was running slow, he could sort it out. I told him it had never been better and was running faster than it had ever run so get stuffed. I'd heard of this type of scam before. I did a 1471 and got the number 06545 654512 and have reported them to TPS.

 

[summerdays]

I've never had a phone call but did get one of those sites today where they look like they are doing a scan of your machine and finding multiple viruses ... problem is they don't know that Mr Summerdays has set up the machine in a non-standard way so that the list of drives it is checking is completely wrong. Even so it does make me panic a little... I couldn't shut it down until I used the Task Manager to kill the process.

 

[Manonabike]

I've never had a phone call but did get one of those sites today where they look like they are doing a scan of your machine and finding multiple viruses ... problem is they don't know that Mr Summerdays has set up the machine in a non-standard way so that the list of drives it is checking is completely wrong. Even so it does make me panic a little... I couldn't shut it down until I used the Task Manager to kill the process.

If you had to kill the process then you downloaded something and then run it.

If you just saw it on the website then it's nothing more than a bit of flash hoping that you would click and download to your pc.

I've never had a call like that and I feel I'm losing out the chance to have a bit of a laugh . Microsoft would never call you for something like that, unless you requested their help first.

 

[2Loose]

I had a call this afternoon from an Indian sounding guy who asked for me by name (worrying). He told me that my ISP had reported my Internet connection had a problem and was running slow, he could sort it out. I told him it had never been better and was running faster than it had ever run so get stuffed. I'd heard of this type of scam before. I did a 1471 and got the number 06545 654512 and have reported them to TPS.

Unfortunately I doubt that TPS will do anything. I reported a telesales\marketing company working on behalf of 3, but because I didn't have the company name (only the number) then there was nothing they could do about it. Apparently.

 

[summerdays]

If you had to kill the process then you downloaded something and then run it.

If you just saw it on the website then it's nothing more than a bit of flash hoping that you would click and download to your pc.

I've never had a call like that and I feel I'm losing out the chance to have a bit of a laugh . Microsoft would never call you for something like that, unless you requested their help first.

I had to kill the process (google chrome) as I wouldn't let it run and I just close the web page as it had an associated pop up window that seemed to loop around. Not a separate process running - sorry that bit wasn't clear.

Literally I was looking at images of maps to do with cycling on google image search, clicked on one expecting to be taken to a web page about cycling in the Peak District and instead ended up on this other internet page. I know the scan information displayed on the page was fake as although it was scanning files ... listing various unknown technical files etc ... it was scanning my C drive - my hard disk as it called it. My computer set up is so complicated that I don't understand it (blame Mr S) but I do know that C is not the hard drive, that we have a network system with various things hanging off it. I have informed technical support (Mr S) but I'm pretty sure it was a fake screen and that if I had let it complete the scan it would have told me I had x number of viruses and that if I did download something they could fix it. Like I say I decided to completely kill the google chrome instead. (Which is what you said when I reread your message )

I've come across those sites before ... a link doesn't take you where you expect and you get that screen which is meant to panic you into downloading their software/virus/whatever. And I can image people falling for it.

 

[funnymummy]

We have a home PC provided for my son by Home Access/Child Disability it has special software & programmes, addapted keyboard/mouse etc.
I use it occasionaly as we store all our family photos on it, and was on it at the time when I got one of these calls, and fell for it!
The way the bloke spoke to me I assumed he was from HomeAccess, so I went along with his requests. He had a very strong foreign accent, I had to keep asking him to reapeat himself & was really beginning to get fed up, I apologised & asked if he could transfer me to someone else...He agreed, the line went quiet, but i wasn't put on hold or transferred, I could her him taking somewhere in the background, that made me start thinking... then another chap came on - His accent was just as bad, I asked him who he was calling from & he said Windows.... I told him we didn't use Windows on this PC, He then said they where agents for lots of companies & Windows was just one of them, I asked him if he could Email me details of his company, he started to make excuses, I told him I would ask Home Acess to look into the 'viruses' they where telling me we had, as they provided the security package on the pc & he asked who Home Acess were.
I hung up on him immediatly. I contacted HA, they transferred me to Net Intelligence who did a remote on the PC & found it was all clear!

 

[byegad]

Twice my wife has picked up this type of call. She gave them short shrift.

I on the other hand would have spent several minutes winding them up.

 

[JamesAC]

Twice my wife has picked up this type of call. She gave them short shrift.

I on the other hand would have spent several minutes winding them up.

I've had a couple in the last couple of weeks.

The guy (Indian accent) phones up, and asks for my wife by name (she still uses her own surname - in the 'phone book). I say she's not available, can I help?

I then get the speil about how he's 'phoning from Internet International Security HQ (or similar), and they've detected that I've downloaded a virus.

I asked him what my IP address was .. but they've wised up on that. He wasn't allowed to tell me, he said for security reasons! So I said would he give me just the last part of the number, to confirm that they'd got the correct machine. But the more I pressed him, the stroppier he got. Didn't I know, he asked, that all pcs are attached to servers? No, I said, I didn't know that. In fact, I mused, I knew of quite a lot of computers that weren't attached to anything at all.

He got pretty shirty at this point, and said I didn't know anything about computers (I used to be an Oracle DBA, and now run a linux dual-boot system which I installed myself) and he'd call back in a few weeks when I'd educated myself!!

And he rang off.

Which was a shame, because I always look forward to the bit where, after several 10's of minutes pointless instructions by him, I explain that nothing on my screen looks anything like he says it should because I don't run Windows.

 

[fossyant]

I'm missing out on all this fun. My mother had one a few weeks back - fortunately she sussed it, as both the laptops in the house were actually switched off.

Can't wait for a call.

 

[TVC]

I got a call at the weekend:

Strong sub-continent accent; "Hello I'm from Computer Security, I'm calling you about your Windows PC".....

Yeah right.

"This is a scam isn't it?"..silence..."Well isn't it?"... CLICK.

 

[jnb]

Unfortunately I doubt that TPS will do anything. I reported a telesales\marketing company working on behalf of 3, but because I didn't have the company name (only the number) then there was nothing they could do about it. Apparently.

TPS used to be a lot better but the vast majority of these scams now come from overseas are not subject to the legislation that made TPS work.

(editted to add a missing 'not')

 

[4F]

Yeah I have had this call 4 times now in the last year, played them along each time until they have got so annoyed they have hung up on me.