Micorsoft support telephone call scam

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:11 pm

Oh yes and don't be fooled if Event Viewer has errors in it. Errors and warnings are events and some of them are related to things you don't ever see. They are also meant to be viewed by IT people so they may say things in ways you can't understand. They can be as miner as your cat walking infront of your wireless router causing your computer not to be able to talk to it for 5 mililsecounds. So next time someone tells you Event Viewer has errors in it, tell them and the libary has books in it.

(mind you I've never tried this.)

lunanne · **Posted:** Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:55 am

Jamie Marchant wrote:

Oh yes and don't be fooled if Event Viewer has errors in it. Errors and warnings are events and some of them are related to things you don't ever see. They are also meant to be viewed by IT people so they may say things in ways you can't understand. They can be as miner as your cat walking infront of your wireless router causing your computer not to be able to talk to it for 5 mililsecounds. So next time someone tells you Event Viewer has errors in it, tell them and the libary has books in it.

(mind you I've never tried this.)

Well, if an IT support person is looking at your computer than it might mean something.

Anyway, you should never trust anyone who randomly calls you, saying that there is something wrong with your computer (unless you know that person that is). How would they know? They would have to be monitoring your computer at all times. The NSA may do that but they're hardly going to call you.

Chunguri · **Posted:** Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:34 pm

hhhenry wrote:

This should go in off topic but it's too important for that.
I got a call tonight from someone, sounded Indian, claiming to be from Microsoft and that they had detected a DNS Virus on my machine.
This is a known scam. They will infect your computer if you give them a chance.
google phone call from microsoft about a virus

I am surprised I am seeing this even here! Yeah, I got calls from those people like 3 times. And I hate to say it...they all sound Indian. The first time I hung up on them. The second time I got mean with them. And the third time, I just played with them. Now next time: I am going to tell them "I do not have a computer."

Tai'lahr · **Posted:** Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:56 pm

Chunguri wrote:

Now next time: I am going to tell them "I do not have a computer."

It's funny, but at the same time, great advice!

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:14 am

Since my post on page 1 where I described my script that I read to each of these callers, I've had about seven such opportunities.

About three calls ago, I spent an hour on the line with one of them, pretending to follow along. I told him Notepad started up when he asked me to type "eventvwr" after about five minutes of asking him to please repeat the spelling. He said that's impossible. Yeah, it is. When I asked him his name, he replied "Dennis." I said, "That's a very American name for someone from India." <crickets> I said I was having some trouble with my system lately and it would reboot itself. That "happened" twice during the call, but he was patient while I was "waiting for Windows to restart" while actually writing some code. "It's a good thing you called," I said, "maybe you can help me fix that problem too."

When it got boring, I just read my script. "What?" So I read it again.

He suggested a crude conjugal act and insulted my parentage. I said, "Call any time."

jalind · **Joined:** Sat Sep 06, 2014 8:05 pm **Posts:** 37

I get these calls about once every 2-3 months. I guess they're still getting folks to bite on their scam. :shock:

I first ask him to speak slowly so I can understand better. Then I ask which of my five computers it is, and which version of the MS O/S it is (to help isolate which one): Win7 Pro x64, Win7 Ult x64, or my legacy WinXP x64 (yes they did make a 64-bit XP), or if it's a 32-bit WinXP SP3 that might be running in a VM on one of the Win7 x64 platforms, and it could be any one of three of those. That usually stumps them for a bit -- and I insist that it's not possible to fix anything unless they can tell me which of them it is -- but that if there is a problem, I really do need their help to get it fixed. I've managed to get a couple of them flustered enough to keep them on the line for some time while they stumble and mumble, having been derailed off-script. I'm supposedly restarting all the VMs and hardware and booting them up to try to isolate which one it is. Usually ends with my asking if they're still seeing the problem on their end and the answer is invariably yes. I respond that I've had all the PCs completely powered down for a while, so he must have the wrong phone number.

John

debeh · **Joined:** Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:23 pm **Posts:** 41

i prefer the "excuus mee, i do not speak eng-lish ferri fell" method (imagine worst german accent).
then i assure them, that it is sooo nice they tell me that i have that problem, and of course i will try to do whatever they want. After countless "language problems" on my side ("i don't understand, what is a [insert words like typing, enter, keyboard here], please explain") they usually give up.

next time i'll try to convince them to solve the problem remotely "your nice colleague did it last week, why can't you?!" i bet it will be much fun to discuss why i should give them all data "again"....

Kero · **Posted:** Sat Sep 20, 2014 4:32 pm

My favorite answer to this kind of telephone call....(using a very high pitched old lady's voice)

Why young man/lady, it was so very nice of you to call and tell me that the Windows on my PC/computer has that problem. Now - please - would you explain to me what a PC/computer is?

Most times I get silence and a click - one time I did get a nasty word though....my, such language from such nice helpful people. :lol:

janeerah · **Posted:** Sun Sep 21, 2014 10:59 am

or you can reverse the thing... and say that you are from 'xyz' and working on fixing 'their' computers :lol:

Micorsoft support telephone call scam

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