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Alert

A call from the technical department of Microsoft

Sep 25, 2015 8:34AM PDT

I received a call on my husband's landline from Microsoft Technical Department. The caller identified himself as Peter Jones. He had an Indian accent. He wanted me to go on the internet with my computer, because there were many corrupt files downloaded on my computer every time I go online. He had to help me to remove it.

I thought it sounded strange, because how would he link the landline to my computer? in any case, I asked him to call me on Saturday, because my laptop was not with me. I gave him my mobile number. He gave me a code: 05.

I did not trust this, and Googled Microsoft Technical department. I found interesting information there, and could not wait for Peter to call back.

Today, Friday, I received another call from my friend. He called from the number +1 516-342-5264. It said New York on my phone. He said he wanted more information from me. I asked him how on earth he would know that my computer has problems if he wanted info from me. He should know certain information. I also told him that I contacted Microsoft, and they said they don't do things this way. (I did not)

When I told him that he was a fraud, he put the phone down. Just an alert that this is still continuing. I live in South Africa.

Discussion is locked

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Love It...Bad Windows in Your House
Sep 30, 2015 5:28PM PDT

I'll have to remember this for the next time these moron, low life's call about windows on my computer...I have a couple of windows that need replacing. This is just too funny. Go get them, maybe they will get their heads stuck in the window.

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We Got Those Calls Too Very Recently
Sep 30, 2015 3:43PM PDT

Recently we have been getting these calls as well. The callers always have a Chinese accent and there is what sounds like a busy call center in the background. They tell us our computer and phone are sending out viruses.

I always give them the run around and hang up. This seems to have tired them out as the calls have stopped since last week...

I also contacted Microsoft Support through Live Chat. They verified that they do not make these types of calls and the callers are certainly scammers.

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Calls stopping....
Oct 1, 2015 10:23AM PDT

for a WHILE...just wait a few weeks to months...they'll start up again. I've seen this stop/start pattern for several years, now. I think that different 'call centers' pop up all the time with fresh robodialers.

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A call from the technical department of Microsoft
Sep 30, 2015 4:25PM PDT

I feel special! I get a couple of these calls a week!

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You have reached Bill Gates?
Sep 30, 2015 4:30PM PDT

Dafydd. Grin

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Just stop the calls getting through in the first place
Oct 1, 2015 2:08AM PDT

There appears to be many members who have time on their hands to play with these scammers. I work from home and used to frequently have my concentration interrupted by such scam calls and marketing calls but now, when my phone rings, I know that it is a genuine caller. The answer was to invest £50 in a telephone (British Telecomm 5600) that filters incoming calls. Callers on my 'white list' come through as normal but everyone else, regardless of where they are calling from, receive an automated request to announce their name and press the # key. A genuine caller will do this so I do not miss any important calls but scammers and telemarketers will not so I do not even get interrupted by the phone ringing - brilliant!

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This is great advice if you live in Britain, however...
Oct 1, 2015 10:32AM PDT

If you live elsewhere, then what?

Does anyone know of such equipment available in the US?

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In the USA.
Oct 1, 2015 10:51AM PDT
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Thank you, R. Proffitt. N/T
Oct 1, 2015 10:55AM PDT

N/T

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Everyone gets these calls - even Microsoft employees
Oct 1, 2015 4:12AM PDT

I actually work for Microsoft as a developer on the main campus in Redmond, WA. Every so often I get one of these calls on my cell phone. My usual response: "Does your mother know you commit fraud and try to cheat people for a living? Would she be proud of you? I don't think so."

My alternate response: "Please hold while I connect you to the Legal and Corporate Affairs department of the real Microsoft Corporation; they work just down the hall and they'd love to chat."

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I had fun with mine.
Oct 1, 2015 7:35AM PDT

Liz, I had one of these calls about a year ago, so I decided to have some fun with him. I was using Windows 7 Ultimate at the time, and had the Virtual Windows XP installed. So I told him I was old, and didn’t understand very much about what he was talking about. This must have made his day.

