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I’ve been getting a few phone calls lately, from “tech companies” (yesterday they said they were Microsoft themselves) telling me my computer has been hacked and they want to do something or other. I just hung up on the guy who sounded like he was from India. The night before I did the full scan with the Microsoft Security that Woody recommended. It was completely clean. The computer acts pretty much the same as it usually does. Anyone else get any of this?
marshallman

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I’ve heard of it but not experienced it. I tell people that Microsoft will not initiate a phone call. No reputable firm will try to solicit business this way. If you have a firewall on the PC and a router that has a firewall there is no way someone on the outside will know if your PC is hacked unless you tell them or they’ve actually hacked it. Your scan was a good idea. Since it was clean you are most likely fine.

Joe

--Joe

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This was covered by the FBI in January and Fred Langa in February: Security alert: Bogus tech-support phone calls

Bruce

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Snopes reports this sort of scam from August 2009.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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My mother received one of these a couple of weeks ago. “I’m from MS and your PC has lots of problems.” She said no it’s not and they hung up.

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I thank everyone for their input. some of the info must have been up long before I knew about this site. Seeing that people who actually wanted Microsoft’s help have to wait forever to get it, I thought it was strange they would call me out of all the millions of users out there.

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I have been getting these calls for years. At one point, several years ago, they were especially active, one a day or so. The phone went, “I’m calling from Microsoft . . . . “. I cut him off as usual, “Yes, and I’m the Queen of Sheba”.

Then, a frightful, red-faced moment, because I had an open issue with Microsoft, and this REALLY WAS Microsoft calling. We had a good laugh about it; this was not the first time that he had been confused with a fake.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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I have been getting these calls for years. At one point, several years ago, they were especially active, one a day or so. The phone went, “I’m calling from Microsoft . . . . “. I cut him off as usual, “Yes, and I’m the Queen of Sheba”.

Then, a frightful, red-faced moment, because I had an open issue with Microsoft, and this REALLY WAS Microsoft calling. We had a good laugh about it; this was not the first time that he had been confused with a fake.

That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of one of these calls being legitimate!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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So Microsoft believed who you were, then?!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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So Microsoft believed who you were, then?!

I invited him to give me the reference number of the issue that I had opened, which he did. You can’t be too careful!

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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I was just called yesterday 8-8-13. The funny thing was that it started with one guy, who sounded Indian and said he was from Microsoft, and who said they were getting Error messages on their Microsoft server. He told me to look at an event window and sure enough there were tons of red colored errors. The errors were from a program I use, VNC Server, to access my other computers. He then passed me on to his supervisor, who also sounded Indian, and when I asked him how do I know he was from Microsoft, he told me he could read me my OS warranty number. He then walked me through this tree business, and sure enough, there was a warranty number and he read it to me. I don’t think he had access to my computer, but how did he know that unless he really was from MS. He then had me use TeamViewer to access my computer and he kindly said I will be seeing everything he does and I could just shut the computer off if he does anything funny. I was about to re-install Windows 7 if he did do anything funny. Then he showed me that going to web pages that didn’t have https was dangerous. Then he went through the spiel and opened notepad and wrote some programs I should have, gave me a help desk phone number and an address in New York. Then he tried to sell me some programs, some from Microsoft, some others like CC Cleaner all for $99 and a year’s support, and for $165 I’d get lifetime support and if they install the programs, it would take an hour. I told him to call back in a couple days. I hung up and started searching for this kind of scam. Found all those seen below. Then I uninstalled VNC Server, and TeamViewer, then did a complete Microsoft Virus deep scan of my computer which mush have taken at least 6 to 10 hours it seems. All it found was some file in a ZIP file that I hadn’t accessed in years. It almost sounds like this is a company that wants to help, but I really don’t want anyone but me using my computer. It would be interesting to see if others are getting this same call. And how did they know my Windows 7 warranty number? Is it now public domain? CU

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LOL I had one of these idiots one day when I had nothing to do, so I listened to see just what he was trying to get at. He told me (in an Indian accent) He was calling from ‘Microsoft Support Services’ OH WOW REALLY??? well he informed me I had many virus infections and was blasting them all over the internet. I tried to sound genuinely panicky and asked what I had to do. He said I would probably have to buy their “special repair product”, but I could try deleting therm first. He directed me to “C:Windowsinf” and asked me to look for the infected files, he said they were easy to find as they all ended in “.inf” in this special infected file folder. I asked him to slow down and list the files I needed to delete (he actually thought I was writing all this down) any way to cut a long story I tied him up for like 45 minutes to an hour with that and all of the stupidest questions I could think of, at which time I went into a rant swore up and down told him his mother and father were brother and sister then just kept ‘over-talking’ him until he got the idea. All in all a fun way to spend a boring morning. I would recommend everyone do it to them if they have some free time. They earn nothing and it probably cost them more for the phone call. Another trick I use, junk snail-mail with return envelopes —- stuff all the junk mail you have around, news paper clippings anything that adds weight before mailing in those envelopes LOL they pay for the weight on the other end. I know probably useless but give quite a rewarding feeling that you just got back a little-bit.

