'Microsoft' scam.

[Graham]

Laid up at home today and took a phonecall on the landline. The caller claimed to be from Microsoft Technical support and proceeded to tell me me about various viruses and malware they'd found.

 

I told him i didn't believe him but he said he could confirm my PCs ID no. etc.

 

I gave him short shrift but it seems from a quick search that this is a scam originating in India and they direct you to a site that downloads some sort of program followed by a demand for payment.

 

He sounded very convincing and I'm sure that many an elderly person, and not so elderly, could be taken in by this.

 

May be prudent to warn family, friends etc.

[daveindales]

This scam has been around for a while now. They are quite convincing, and I know of a couple of people who have been taken in by them. Just put the phone down on them.

[easy-lift guy]

May I suggest if anyone receives such a call and you have caller ID , record the number and forward to your police as well as Mircrosoft. It may help further the investigation to stop the fraud.

easy-lift guy

[twistedhicap]

i lead them on by saying we only have a typewriter and then get technical on them till im bored !

 

Best one was a company getting about changing gas suppliers we have no gas here but i told them we use dto much for them to help and we had a 14" gas main and we used several thousand cubic feet of gas a day it wasnt long beofre he twigged i was winding him up but we had a good giggle at his wasting of our time !

[adbat234]

Get these kind of calls quite regular.

I like to have a bit of fun with them by talking in a full on lancastrian accent and asking them questions such as "Has ta ever stuck narner up thi bum lad" or "Does tha go baat sniffin nickers when tha's not graftin" etc....

They have no clue what i am saying as its said at speed in an accent they cant understand. Hearing them reply with "Yes sir, now please go to your computer and turn it on" only encourages me :lol:

Scum deserve all the abuse we can throw at them!!

[scraggs]

A friend of my mums (84 years old) got ripped off by these thieving scum bags.

I get my fair share of them phoning and play them along as long as possible, whilst I am wasting thier time they aint screwing some other poor bugger over, but the last one I had I kept going for about 20 minutes and she was furious when I finished, she then proceeded to phone me every 30 minutes for the rest of the day hurling foul langauge down the phone at me, she got even more upset when I kept saying "I love it when you talk dirty to me"

They should be put up against a wall and shot imo

[RobRainford]

My dad had this a couple of months back. I took a second call from him the day after and as I know my way round computers I kept asking him questions that he could only answer with 'have I told you I am Microsoft trained technician and that I need to clean my computer or else it will slow down but I need to have a subscription for this'

 

I kept him on for 20 minutes and were going round in circles. I kept asking how he got my number but couldn't answer that! I thought it was amusing!

[Rich2484]

You can have them done for harassment aswell. If hey call you and you ask them to remove you from there list they must oblige. If they call you again its harassment....

 

I hate these companies and its always good to have a laugh with them. I keep them going by asking lots of questions then I will tell them I have a huge bill and if they clear it I will join them (for the gas and lecy ones anyway) they soon hang up on me.

 

 

The scam one has been around for a while. It's easier to just hang up straight away. Another one a while ago was a bt one. They phone claiming to be from bt and say you owe them money or they will disconnect you. There way of proving it was that they will hang up and let you try to call out, but they have just put you on private mode so the line is still connected to them and you can't dial out. They then hang up and call you back. It's a simple scam but has worked on lots of people.

 

I don't blame the people who fall for it but the people who make the scams. They can be really convincing.

[Monikieman]

I keep getting calls for the previous occupier of 7 years ago, Mr Fergusson.

 

I tell them he's dead (which he is) and when they ask for Mrs Fergusson I tell them it's a bit delicate and she can't come to the phone as she's in Prison........for killing Mr Fergusson.

 

They usually hang up!

[Trigger]

My wife took a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, saying that they had taken money out of our bank account and that they needed our account details so they could pay it back in. She said they should have the bank details if they had taken money out and that they should put back in again. He insisted they did not have the details, so she gave up in the end and told them they could put a cheque in the post. It's not arrived yet and was six months ago. She does like wasting their time.