Phone calls from Microsoft/Windows Support Centre

[Gav Peter]

Recently, we've been bombarded with phone calls from an Indian sounding gentleman from some sort of support centre advising us that our computer is under immediate threat from an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world virus attack...

So far I have trusted in our internet provider's & AVG's abilities to fend off such attacks but, hell, perhaps this guy is right... Maybe I do need to get online with him & get him to sort out the problem...

Has anyone else had calls like this & moreover, used his services??

Cheers guys - I know you'll be able to help me out

 

[SimonD]

Ignore Gav. Ask him for his email and his website address. Microsoft typically do not call anyone like this. Internet Service Providers don't either. If you have up-to-date security software like Norton etc you will be fine. This sounds like spam/phishing. Do you have the number that called you or was it withheld? Google the number if you have it - you'll probably see others who have been approached. Have a look here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...oft-tech/19e6a366-cf86-4a6b-bb2e-2ab81645553d

 

[fridayman]

I think you should explain to them (at length) some of the hardships that you have suffered recently, and how that makes you feel, and how your wife treats you, and everything that is going on at work, and also ask them what you should do about the neighbours noisy dog, and if they think Greece is going down the toilet... See how long you can keep him on the line.

 

[Gary Stockton]

Just put the phone down next to the radio or something for 30 minutes ...

It's a (dangerous) scam - they'll try to get you to install a bot on your machine .... seriously.

 

[karl webster]

A simple Fvbghhhg Off works for me

Had a few emails from halifax just lately telling me i need to follow a link to confirm all my account details.... Ye ok, give me a second i will do it right away.NOT!!



Some people get sucked into these things, gav you should know better

 

[Gav Peter]

Well that's all well & good but... Had him back on the line just after posting & went through the whole kit & caboodle with him You lot plainly don't know what you're on about...

He sorted out the registry problems; hotlinked all our financial accounts together to something he called a 'netplug' so I can keep an eye on balances at the click of a button - he said not to worry, the zero balances will come back up to normal levels once the are all syncronised

Never has £185 been so well spent - pooter is now secure under the control of Mombasa IT Enturdprises Inc & I can rest easy

 

[fridayman]

For £185 I hope they also keep an offsite record of your internet banking details.

 

[Gary Stockton]

For £185 I'll let him put my account balances back to zero Saves me paying off the O/D

 

[Gav Peter]

Yeah, that would be a plus point Gaz!!!

Reckon I'll put the tosser onto me daughter for a chat the next time he comes on - that'll tangle him up for a while!!!

Tell you what though - the first time he called, we had just bailed out of the IT support that we had for a new computer & the wife nearly got sucked in so under the right set of circumstances, you could get stung quite easily by these gimps... Sorry, that's giving gimps a bad name...

 

[Trevor]

As I understand it, this is all brought about after your computer is hit with some Malware which then initiates the phone call. I had one of these a few months ago (scanned computer mith Malwarebytes and removed offending item).

I ripped into the Guy and basically said I'm an IT Professional, what you are doing is illegal now FO before I get the police involved. They hung up and not heard a thing since.

 

[karl webster]

Like i said earlier trev. Im not a IT pro but the Fxxx Off works really well for me

 

[Adrian North]

They tried that with my daughters partner and, unfortunately, he fell for it (well at least until my daughter rushed in and ripped the phone cord out of the wall - luckily he's a builder and can repair the structural damage ) - I had to go round and fix the damage to the computer which, luckily, I managed to do.

They then made the mistake of phoning me and I told them where they could go (mainly by shouting at them) -bunch of crooks!

Adrian

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I ignore calls from withheld/international and 08 numbers, so that's 99% of calls then!

 

[Crispin]

Normally scammers who will take your card details for "services" and then nail you.

A long time ago I was getting marketing calls. Eventually I decided to have some fun and went like this:
Ring Ring <Answers on speaker phone>
<me in child's voice> Hello?
Hello. Could I speak to your mommy or daddy?
Mommy and daddy are just busy <frantically looking for some vocal porn in computer>
Could you call them to the phone?
Ok, hold on. <Finds porn, clicks play, very vocal, let it play for about 30 seconds.>

Mommy says she's coming. Daddy says he's coming too. <at some point I introduced uncle Bob into the mix>
<confusion, giggles and other voices at the other end of the phone. With perfectly synced timing, my dog starts barking next to me.>
Mommy's still busy. Daddy's coming though. Hold on please.

Eventually I got bored of all of this and hung up. Within seconds the phone rang again. This time you could hear I was on speaker phone at the other end and there were lots of voices. Told them all they're a sick bunch of f-ckwits and to get a real job.

It was a bit of fun with the cold-callers.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

like it

 

[AndyCook]

nice one Crispin

 

[BobMurphy]

I've had these as well.

For a while I thought it was because our computer was reporting a fault (I always click "Don't Send" when something hangs-up again, but SWMBO may have hit the other option).

I just hang-up on them. Saves me getting drawn into saying what I really think which would be very 'non-PC' .

Bob.