Phone call scam- received call from a technician who said my system was infected

Had to help a friend of the family sort his machine out after a scammer from "Windows Call Centre" told him he had viruses on his new computer he'd just bought and needed to do a remote connection to sort it out. Once he'd connected (yes he got that far) he opened the Windows Event Log and showed him all the scary red errors that meant his computer was broken, oh and he would need to give this chap his bank account details to go any further and "fix" the errors.

Fortunately he'd finally gotten worried by this point and pulled the plug on his internet connection and put the phone down. This friend said he wouldn't normally believe such a call other than the fact he had just bought a new PC. Not sure if it was just coincidence or if some scammers get inside information on lists of recent customers from some of the larger sellers of PCs/laptops.

It wasn't all bad though, I got a bottle of whisky for my efforts sorting his machine out (unasked for I hasten to add!).

To restore a bit of your faith in humanity, have a search for "scambaiters", people that make a hobby out of scamming the scammers, and seeing how far they can string them along. In some cases they've even managed to get the scammer to send THEM money!

What worries me that they know my phone number, address and maybe other details. I've not bought a computer for years - mainly assembled my own unit to my spec, apart from the old laptop nearly 10 years ago, which still works and mainly is used for downloading - being fast enough and reliable.

IanH, you earned your whiskey. I like the the religious approach to these scammers, they don't know if your crazy or not.

I've unfortunately never had the enjoyment of one of these 'Windows support' scammers call to have fun with. I'm sure it would give me much amusement trying to get them to organise to have my double glazing cleaned.

I do however get much enjoyment out of some of the scammers (especially some of the 'lottery win' scams) by pressing the phone dial buttons and pretending to be very confused that I'm not talking to a friend! It does make them very confused about what to do next and say. Also, the push button dial tone make a very loud annoying noise at the other end of the phone apparently, especially if the other end is wearing a headset...!

Si.

A couple of years ago I was "between jobs" and at home a lot of the time during the day. I was getting quite a few automated calls, "Congratulations, you've won a holiday in Florida, press zero to speak to our agent..." which I just hung up on.

One day, more bored than usual, I pressed zero to see what the sales pitch would be. An American woman answered and started reading her script. I replied to all her questions in French... For a while she carried on reading the script even though she clearly didn't understand a word I was saying. Eventually she said, "Gee, I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish." I nearly hurled some good old Anglo-Saxon abuse at her for not being able to distinguish between my (bad) French and Spanish! Instead I politely told her (still in French) what a shame that was. She seemed at a slight loss as to how to end the call before hanging up. Oddly I don't seem to get any of those calls any more...

Thanks for the heads up! I haven't really received a call like that yet but thanks to the warning. I'm sure I'd recognize the scam when I get one.

By the way, I found complaints similar to what you have here at http://www.callercenter.com. And there were the scammers' phone number posted on there, too. Are you guys connected?

Got another scam, just now. Different, but probably worse, as it's more dangerous:

This person phoned if I want a plug-in device that saves 40% of my electricity.it went like this:

Person: I can save 40% if you get a plug-in energy saver.

me: How does it work?

Person: It saves electricity, as you're a good customer and pay your bills on time.

me: Yeah, but how does it work?

Person: It just does, it's a miracle.

Me: Yeah, right. How can it work, I've only got a single-phase supply, and unless I have got a three-phase supply which is out of balance, then It won't work. I'm a electrician, and build Power Factor Correction units, and this would only save about 25-33% of total.

Person: Thank you, goodbye.

Me: You're a Scammer, aren't you?

Person: +++click+++

Found out that these are bogus, and actually likely to catch fire and electocute you. Also costs £99. Don't fall for it.

It does seem that scams of various types are an issue. My mother received a cheque for some money from a competition she had entered. This she paid into her bank account. The money was accredited to the account after a few days. Then she was offered the opportunity to receive some more money, being a lucky person, just a few details were required to speed up the transfer. This was the point I became aware of what was happening. I strongly suggested it was a scam, it was information that was sought. Very reluctantly, she agreed not to provide the information requested. As far as I know that it is how it has remained, About 6 months later the money she won, was deducted from her account.

In my case it was the Microsoft Monitoring department, they had noticed that I had a slow connection. Had I noticed a slowing of my machine with time? Was I near to my computer, a few details would enable a more detailed assessment of the issues. At this point I could smell something, and decided that it was coming from the phone.

I do find it depressing all the scams, cold calling, which is every day. Yet our government does not seek to regulate any aspect. I have been told by a German, that there are severe restrictions on telephone cold calling there. Even with agreement, a limit of 6 approaches from the same business/client. At least restrictions would be a start.

That £99 power saver thingy was on tele a short while ago. Does absolutly nothing to save power, and they have been known to explode and burn peoples houses down.

Definately something to avoid.....

I bet their electricty bill is reduced when the house is burnt down.