I opened the Virtual Windows XP, and followed, with great difficulty, and many errors and restarts on my part, his instructions. Eventually I let him log into my Virtual Windows XP. As that was all he could see, he thought he was in my main system. Everything on my computer is encrypted, and password protected, even the things on the Virtual XP. So he was constantly asking for the password for this and that.

One thing I should point out, is I had very little actual data on the Virtual Machine, mostly old games, but every time he came to a road block he would ask me for the password. I would tell him I would have to look it up in my fictitious "password book", and would take my time “looking it up”, and many times would give him the wrong password.

I was having the time of my life, but I could tell that he was getting more, and more frustrated with me. I strung him along for about an hour, using such tricks as rebooting my whole computer, or unplugging the DSL cable from the modem, and telling him that my modem dose that all the time, and I just have to unplug it, wait for a moment, and plug it back in. Of course I wasn’t doing that, I was just unplugging the DSL cable, waiting a couple of minutes, and plugging it back in.

In the end, I was starting to get bored with toying with him, so I let him have full access to the Virtual XP. I watched with a chuckle as he searched for my email contacts, and could only find Cnet.com, PCMAG.com, TechRepublic, and my address book program, with the default fake names, and addresses in it.

When he discovered that he had spent over an hour on the phone, and on line with me, and had nothing to show for it, he proceeded to delete most of the system files that runs Windows XP. He then called me a very nasty name for wasting his time and hung up. I closed the Virtual Machine, plugged in my External Back Up drive, and restored the Virtual XP to its original configuration.

I had my fun, but now that I’m on Windows 10, without a Virtual Machine, I just say I don’t have a computer, and they immediately hang up, and look for their next victim. I hope this gives you some ideas, if not insights into these scam artists. Just remember that Microsoft, Apple, Android, and your computer manufacturer will NEVER call you to report a problem. If someone does, ask for their name, and phone extension, then call the real number (you can find it on their Web Site), and ask to speak to that person, at the given extension. More often than not, you will be told that there is no such person, or extension. I hope this helps.

Regards,
Mr. Windows

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Received scareware from someone using the Safari emblem
Oct 1, 2015 8:48AM PDT

I have received scareware using the Safari emblem. Just deleted it. It was saying that someone was trying to get into my emails and steal my I.D. Then, please click on ---- to protect your computer, etc. etc. I was able to just delete it. Then later I received some more and I was NOT able to delete it and it also made my computer (MacBookPro) extremely slow and the email message on my desktop. It did not even go away after I shutdown my computer, it came back again after I started it. Finally I went to the Apple store and went to Genius Bar and the person was able to get it off. He told me he had to fix lots of computers with the same emails. They have different names. One was computergeek, I think. Reason I did not take the bait is because I annually have to take classes and a test for security where I work.

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(NT) Fear your target! ... Robocaller!
Oct 1, 2015 3:48PM PDT
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Fear Your Target2! .... Robocaller!
Oct 1, 2015 6:03PM PDT

Ooops! This reply NOW INCLUDES the note! ... I hit the wrong key before! Apologies!

Well Mr. Koo, this has turned into a "most fun" topic! I've really enjoyed all your reader "Posts" on "How to handle the MS IT Robocallers!" Some absolutely great responses! ... many of which I have used myself! My absolute favorite was the response ........ "I'm having a drone sent immediately to the source of your phone signal!" That was FABULOUS! Believe it or not I think my "latest" game I play with them I haven't seen mentioned yet and may give some of your readers "an idea" to expand upon as well!

First a bit about me.... I'm stereotyped as one of those old feeble folks who continually cannot protect themselves because I'm so old.... I'm 71.

However, don't believe ALL those stereotypes! I have a sign on my wall that says "Life begins at 200 MPH! Yeah. I like fast cars and own several. I'm a gearhead and have raced a lot over the years(still own one of my old race cars) I love all guns and can still put 5 out of 10 in the X ring at 50. Did I mention I also like techy stuff? Yep. Never worked in IT anywhere but over the years but I just kinda decided "Puters" were kinda "Neat" .... started in 1983-4 with the Commodore 64 and just kept my fingers in it including the last few Windows systems I've built for various friends and family members... I could go on..... I won't .... and I will get back to the subject..........

