BEWARE of a call from a Microsoft tech

[CaliforniaMama]

I got a call from India. The guy said he was a Microsoft tech. He said they had been getting notices of viruses on my computer and he was calling to help me fix it.

Red flag in brain starts waving.

He told me to go to Start and Right click on Computer, then select Computer Management.

In Computer Management he told me to Expand Event View then expand Application. He told me that every yellow and red flag meant I had viruses on my computer that would download every time I went on the internet.

"What about my virus software?"

He told me the virus software wasn't keeping up with these and he would tell me how to fix them.


I told him to hang on a sec and put the phone down. I went to That's Nonsense and found this article that says:

The scam relies on the victim believing the scammer represents Microsoft, or some other professional and relevant body such as anti-virus companies. However companies like this do not cold call users in such a manner, so if such a call arises, users are advised to inform the scammer that they are aware of the scam and hang up the phone immediately. This way the scammer should acknowledge that further calls would be futile.

I hear the guy yelling for me through the phone, so I pick it up to continue with him. He tells me to get on the internet and go to Ammyy Admin, a remote access provider, where I see:


I tell the guy about the warning and he says they put that there to warn fakers away. :

[JBKlyde]

A scam is a scam but not if it's clam chowder...

[Sundae]

I had a very convincing scam email the other day. Not.
Apparently my Peypal account was overdrawn.

C'mon!

[DanaC]

Have you had the one where a virus locks out your computer with a fake police notice, telling you you've been downloading naughties on the internet and you have to pay a £100 fine?

[Clodfobble]

Those guys called me a couple months ago, Cali. He said they had "checked" from their offices and that my computer had a lot of viruses on it. I laughed and said, "No it doesn't" and he shouted angrily, "YES IT DOES!" right as I was hanging up.

You can't be a scammer if you can't keep your rage in for more than 30 seconds...

[Undertoad]

It's very common.

http://www.reddit.com/search?q=call+from+microsoft

[zippyt]

Same dude called here my wife said let me have you talk to my husband, golly gee by the time I got on the phone he was gone

[footfootfoot]

no one ever calls me about scams

[chrisinhouston]

I seem to only get emails from Nigeria saying I won a lot of money, and once I got an email from Yassar Arafat's widow asking for help in a funds transfer.

[DanaC]

I stayed on the phone with one of them for ages. I was asking him the exact relationship between his company and microsoft. And what their postal address was and stuff. Also told him I knew it was a scam it's all over google and it's been covered on all the consumer rights shows.

At one point he started swearing at me, calling me a fucking bitch, fucker, fucker, fucker...etc.

I just laughed.

[footfootfoot]

I like to start asking telemakerters personal questions. Innocuous ones at first, then increasingly more personal. I liked a lot of Jim Florentine's stuff. ACtually, Tom Mabe's call is the best:



Maybe I could work in that old joke about the kid who asks his grandpa to borrow the car and his grandpa asks him if his dick is long enough to touch his own asshole. The kid says, no. Grandpa says, come back and ask me again when it is.

Finally the kid comes back and says his dick is long enough to reach his own asshole and the grandpa says, Good. Now go fuck yourself.

[footfootfoot]

OMG
Listen to end.

[tw]

Originally Posted by chrisinhouston

I seem to only get emails from Nigeria saying I won a lot of money, ....

Fundamental part is a perversion of System Signal 7 or SS7. Summarized here many years ago.

Discussed previously in 2004

It may explain why Nigeria is a top three long distance phone calling country to the US. So profitable to steal identities in the US and to get US citizens to invest in people who cannot even prove they are who they claim to be.

Being a Nigerian prince (the famous 419 scam) is profitable because so many people believe the first thing they are told. Because so few actually demand supporting facts and numbers. So few interrogate the 'cold caller' as was demonstrated above.

A friend who did this stuff loved calling the religious. They would routinely fall for whatever he told them to believe. They would never demand supporting facts with numbers. (Same people also define gays as evil).

Previously discussed were other aspects of the same problem. We foolishly want to address the wrong problems by inventing fraud where fraud virtually did not exist. In essence, empowering those who operate to our detriment.

We need solutions that, due to wacko extremist rhetoric, could never be implemented: A National ID Card. Underlying two strategic objectives defined here.

Corruption of SS7 (as described in a quoted letter from Attorney General Corbett) is simply another perspective of that problem.