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This seems to be a widespread scam. Not quite as common as the “update your free Google listing” call, but close. Anecdotal evidence from the users I support leads one to wonder if they’re after a demographic; everyone that admits getting such a call has been older, and female. The only one who “bit” on the call installed a virus for them, eventually requiring a complete re-install to clean.

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get this here in the U.K. too. The last two times it was, as usual, an Indian sounding voice telling me that he was from Microsoft and that I had multiple problems ; viruses, etc., on my P.C. I asked him for some details – like WHICH machine; WHAT viruses ; WHAT I should do about it.

After listening to his crap for 2 or 3 minutes on each occasion, I interrupoted, told him I knew he was a liar, he was NOT from Microsoft, and I also knew that ALL my machines were clean. I then advised him to follow the advice in the Bible and to “go forth and propogate” (well, perhaps I din’t say that, but used a shorter Anglo-Saxon term, the second syllable of which was “off !” I then hung up.

On both occasions, within a few minutes I had another (again Indian-accented) caller telling me that I had been rude to his member of staff and that he would be taking me to court and charging me with harrassment. I denied that it was such, and suggested that if he didn;’t believe me he could visit me at home, when I would be pleased to demonstrate what harrassment was !

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IN this case the OP had actually started a case with MS with a problem. That was indeed quite a coincidence, LOL!

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Several people have received a call like that, too. You can find complaints posted at Callercenter.com about how the scammers tried to steal the victim’s money and luckily, most of them did not succeed.

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We have had several of these calls, usually intercepted by my wife, who simply says “That’s funny we don’t have a computer” (we have) at which point they instantly hang up.

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This scam has been doing the rounds in Australia for quite a while. The caller claims to be from Microsoft, or either of our main telcos – Telstra or Optus. Several weeks ago my wife handed me the phone saying that the caller reckoned she had a problem with her computer. When I asked him what was wrong with it, he said it had some viruses and malware on it. I said “Oh sh..t,what are they and how bad is it”. He then, rattled off a list of backdoors, trojans, and viruses. I then acted in a panic mode and asked for details of each one. It took maybe 10 minutes of me questioning him. Then I asked him how to fix it. I was told to immediately go to a certain site, download and install the cleaner program at a cost equivalent to $US45. I told him that that would be a bit difficult as my car was in for a service. He wanted to know what the car had to do with fixing a computer. So I told him I needed it to go and buy my wife a computer, as she didn’t have one. I think the phone line melted with his comments 🙂 I assume he was on an international call, so it would have cost him a lot more than the program he wanted me to buy.

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A scam indeed, but it’s nothing new. In this scheme, the scammers call you and claim to be from Microsoft. Then they tell you there’s a problem with your computer and offer to help or try to sell you a software license. But truth is, they’re only after the access to your computer. Once they have that, they might install malwares that could capture sensitive data, such as personal and financial information. They might also take control of your computer remotely and adjust settings to leave your computer vulnerable. Be aware that Microsoft do not make cold calls to charge you for computer security or software fixes.

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I had a similar call but the caller ID said “Pay Phone.” I answered and when he said he was from Microsoft, etc., I asked why he was calling from a pay phone and he hung up.

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I filed a complaint at the Microsoft Online Store (Windows 8 Metro) about Next Issue, an App which is listed as Free, but it’s a Free Trial which converts to a Paid App in 30 days. (Fortunately, MS Store has not got my credit card on file.) I got an email promising to look into the issue, and I replied with a detail or two, and a suggestion that Free Trial apps should have their own category in the Store.

Later in the day of my reply, a call came from India, claiming to be from Microsoft, and saying they had been informed that I was having a problem with my computer. I asked for a Microsoft number where I could verify the caller’s status as a Microsoft Partner, and was refused three times, then given a number which does not seem to be located in Redmond, WA.