Robocallers! ---- One of my ruses is the " Old Fart" dude......... Of course I play that part well!.........I take my Pakistani Robocaller friend hand in virtual hand and lead him down the primrose path until with heartfelt words of thanks our dialogue progresses to the point I tell him I have never had anyone offer me so much help or express so much concern in an attempt to fix my "Hack-In-Tosh" machine that I just finished building! That's fun! I have received some "crazy" responses!

OK .......NOW...... ON to the reverse scam no one has mentioned yet ........ You are gonna love it!
First you have a little ..."prep work" to do ... pick up your own little personal handheld digital voice recorder (mine's an inexpensive Sony) and record one of your many "robocalls" where you intentionally lead your RoboGuy on for a while then save that voice file.
Next it goes like this ..... My persona changes... I'm no longer the Old Fart ........ Now I'm an "Agent" of your favorite alph-agency... NSA,FBI, IRS, DEA, CIA ... pick your poison....
Keep your recorder handy with the prerecorded Robocaller's file queued and ready to play...........now you are ready to twist your next RoboCallerSleazeBag into a knot tight enough to cut him off at the knees and choke the crap out of him as well as to scare him into never picking up a phone again!!!
The Next New RoboCall comes in ........
You say "Hello" (and let him begin his pitch) normally they talk quickly in an attempt to keep you on the phone...you pick an appropriate place to interrupt and say "Sir I'm having a hard time understanding you, could you speak a bit clearer and possibly a little slower please?"
Normally they want to "set the hook" so they do it, most go ever the same pitch again.... (however, I actually did have one hang up on me at that point when I asked though.) At the next appropriate interruption, you drop the bomb in your best "Stern Agent Voice!" "Mr. Jones, I need to stop you right here .... I am Mr. Anderson (get it?!) and I'm a Cyber Security Field Agent with the CIA. We have been alerted to your activity and have been following you for several months(weeks,days - take your pick). We have recorded you on calls similar to this before. (Start playing voice recorder so he can hear it in the background! Hee-hee!!) We intercepted this call to 999-999-9999 (your number) to let you know we now have your voice recorded multiple times and after today with great clarity for verification. As we speak your recordings are being entered into our CIA Voice Recognition Database for Cyber Terrorists. You also may or may not know, as a Federal Agent of the Department of Justice of the United States of America, I am bound by law to let you know we have been recording you. This is your notice of such a recording. It is only a matter of time before we identify your true identity Mr. Jones. So it would behoove you to reveal that to us at this time. What is your real name Mr. Jones?

Need I say more! HaHaHa! ....... Do a couple of these and you will really get good at it!
Oh Yeah .............. Remember this Grasshopper..........
Never...Never...Never mess with us "Old Farts" ... You might surprise yourself!

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Another call from "Microsoft Technical Department"
Oct 2, 2015 6:20PM PDT

I received a call from "Michael Spence" who said he was from Microsoft's technical department and wanted to help me resolve a technical issue I was having. He asked me to access the event viewer and seemed to have some knowledge of my problem. When I asked him how I could know he was really from Microsoft, he guided me to an internal ID number in my computer and said no one but Microsoft had access to that ID. I later learned that it was not a unique number to my computer. He asked me to download and install a program named teamviewer. I realized that he was trying to gain access to my computer. At that point our phone call experienced a dropout. I became very suspicious when that happened. He called me back and asked me again to install the software. I told him that I was not willing to allow him take control of my computer. While he was trying to talk me into installing the program we experienced another dropped call. He tried to cal me back but I didn't answer. He left his name and phone number 315-215-3520 and asked me to call him back. I looked at the numbers of my past received calls and saw that he had also called from 213-940-1370 and 684-573-2543. I received numerous calls from those numbers after that but did not answer them. Would I have fallen for his scheme if it were not for the dropped calls? I don't know, That may have saved me.

