Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning
Monday morning I received a telephone call from an individual with a heavy accent who claimed to be with Microsoft Technical Support.
He advised me that they had received numerous reports of technical failures from my computer and asked that I shut down all applications running on my computer, but not my computer itself. Suspicions aroused, I asked that he call me back. Curiously, the caller claimed he could not because they were so busy.
Turning off all applications, such as firewalls, virus programs, etc., while the computer is on, leaves it immediately vulnerable to intrusion, as seems to have been the hope of the mysterious “Microsoft Technical Support” caller.
After the call, my wife contacted Microsoft Technical Support who said they do not call customers about technical problems unless contacted for help by the customer. She advised us that they had received numerous complaints, some from individuals who’d had their bank accounts cleared out.
Caller ID reflected that the call came from an international number.
Hello Ernest A. Canning,
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. Someone trying to scam the rest of us. Truly shocked! Thank you for the warning. I hope that everyone gets this information before any more people are scammed.
i had the very same scammmers attempt to scam my parents. luckily i was at home when it happend and i smelled bullshit straight away. they ask you to install remote access software so they can “fix” the registry errors. i kept hanging the phone up at first, but they rang 3 or 4 times within about an hour. there is an article somewhere where the guy ran a VM and let them play with that.
Ernest,
I’m just getting to your article (a lot of pertinent information on this site, thanks).
I wonder if you rely on telephone..like DSL, or FIOS?
Because, I have cable access, and if I get a phone call that is not from my circle of friends, that caller would not have any access to my ISP.
I’ve used Linux for 5 years,I have no regrets.People who wish privacy,a secure computer with no added costs use Linux.Microsoft is a parasite,Linux is free for home use.So many choices.I’m using Linux
Mint 2011 over 33,000 free apps no problems viewing anything on the web,or any office suite docs presentations spreadsheets.Why people continue with Mr Bill is beyond rational explanations,when a fresh edition free of Linux is free,and takes 10 minutes to install.All your files will transfer to Linux,no problems…honest.Google Linux Mint,or pclosos,or ubantu,or google cdnet articles to decide which distribution you might like.All open source,you can’t get more democratic than open source.Freedom is Linux.
Hysterical. I’ve been getting calls over the last 3 or 4 days from a number identified as 222-555-7777 on my Caller ID. Normally when I answer, they hang up.
Tonight, just now, they didn’t. Rather, after I said hello this time, I heard a faint voice, with a foregin-ish accent say, “Sir, I need you to give me your credit card number.”
I laughed, and said, “Did you say you need me to give you my credit card number?”
They said, “Yes.”
I laughed, and they hung up.
If that’s a scam (obviously, it is), it has got to be the worst scam ever! The con-men aren’t even trying to con anymore! Just cutting to the chase! 🙂