I don’t know whether the fellow was truly following up on my complaint, or whether it was a scam. The timing was suspicious, and the lack of a real Microsoft phone number to verify the Partner status seemed suspicious, so I hung up.

-- rc primak

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Have you EVER heard of Microsoft calling a user to inform them that they had a problem?? Me neither.
The very first question you should ask these people is “How did you get my phone number?”. Now you may enter your name when you register Windows but you will never have to provide a phone number, so it can not form part of any details in any error sent to anyone. So they obviously are just calling at random out of a phone book.

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I’ve been getting a few phone calls lately, from “tech companies” (yesterday they said they were Microsoft themselves) telling me my computer has been hacked and they want to do something or other. I just hung up on the guy who sounded like he was from India. The night before I did the full scan with the Microsoft Security that Woody recommended. It was completely clean. The computer acts pretty much the same as it usually does. Anyone else get any of this?
marshallman

You are missing out on a great experience. When I got MY call from Microsoft I pretended to be computer illiterate. I was SO grateful that they could help me find the virus. However, whatever they asked me to do I got wrong…I clicked in the wrong places, I asked them to repeat themselves. “Click on the start button” the person on the phone asked. I told him I was pushing all the buttons on the computer, isn’t that the monitor? Oh about 30 minutes later when he had me browsing through files on the pc and he pointed out a system file and said “thats a virus, now let me connect to your computer and clean it”.
HAHAHAHAHA, I told him OHHHHHHHHHH no! You will get it too, thats how viruses work, I read that! I kept yelling no, no, it’s too dangerous. Then I said I will have to throw the computer out, this is too scary and hung up.

So much better than watching a tv show. 🙂

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You are missing out on a great experience. When I got MY call from Microsoft I pretended to be computer illiterate.

I couldn’t agree more, I’ve had loads of fun with these guys – the latest one tried to tell me that there were things that had stopped working on my PC by getting me to look at the Services snap-in and see that some of the services were stopped (of course!) but before that I asked him all sorts of questions about which computer he wanted me to connect to, what its name was, etc., etc.

Finally, I asked him how long he’d been working with computers and when he said three years I told him that I had ten times that experience and to stop wasting his time.

I figure that the more time we can keep these people on the line, the less time they have to hassle people who might actually be taken in, so it’s our duty to have fun with them 🙂

Graham

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Variations on a theme: I’ve had well over 100 calls claiming to be from MS of this sort over the last couple of years, but I have also had two that were notable variations. One claimed to be from “An antivirus company” called “Symantech-Kapersky” (I had him spell it) the makers of “Norton’s Anti-virus”. The other claimed to be from the Australian Federal Police, claiming to have intercepted an email with a virus coming from my computer. I reported the latter to the police, didn’t bother with the former, it was obviously a scam. I have also had a couple of these arrive via email instead of over the phone. All things to watch out for. Always start by getting a phone number that you can call them back on “if you have any questions” and warning that your phone has been dropping out lately. Then hang up and try the number they give you if you have any suspicion that the call may be genuine.

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I had a similar experience on July 10th. I immediately wrote up what I recalled to mail to friends. It has a couple of details not yet mentioned, specifically a URL and phone numbers. I wanted to report it to authorities, but could not figure out an appropriate place to report it to.

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Summary:

I got an unsolicited phone call. Someone with an Indian accent informed me that Central Servers have detected that my computer is infected. He used My name and said that there was alot oif this happening in Massachusetts, and asked me to get on my computer with him to confirm the infection. He then navigated me to a display of obscure (but valid) system files I had never seen before, and said their presence confirms a very dangerous infection. Another check showed that I have stopped services on my computer. He then told me that stopped services indicates the infection is dire. He then directed me to type in a URL that ends in chat.html.

I broke off the phone call at that point because a chat would allow an outsider to type text on my computer. However, the caller had invested about 25 minutes with me, so whatever scam payoff was coming, it presumably would have a substantial payout.

This whole thing is bogus. The details pointed out are quite normal, but not usually seen by a normal computer user.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Details:

The caller implied (but did not say) that he was connected with Microsoft. I didn’t catch the caller ID number, but I asked for his company name and number early in the call, and was told E-Support Live, 888 514-1650.

He had me type [window-key]-f (where [window-key] is the key between the left Ctrl and Alt keys) to open a run box, then
type “inf”. This displays system files that Windows uses, but you normally don’t see or care about. He said the presence of .INF files indicated an infection.