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Sucked In
Oct 3, 2015 1:21AM PDT

My brain was on vacation when I was sucked in by one of these guys a couple of months ago. When I came to my senses a couple of hours later, I called my credit card company to ask for a new card and dispute the charge for the fake bs, as well as initiating a credit freeze from the three credit
reporting companies. Serves me right for answering a call from an unknown number. Won't happen again anytime soon.

I'd rather listen to my hair grow than waste time with scammers!

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Like this?
Oct 3, 2015 4:05PM PDT

Dafydd.
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I get this call a lot
Oct 3, 2015 6:51AM PDT

This is a scam. Someone is seeking access to your computer. Microsoft never cold-calls users about support issues.

I get these calls about once a month (despite being on the Do Not Call list and employing NoMoRoBo's services). I have fun with these guys, who invariably have an Asian accent, and when I'm not particularly busy I try to tie them up for as long as I can, maybe saving some more gullible people from receiving their call today. I am retired now, but I used to be the Internet Services and IT Security Administrator at a major Federal agency justly renowned for its technological prowess. I start by sounding alarmed and asking how they discovered this problem, and what the nature of it might be. Then I explain that I have a number of computers in my home, and ask them which one is showing the problem. After they hem and haw a bit, I ask them simply to provide me with the IP address of the offending machine, or at least the computer's name. This always brings 'em up short. It get's particularly fun when they try to guess.

Sometimes they can get quite abusive. That's when it REALLY gets fun.

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Tell them you are hard of hearing, they must speak louder
Oct 3, 2015 9:40AM PDT

You're a bit older and don't hear well or the phone line is bad so they must speak up. Then say it's still difficult to hear their instructions clearly so the need to speak slowly and loudly. Eventually they're almost yelling. I can steal a few minutes of their time if I play it right.

Imagine how silly they must feel near their peers when they realize they've been scammed; that is my revenge.

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and then...
Oct 3, 2015 12:49PM PDT

...When they get really loud, ask them to stop yelling at you.

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I stopped them from calling me
Oct 3, 2015 3:48PM PDT

Last year, I got my first call from the Microsoft Technical Department, while I had some friends over... I am usually pretty good at cutting through deep accents, but I couldn't understand anything this guy said, except for 'Microsoft Technical'... I hung up....this was at 6 p.m.

A few days later, another call, different guy, he told me he was from MTD, and they were going to block my computer because I had XP on it and they needed to install Win7 on it. I told him to quit calling, and if anything was done to my computer it would be through a local business I trusted. This call was like 3 in the afternoon.

Then they caught me on a really bad day. I have had several back injuries and was in pain all night..and they called me at 7 am...on a Sunday - just when I finally was falling to sleep.

I didn't get to the land line phone on time, (I have that and a remote phone but it was on the charger in the computer room) and my answering machine picked up and recorded the conversation. My friends and family have had some huge laughs listening to it... because I absolutely went ballistic on this guy.

Again, a heavy indie accent, but I could understand it, and he said his name was 'Jim'...yeah, right.

I told him that I warned them twice to quit calling me, and I thought maybe I could scare them off by saying I was going to report them to my state's Attorney General's Office for trying to scam me, and I told him I knew he wasn't working for Microsoft.

He then had the nerve to interrupt me and tell me they were going to block my computer. He angrily says, "Mam, We WILL Block your computer! It's filled with viruses and we are trying to clean up the internet from computers like yours. You will not be able to access the internet unless you let us access your computer and install Win7.

I still hadn't told him at this point that I already had Win7...and he probably figured I had XP because I didn't correct him the first time he mentioned it.

I went nuclear - it's bad enough when they try to scam ya but then to threaten like that.. I'm sure his threatening to block stuff has worked on some but I'm a lot brighter than a 100 watt bulb and didn't fall for it.

I used some of the worst profanity that exists and at a volume that would have shamed a megaphone.

