Posted on 05/04/2012 7:41:46 PM PDT by Leo Carpathian
Got weird phone call (Clearwater, FL number), someone (foreign accent) claiming to be working for company doing support for Microsoft. Verifying that I am running legit Win 7 and they are having problems with my computer sending messages. Asking me to run some program, seeing warning and then asking me to allow them to access my computer remotely and "fix" the problem. Red flag went up, I asked how he got my phone number, apparently from Win 7 registration, which I don't remember providing. Smells like takeover of my computer. Anyone else experienced this? New scam to take over our computers? If so, please be aware of it.
we have an answering machine , so no message ,no answer , before the answering machine I would use a whistle ,scares crap out of the scum
That seems to be their take, but I don’t understand how a multi-billion-dollar company can’t do something about people falsely claiming to represent them. Isn’t that copyright infringement?
Just another thing to remind us all — with computers, you never ever respond. It’s hard enough making sure that when you initiate contact that you are doing so correctly. I have to constantly remind my wife to ignore pop-ups, e-mails, and other enticements to fix problems with the computer.
Clearwater is the World Hq of Scientology.
?
My first reaction to anything remotely like that is to run my AVG and my Malware Bytes and then Spybot for good measure. If it comes via a popup on the monitor then I do not cancel or otherwise click on it bu run all my antis. My wife got it as a phone call like that once and we ran all the antis. Malware Bytes got a load of “objects” after one such.
Well, in fairness, there is in fact nothing they can do. The CID is being spoofed. There's nothing to do to stop it.
That is a definite scam. Microsoft doesn’t do that.
Oh, I know that. I was just stating it so others would know.
I would love the opportunity to do something similar. “what, a virus? Sounds serious. Ok run what? I can’t find it. Etc etc. ... Oh yeah. I see the problem, lack thereof, Im not running windows! “ click.
They tried this with me telling me they were responding to a request for help....I laughed at them and told em to get off of my phone because I do not use microsoft on my MAC
There’s one good way to greatly reduce the number of scammers calling you: don’t pick up the phone at all when you don’t recognize the number.
When you pick up the phone, you “reward” the scammer because he knows he has found a “live” number, and he will keep calling you so long as he thinks he has a chance to scam you.
If you don’t pick up, he’ll move on until he finds the next live number.
Absolutely! I cannot live without Caller ID and would much rather have to return a legitimate call than to give the scammers an inch. If the call isn't important enough for them to leave a message, then it's not important enough for me to call back. When one of these calls comes in and I'm at my computer, I immediately type in the telephone number, with quotes around it, to see who it belongs to. There are a number of tracking sites that will tell you -- and if it's a scammer, it immediately goes into the "spam" directory so that if this number ever calls again, my phone won't ring.
Pffft! Mircosoft won’t even answer their phone, much less use one and call someone.
You can usually get them off message by just asking them where they are calling from.
What? Were you born yesterday????????????????????? Geeze, get some street smarts!
Never, ever allow anyone who contacts you out of the blue have access to any info or to your computer. I had a gal call and tell me that Edward Jones was trying to reach me, but there was something wrong with the info in my account. I told her that I could see her number on my phone and she might think about moving before the Feds showed up. Instant silence on the “line”.
Hogwash. Microsoft can take legal action to protect their company name, which is being hijacked and used illegally.
Wow, this is too funny, I have one on the line RIGHT NOW!!!!
I am gonnna play with him
Eh, wasn’t so much fun.. once he knew I was wasting his time, he hung up on me.
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