He then had me type [window-key]-f, type “msconfig” and select the Services tab. This shows a list of services, some of which are running and some of which are stopped. He said that I should not have stopped services; they were viruses.

The URL he asked me to type was http://www.pccare.us.comchat.html. He asked me to type it in to the [window-key]-f run box, not into a browser.

http://www.pccare.us.com looks like a legitimate web page for a company doing remote PC support. The “about us” page gives addresses in India (HQ) and Delaware. It shows support for one PC for a year costs $170 for unlimited phone calls. The toll-free phone number given, 800 457-2740, rang without getting picked up at 1:30 PM. I looked for a web domain registration, but a three part name like pccare.us.com is not searchable. us.com is owned by a company that registers domain names called Moniker Computer Services of Pompano Beach Florida. Moniker had no public “whois” web page that would let me find its clients the way I was able to find Moniker.

I finally called 888 514-1650, which was answered “One-stop Emarket” by someone with an Indian accent. When I said “Gee, that wasn’t the company name I have; what else do you go by?” he said “Estop Solutions”

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One other detail: over the next two weeks, I got called by these people with the same opening lines about six times.

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it is an old scam

you just ran into it more recently than others

I’ve been getting a few phone calls lately, from “tech companies” (yesterday they said they were Microsoft themselves) telling me my computer has been hacked and they want to do something or other. I just hung up on the guy who sounded like he was from India. The night before I did the full scan with the Microsoft Security that Woody recommended. It was completely clean. The computer acts pretty much the same as it usually does. Anyone else get any of this?
marshallman

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I’ve had four of these. On the first one, I was busy so told him I knew it was a scam. For the second I started asking pointed questions and he hung up. For the next two I played dumb and followed the first instruction – start the pc. I then laid the phone down and did other things. After a minute or two I’d pick up the phone and say that it was taking a long time to start. After a while they hung up. I figured while they were tied up on my phone call, they were not bothering someone else Iand maybe one who would follow their instructions).

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If and when they call back, ask them for their return phone number. Tell them you are with the department of Justice and want to learn more about their services. One, you will not get their number and two, you will not get a call back. Been over a year since my last one 🙂

Gil Voice

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I let them waffle on about how to get to the red X in whatever part of windows, told them there were no red X es, then after about 10 minutes told them I was using Linux. They just hung up.

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I’ve had several of these calls in the last three months or so.

Caller says he has found problems with my Windows computer. I ask him which one, since I have three of them, all with different versions of Windows. That’s usually enough to make him hang up, but I’ve had a couple callers that I let continue by telling them it’s an XP computer just to see where they are going with this.

Caller doesn’t exactly say so but seems to state that INF files stand for “infected.” Oh my, do I have a lot of those…

If I have the spare time available I’ll let him go through most of his procedure, hitting the wrong keys deliberately so that I can keep him on the line. Eventually I’ll start laughing and he will hang up.

I asked one caller what city he was calling from. He said Colorado. I asked where in Colorado. He said Illinois. I knew it was time to hang up on that one…

Bill

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Yep, I’m in SoCal too and got called for the first time today. Either Filipino or Indian accent. Lots of voices on other calls audible in the background. I accused him of being a telemarketer; ooo, that insulted him. Said he worked in San Jose for Windows, not for Microsoft.
Me: “But Windows IS Microsoft.”
Him: “No, they are separate.”
Claimed my pc was made by Microsoft and “No, Microsoft is not Windows.” Oh, Really?
Claimed if I hung up without permitting them to remotely remove virous-infected [sic](poor guy doesn’t know how to spell virus) files today, that my pc would be blocked and forever unusable. Yikes!
Drilled me down the r-clk MyComputer Manage SystemTools EventViewer Application to see all those *.INF files which are “INFected.” 😉
I kept asking to prove he was trustworthy. He showed me he knew my, i think it was my, XP Pro product key. Me:
“How can I verify you are trustworthy?”
Him: “Here is our website: http://www.windowsglobal.webs.com. If you have any problems after we clean your computer, just email us.”
The call got dropped from his end twice and they have not called back…yet. 🙁
I feel so lonely.

Several Windows Secrets approved anti-virus programs indicate I am clean.
I am hoping someone can tell me how he knew my product key and if it can be blocked.

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got the call last week
could barely understand the guy
said to him are you in nigeria or what
and he said , now in good english, go eff myself and hung up

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Some people are just too sensitive to be in this scam business!

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These have started up again here at my house. Daily. I know it’s a scam, but I wish we could get them to obey the “Put me on your do-not-call list” that I say every time.

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