I told him he could not 'fn block my computer' because he couldn't access it, otherwise he wouldn't need my help and he wasn't going to gain access to it either. (all of these sentences was sprinkled with your choice of cuss words to get a feel for what I said... lol ) I told him he didn't even know what operating system I had and that according to my anti virus programs my computer is 100 percent clean.

I called him every name in the book, and invented a few. I'm pretty sure that between the cussing and the volume of my voice, I caused his ears to bleed....for a week afterwards.
He hung up.... and I've never been called back by them.

When ever I need a laugh I listen to that recording. It shocked my nieces and friends because I rarely cuss or raise my voice...and my nieces especially have never heard me get angry before....lol.

Stormy

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Good Points
Oct 3, 2015 7:17PM PDT

I never go as far as you did because I KNOW that they have my telephone number and I don't want retribution. Especially since their telephone number is spoofed on caller ID and they are probably going through a proxy so their IP address is probably accessible.
A woman at work contacted tech support of some company and the guys with the accent called her back and cursed at her a few times and called her names and used profanity. I assume she did what she needed to do.

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tell them it's your wife's computer
Oct 6, 2015 7:42AM PDT

and they need to call her instead at (202) 278-2000 and hang up. If they call it, that's the FBI office in Washington DC.

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turn a negative into a positive

I used to get angry at these guys. That after several more calls I thought. "hey I'm retired if you can waste my time, then allow me to have some fun and waste your time."
I haven't had a call for over a month and actually miss them. The last batch I had was when they used North American or Anglo names like Bob, Bill, Jack...you know the rest. Hmmm, middle eastern thick accent using those names? How dumb are you to be so obvious?

One of my first times I told the obvious scammer to "....off and stop scamming people", then he told me to do the same.
Then after several more calls he would tell me this is Windows NOT Microsoft. Playing stupid I'd ask, "oh did Microsoft finally sell Windows?"
After playing more games I told him I don't have a computer and don't even have a phone.
My thoughts. if you're going to waste my time allow me the pleasure to waste yours.

For those readers that feel sorry for those third world people. These very third world people know too well that it's a fraud. I, too am on the DO NOT CALL registry and Bell, plus our government and media have admitted it was a ineffective. Kind of brings a tear to your eyes.

A couple of years ago when this scam was at its peak, one of our consumer protection TV programs CBC's Market Place actually found and visited one of the call centers over in the middle east. Today, I don't even remember what country it was.
The bad guy answered a direct question for the TV host and simply said, yes we are running a scam but as long as there are naïve people in the world we can make money.
Host: what about your ruining lives?
Bad guy: That doesn't bother us. It's make money doing this or doing something else
Host: what about this being illegal?
Bad buy: your laws don't affect us. So we don't worry.
Of course the conversation and interview went on and on, but that's the gist of it. Typical no remorse

It's the same scam as duct cleaning. Pay for the scam and no one shows up.. I usually answer "I don't have ducts only turkeys. Do you have turkey cleaners?" pause.... then they hang up.
Some times I'll say I live in a card board box.

Hey scammers. if you're going to waste my time then I can have some fun too, it's more fun than watching paint dry or listening to political debates...yaaaawn.
Come to think of it politicians are scammers too. OMG we're surrounded with idiots !!!

Ok, so there's my rant with some fun intended.
One person here asked how do they get our numbers. It's basically a computer that dials randomly and if they get a live one, then they move forward. Same as those blank calls we get (no one on the other end). That, too, is a computer to see if your phone line is real, active or not. Then they strike later.

Crime has no boundaries. The sad thing is that we have too many bad guys that know the system and too many laws preventing the good guys from doing their job? Bleeding hearts? No, just stupidity at large. Law makers and law enforcers can't do anything because of international laws. It's up to us to look after ourselves and our friend and neighbours
If there's anything anyone here can do as a positive, please help the seniors who may be too trusting to be aware, whether computers or duct cleaning. Like it has been said many times. "It's ok to say no"

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This is THE very best post in here so far! n/t
Oct 7, 2015 12:00PM PDT

n/t