Microsoft "Virus" Phone Scam warning.

[ashmaster]

Just warning people I just got a call that seemed really fishy from someone with a thick indian accent who said he works for microsoft and that there is severe viral activity on my computer and that he would walk me through the steps needed to fix it. he went into great detail about how it would corrupt everything on my hd and make my internet unusable and the delete my "what are they called.... oh yes cookies" I assured him it was fine, both me and my fiancee are quite computer savy and though my computer has actually been running terribly in the last month or so, we are reformating it tonight or tomorrow anyways, he said that wouldnt get rid of this virus. (which is bs... it restores it back to its original settings from the store and wipes EVERYTHING else off...) he asked me to login to the computer so he could help me fix it, I told him there is a password on the computer and I can't login so call back at 3:30 when husband is home.

Dh is going to have some fun.... I found this article about this as well....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...a-call-centres



Tldr
If someone calls you claiming to be from microsoft its a scam, they show you something on your computer which isn't bad or a virus that just looks like it, direct you to a website, and make you pay money ($179.00) AND they have complete access to your computer/files.

[CherBear]

geez they phone you about this now too? crazy! Haha hope your hubby keeps him on the phone a long while!!

[Mikke]

Just got off the phone with some people who rang our ladline phone and claimed to be "technicians" from a company in conjuction with Microsoft. My wife answered the phone and within a minute gave me the phone as she said she couldn't understand what on earth they were talking about.
They claimed that one of our computers in our house had been infected with some sort of 'super' virus, so my laptop was infecting everyone's email address that I had, and it needed to be fixed straight away. The person I was talking too had a very thick Indian accent, and there was about a 1-2 second delay when they responded to my questions, so they were obviously calling from overseas! It sounded suspicious and I googled the number he gave to call him back. That's what I have found - http://www.everycall.us/phone-number/1-847-531-9241/. Seems like there is a whole bunch of them calling people. I guess it's not their only phone number. Beware!

[hello_kyla]

A friend of mine got had by this. A very smart woman but the scammer orked on her for an hour before she bought the software. Called my gram to but for whatever reason shr kept telling them she had no computer.

[Yoshi2011]

they are a pain- left a friend a very mean voice mail a few weeks ago

[ustwo]

Funny i havent personally had one of these calls but my mom has and even after saying dont call back they called back again a couple weeks later...........this is nuts we shouldnt have to put up with these people

[SiennaOriginal]

Ashmaster,

The very same considerate individual phoned me today too. LOL
He's probably thinking I'm an ungrateful, ignorant cow for hanging up the phone. haha. I hope you guys had some fantastic fun with it!

[danajilllove]

Wow what the heck!!! Where do these people come from? I always say I won't be surprised by these stories but it seems there is always some new scam going around. Unreal.

[rastagirl]

Thanks for the warning. Fortunately for me any long distance phone calls ring three times on my home phone so we never answer but I would be very suspicious anyways of someone calling me claimimg to be from Microsoft.

[Muggins]

I fell for the first phone call because it coincided with the damage a hacker was doing to my computer. Charged it to my credit card then came on line and found several warmings. Called my cc company and they told me to cut up my card and they'd send me a new one so it couldn't be used by the same scammers. I eventually got it refunded on my cc.

NOW GET THIS.

The same Indian-voice scammer called a second time. I told him I knew who he was with and he was running a scam. "What are you worried about?" he said. "You got your refund, didn't you?"

Now that's going a bit over the top, don't you think?

A day later, a non-Indian-voice caller tried it again. These people are getting desperate.

[laurabak3r]

These people called my moms house, as soon as she told them she had a mac they hung up.

[fun2b]

I got this call several months ago and I had so much fun with that telemarketer that he actually hung up on me.