Fake calls from Microsoft to get access to your PC

[Krypton]

Not sure how true it is, but a colleague has advised us all not to carry on any calls we might get from Microsoft.

Apparently there is a scam going around whereby you are called and the caller says they are from Microsoft and they are doing some kind of survey or something and they ask you to enable remote access to your computer to let them onto it. Once they are on they can then access your private data.

Like I said, I don't know how true this is, but I thought I'd mention it here just in case.

 

[2Loose]

I have heard of this scam, but supposed microsoft employee has 'detected an issue with your pc' that they can remedy if you grant access.

Ask them the name of your PC or your IP address - they won't be able to answer. Hang up..

 

[ianrauk]

It happened to a friend of mine a few weeks ago. She guessed it was a scam so just told them to eff off...

 

[MacB]

Had this sort of scam about three times over the last 5 years, has always taken the form of a phonecall and someone claiming to be responding to your Microsoft error message. The latest round have featured very poor English and have seemd the least plausible to date.

I have noticed a general rise is sales/scam type calls in recent months, particularly annoying when working from home. Have taken to switching phone to AP only and silent now, and we screen all calls. We do pay extra for call blocking where the caller ID is witheld but, apparently, that doesn't work with voice over IP stuff. My pet hate are the ones where it's a recording.

 

[Spinney]

Sounds very similar to this:
https://www.cyclechat.net/

 

[BearPear]

I can confirm that this is a scam which my dad nearly fell for. They rang and said that he had been ignoring alerts on his PC and if he pressed a couple of buttons he would see that his computer had been attacked. The operator then said that if he keyed the following.... they would be able to remove the programmes from his PC. They said they were microsoft and he almost believed them.

I can't believe the audacity of these people, but they sounded so genuine that I expect lots of people get caught - my dad's no fool but he almost got sucked in. He rang us, my son is an IT support trainee, and we all said he had a lucky escape!

 

[Flying Dodo]

I get all those. Today was a new one, as they said they were calling from my electricity company. I decided not to call their bluff and ask them which company they were, and decided on a different tactic, by saying I don't use electricity. Surprisingly, he fell for it, and even apologised for calling!

 

[2Loose]

I get all those. Today was a new one, as they said they were calling from my electricity company. I decided not to call their bluff and ask them which company they were, and decided on a different tactic, by saying I don't use electricity. Surprisingly, he fell for it, and even apologised for calling!

LoL

 

[JamesAC]

It happened to me.
I led the chap a merry dance for some 10's of minutes, before revealing that I don't use the Windows OS system. Asking them to tell you your IP address is always good fun (cos they don't know what it is)

It happened to a friend's daughter: she took the call when her parents were out, and was bamboozled by the guy. She did what he told her, and wrecked her parents' computer. Not her fault, really.

 

[Keith Oates]

I had an e-mail this morning from a company I've never heard of asking me to confirm my e-mail address. It looked quite professional but still came under the delete button hammer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[HJ]

There is a lot of it about...

 

[HLaB]

Its a definite SCAM (In Capital Letters!) I was out for a ride in the summer when I got a pannicky call from my mother, she had just been phoned (she's almost computer illiterate) and could I be there when they phoned back. I was home 5 minutes later and got the full story, 'somebody' from microsoft had phoned and tried to get her to do something but she couldn't figure it out and said she'd get me to help and could they phone back. Surprise, surprise they never phoned back!

 

[Candaules]

My mother-in-law fell for this. She gave the caller remote access to her PC, allowed him to install some software, agreed to pay £120 and gave her credit card details. We had to get some to remove the software (which turned out to be useless rather than malicious) and give the PC a health check. Her bank was reluctant to treat the transaction as fraudulent, but after much badgering, gave her a refund. Surprisingly, the local police took it seriously, sent an officer to talk to her, and recorded it as fraud.

She doesn't know anything about computers, but might have been more alert had her husband not been in hospital and dying at the time of the call.

 

[thomas]

These SCAMs aren't just fallen for by people with less computer experience. I am a computer science student (so am embarrassed to admit this) but have fallen for the online "virus check" saying you have a virus then downloading a virus. Didn't realise until it was too late; but cleaned the computer up instantly. A moment of not really paying attention to what I was doing.

While most of them appear pretty obvious, some are quite believable.

 

[2Loose]

These SCAMs aren't just fallen for by people with less computer experience. I am a computer science student (so am embarrassed to admit this) but have fallen for the online "virus check" saying you have a virus then downloading a virus. Didn't realise until it was too late; but cleaned the computer up instantly. A moment of not really paying attention to what I was doing.

While most of them appear pretty obvious, some are quite believable.

But of course you had a valid and recent backup, just like you are taught eh Thomas? LoL.