So technically it works

I was caught out a few years ago with one of the Indian scammers when using an old computer which did have problems which I reported to Microsoft. The phone caller suggested he was from Microsoft and was aware of my computer problems which I had reported. After spending about £40 with this crook I eventually realised it was a scam when I contacted the Midland company and was redirected to India!

My sons think I am the biggest mug in the world on the strength of the latter transaction. If we have future calls I pass the phone directly to my oldest son Chris. He always suggests to the callers if they are from Microsoft and are aware of our computer faults then they must know the IP addresses. Once they fail to answer the IP question he then threatens them with legal action which always results in a termination of the phone calls.

MJE

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 30/08/2012 21:27:57

This was a little message that was sent to me recently, with some aeroplanes stuff. As it so happens, it doesn’t really affect me, I don’t have a mobile, but as there are now apparently over 80 million handsets registered in the UK now, I guess if they dial enough numbers they have to get lucky sometimes.

You may have all ready seen this, if so, my apologies, but you cannot be too careful……

PB

Dear All

If you receive a phone call on your mobile from any person, saying that he or she is a company engineer, or telling that they're checking your mobile line, and you have to press #90 or #09 or any other number, end this call immediately without pressing any numbers.

There is a fraud company using a device that once you press #90 or #09 they can access your 'SIM' card and make calls at your expense.
Forward this message to as many colleagues, relatives and friends as you can, to stop it.

Many thanks for your time regarding this matter, take care and regards.

Phil Corris
Police Constable/Crime Prevention Officer
Ext 496696 (Internal)
01524 596696 (External)
Email PhilCorris@lancashire.pnn ..police.uk

Thanks Pete we all need help at times and to be warned to being vigilant every little helps.

I was in the computer industry for 30 years. These scammers are pretty thick. Fairly easy to detect. But they are a danger to 'innocent' ard 'older' people. I'm 67, but by no means innocent.

I have NEVER had a 'cold call' of any kind, honest or dishonest, since I changed my land line to a supplier other than BT about a year a year ago. Mobile? It is 'pay as you go', paid for using cash, always topped up using cash, so no money trail at all. I ignored the mobile service providers 'special offers', as I had to 'register' for them. So no one on the planet, other than my close friends and wife, even know that I have a mobile. Not even the service provider. I never use it from home, as I don't want it to be connected to a location. It is usually switched off when I am driving, as I do not want its position to be located. Paranoid? A criminal? No, I just value my privacy.

I never use credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, or anything like that, though I have them all. My car was paid for by a bankers draft, and your name is not on those. Of course the car dealer knows my name, but there is no financial trail.

Thus for most purposes I simply do not exist, or at least have no financail history. So I don't get cold calls.

Email? Some. But Microsoft don't make spelling mistakes. I don't have an account with the Halifax., or HSBC. so pretty easy to detect them. I have no financail stuff on my computer and I don't use computetrised banking. I do use my banks computerised 'voice' telephone service, but my computer is not involved in that.

BUT - I am here under my real name. I will not voice my opinion (which I often do) unless I am prepared to put my name to it.

WolstonFlyer - My most humble apologies, but I was only passing the message on, I was most certainly not trying to ‘scare‘ anyone. I just accepted it in good faith, assuming it was genuine warning. As it happens, it came to me from a man I’ve known for a very long time, and before he retired he was in the telecoms industry and would have known all about the PABX, or Private Automatic Branch Exchange, and a great deal more besides. So I can only think that he also would have been deceived by PC Phil Corris. Or whoever sent the original message.

As I said, I don’t have a mobile, I’ve never even used one, so I’m in a very sad minority of about two people in the whole world it seems to me, so I’m not at all familiar with this, but it is difficult to see how this can be any sort of scam. It doesn’t seem to be asking you to do anything untoward, rather more on the contrary…..

I’ve now had a 5 minute dig around on my own account, and it seems as though Phil Corris is genuine, and he sent out the email about the mobile sim cards but later it transpired that it may never have been verified. So in fact it was most likely never a threat anyway. But I’m pretty convinced that if anyone that’s read this, and is subsequently given these instructions from a cold caller certainly won’t be taking any chances. So if a scammer ever manages to establish this trick on sim cards at least he will find he has been pre-empted to some extent.

PB

Edited By Peter Beeney on 30/08/2012 23:23:21

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 30/08/2012 23:43:21

This is probably one of the best ways I've coma across to deal with these guys

THat is one of the best laughs I have had for weeks.

On the subject of scammers. I had one of the "You have problmes with your computer." ones. As I happened to be on the lap top and not busy I strung him along until he got to the point of telling me what to type in to give him control of the laptop.

At that point I just "I know that one, you thieving (insert insult of your choice here)" and he hung up.

These days I just say." I know that one. Why don't you ask your parents to get married" Or words to that effect.