Weird one - call from Microsoft support... new scam

[Rich Engelhardt]

I just had a call from someone saying they were with Microsoft support.
Very heavy foreign accent.
I questioned the caller and as near as I could make out, sshe was saying I had some corruption to my Windows on my PC.

I asked to talk to her supervisor and she himmed and hawed for a few seconds, then some guy with an equally heavy accent came on the line.
From what I could make out from him, he said my Windos computer was sending a lot of corruption to their server.
He wanted me to allow them to remote into my PC so he could point out where the corruption was.
He hung up on me as soon as I told him no.

Normally, I would have just hung up right away - but - not 10 min prior to that, my Microsoft Security Essentials had popped up a message that it quarentined something. I didn't have a chance to see what it was before the call came in.
FWIW - what was caught was some kind of Java exploit - Tonier to be exact.

Just a heads up.

[Curt Harms]

There was a hilarious thread on Ubuntu forums written by someone who took perverse delight in wasting these peoples' time. One suggestion I thought was cute but don't know if anybody ever did it. Install XP on a virtual machine and give it an absolute minimum of resources - and have a bunch of stuff running in the background to boot. Set it up so a sloth is speedy by comparison. Then after acting dumb for as long as possible, let them try to 'fix' this rigged XP install. When they finally give up, delete the VM.

[John McClanahan]

Common sense says it's a scam. Can you imagine the phone work force needed by Microsoft if they tried calling everyone that had attack attempts on their PCs? :eek::eek:

I don't know about Windows, but on my Mac I can turn Java off, avoiding these problems. I don't seem to miss anything that Java may have to offer.

John

[Mike Henderson]

My wife and I have gotten several of those calls. Last time I received one, I told the guy he needs to come up with a new scam because this one has grown a long beard.

Mike

[Rich Riddle]

We had a call like that once. It was fairly humorous since we only use Mac computers free of Microsoft programs.

[Jim Rimmer]

I will expose the egg on my face and admit that I fell for this scam. I found out it was a scam when things just didn't look right. $5 for fixing everything - but they were already in my computers. I turned everything off and called Microsoft. They told me they don't ever call and do not use the term "Certified Microsoft Technician". They connected me with someone who could fix everything (for a fee) and all is well. The damage was limited because I turned of the computers when I got suspicious and changed out bank accounts and credit cards. It ended up being a lot of work for me but minimal financial impact.

Lesson learned: I can't think of any company that will call you and offer to fix things for a fee if you give them access. Not credit cards co., banks, PC makers, etc. I felt really stupid.

[paul cottingham]

I got a call like that the other day. Little dude tells me my Windows computers have been hacked, and I need to give him access in order to fix them. Told him I was a computer tech for 20 years, and I could fix my own computers, thanks you. I also told them all I use is Linux, and my wife uses macs, so I doubted he was getting messages from my windows network. Besides, I am behind a good firewall.
Next thing I know he is screaming at me and telling me that my computers will be hacked the next day. I couldn't help myself, I asked "why not start today?" I guess he is a procrastinator, cause nothing has been touched.
but I'm waiting....

[Jim Matthews]

Anybody that thinks technical support calls YOU has never been to IT limbo.


They could at least play something besides Enya for purgatory music.
It's not as if Microsoft lacks problems to fix, and would be looking for more...

[Myk Rian]

I got one of these calls last year. I asked the dude how he got my phone number, since I never gave it to MS.
After a couple Umms, and Errrs, I hung up on him.

[Jim Becker]

Not a "new" scam at all...but a very real one...

[John C Lawson]

I've gotten several of these. I hang up right away now, but the first time I asked the guy if he could tell me who my ISP was. He said he didn't know and couldn't find out my IP address either. I asked him how he could tell the messages were from me, then I hung up. I must have made it onto some "do waste your time with this guy list" because I haven't gotten a call like that in months.