Microsoft Phone call

[Nevertheless]

Chunder

 

[grimlock]

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/pay-up-or-your-pcs-toast-20100630-zm8i.html

Australians are being swindled out of hundreds of dollars by dodgy call centres pretending to be affiliated with Microsoft, who cold call victims and scare them into believing their computer is infected with a virus.

Microsoft Australia says the scammers, who typically operate out of India, are sophisticated enough to avoid blatantly breaking the law. Instead, they use social engineering tricks to convince victims into handing over their money, making it virtually impossible for the company to shut them down.

 

[Borgsta]

How to people get swindled by this? How on Earth would Microsoft get your phone number?

 

[grimlock]

How to people get swindled by this? How on Earth would Microsoft get your phone number?

Call up random numbers in the phonebook, there si a very good chance that the person is running Windows of some sort.

 

[red+black]

I think the calls may be legitimate. If you have Windows, then your computer is already infected with malicious software.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Got a phone call earlier from an Indian man telling me he was from Microsoft & that my computer was infected with Malicious programs and files & that he can fix it. Was cautious to start with, so i let him speak for a while then hung up. Has anyone else had this phone call? Dodgy

Yeah got the same thing the other day as well. The guy hung up after I started asking him questions about MS and how exactly he got my phone number and that I knew for a fact my computer was free of malware.

I later read an article about it. Apparrentley the company is randomly calling people up in Aus and telling them to go to event viewer. As most who have seen this would know, the event viewer usually has a list of errors in it, represented by big red X's. The 'MS reps' try and tell you this is malware. Pretty hilarious.

 

[HarryTiger]

It's probably a poverty/population thing but the more I hear about Indians the less I want Australia to do with them.

 

[TheStinger]

Yeah got the same thing the other day as well. The guy hung up after I started asking him questions about MS and how exactly he got my phone number and that I knew for a fact my computer was free of malware.

I later read an article about it. Apparrentley the company is randomly calling people up in Aus and telling them to go to event viewer. As most who have seen this would know, the event viewer usually has a list of errors in it, represented by big red X's. The 'MS reps' try and tell you this is malware. Pretty hilarious.

Yeah, I got this a few days ago. I went with the "ask questions and tell him my laptop is malware free" tactic but he just plowed on regardless. I asked him what the companies name was again (I forget now) and while he was telling me what to do, I was googling it.

He got to some point in his list of things for me to do and he says something about a list of errors. I said I don't have any errors. He says "you are running Windows Vista, correct?"

I say "No, Windows 7"

He says "....::click:: beep beep beep beep"

 

[Borgsta]

Call up random numbers in the phonebook, there si a very good chance that the person is running Windows of some sort.

Yes but how do people believe that microsoft have their phone number. MS never ask for it.

 

[grimlock]

Yes but how do people believe that microsoft have their phone number. MS never ask for it.

You give dumb people too much credit. Besides, the scammers only need a low success rate to make this worth their while. Same with spam email, only a tiny percentage click on it, but they can make big $$$ from it.

 

[Borgsta]

You give dumb people too much credit. Besides, the scammers only need a low success rate to make this worth their while. Same with spam email, only a tiny percentage click on it, but they can make big $$$ from it.

I do believe this is one of my greatest flaws TBH.

 

[Dan Moody]

just had a call about 5 minutes ago and thought of this thread.
knew exactly what was up straight away, i thought i'd lead him on a fair bit e.g "just tell me what you want me to run and i'll do it" and subsequently telling this guy, "sorry mate i've accidentally closed the computer down, do you know my password, i've forgotten my password, can you help me with this?" and finally "oh shit the internet's broken, my wife forgot to pay the bill, can i ring you back next week after pay day"
he quickly thanked me and hung up.

 

[buck bundy]

Funny thing is my mum would probably fall for a scam like this... she is not dumb either, just technically clueless and far too trusting.

 

[Borgsta]

You give dumb people too much credit.

LOL my old man called me last night saying that he has Microsoft on the phone telling him that he has lots of problems with his computer.

He gave them remote access just before calling me. I told him to tell her to "**** off and die" and turn off his PC.

When I asked why he believed them he said he has no idea about computers and he doesn't know where Microsoft is located so its possible they called from Melbourne.

Kind of understandable but disappointing he let it get that far.