Beware Telephone Support Scams Windows. For discussion of the various telephone scams where a call is made attempting to get the receiver to allow the caller remote access to their PC. O. P. I just had a call from one of my customers who told me they were contacted by a company proporting to be acting on behalf of Microsoft and that their computer was infested with viruses and that they were instructed to help. The caller made my customer do something in the DOS prompt, from what I gather it was just to do a dir listing to make it look as if those files were infected. They then wanted him to download a remote access client from logmein and this is where he became suspicious and said he wouldnt do it. Theyre using social engineering techniques to scare people and I can see a lot of vulnerable people being caught out by this. Beware that this scam is out there and if you have friends or family who may not be completely technically savvy it may bite them. I found this http www. Google which is basically along the same lines as the call my customer got. Thanks for posting about this. Do the police know about itIt might be a good idea to let them know. I got a phone call today from a group trying to tell me I had malicious files on my computer and that my computer was running slow they said they were from Windows Service Centre Itec Help and that my windows computer was crook. I laughed at them and ended up speaking to a senior personnel and told them my computer doesnt even run on windows. TheINQUIRER publishes daily news, reviews on the latest gadgets and devices, and INQdepth articles for tech buffs and hobbyists. I have a WD My Passport 0740 500GB external HD that stopped working just 23 months after I started using it. And it filled to the brim, too. I tried taking it to the. Im sorry, theres no heartbeat, my doctor said to me. She didnt sound very sorry, leaving the room so quicklyostensibly so I could pull up my. He wanted to end the conversation really quickly after that. It is basically what they say and ask. Not Carls fault there, Pete, someone engaged in some thread necropsy pheisdeadjim writes. Not Carls fault there, Pete, someone engaged in some thread necropsy p. Ah, I see what you mean raising the dead from May 2. I missed that must be time for more caffeine Hmmm I wonder how to get on their call list. Id love to run up a VM loaded with a whole heap of fake bank information and what not and just monitor wtf they actually do. That is the thing though they dont really do anything. Bud, one only has to look at some of the questions here on WP then think of those several steps down who dont even know of WP. These callers ring them up next minute there on a black screen with white writing listing heaps of files. They of course didnt even know about a command DOS prompt anyway. Next minute they are being told all these files showing, usually pre fetch, cookies, or temp files, are in fact viruses, etc. Like fish out of water they are only to happy to be scammed by some scammer usually parting with credit card details along the way I had basically the same call today the line was poor and there was a echo so kinda hard to hearthe caller said he was from a company called windows help and they have monitored my PC and I have been downloading viruses OK IM SUS NOWI said who are you and from where and wrote it down then continued to ask if i can have a contact number and call them backhe told me they had a policy to not give out there numbers for security reasons. I said eeerrrrmmmm OK what can i do for youhe said please go to you computer and switch it on IT WAS ALL READY ONI said OK but 1st i will need to call you back as i have no way to know who you are where you are from and what you want to doagain he told me they had a policy to not give out there numbers for security reasons. I said let me get this strait you work for a company no one can call back that is rather odd. Video/transcripts/macbookpro-15-unibody-mid09-hd/img/macbookpro-15-unibody-mid09-hd-step-6b-lg.jpg' alt='Replace Hdd In My Book World Edition Login' title='Replace Hdd In My Book World Edition Login' />AND HE HUNG UPthe call was about 5. PM sydney AESTMy wife just rang me telling me that someone rang saying that they were from Microsoft Technical Support and claimed that her PC had been downloading viruses etc. They told her that they needed to remotely access her PC to fix it and directed her to download and install this Team. View client. She fobbed them off saying she had to go, but she did ask for a call back number. They gave her 0. Dodgy buggers PI had one of these a few weeks ago, so I played along. I have 4, they couldnt answer. I then asked Is it the one with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint or PCLOS. They hung up on me, I dont understand why, I thought they wanted to help me. Just had my call from microsoft support what a relief that they are on the ball monitoring my computer for viruses. Played along for a while and when I told him that I knew it was a scam he did not seem to understand me to well, must of been lost in translation. Dont forget to tell your unsuspecting parentsgrandparents, one of my family members was almost fooled as they are not very tech savy. Ive had a call from an indian sounding guy, telling me that my computer was infected. I immediately though scam, so I asked him that if he knew my computer was infected, whats my ip addressIf my computer is sending out spam email or packets, anyone picking this up and telling me about it would know this, and have no reason not to tell me. He refused to tell me. Supposedly they are not allowed to tell me my ip address. What a laugh. My guess is they are just ringing random numbers, since he didnt even seem to know my name. I hope this scammer will get caught soon and rot in jail and throw the key away for good for what he done all these innocent people. I am sick of tired of these scammer who is low pathetic try to trick or harm the innocent people for that just not on. Techs to help people remotely who have genuine remote access tools because no one will want to have them on their pcs in fear of all their info being stolen. Had a scam call this evening from someone claiming to be from Windows support forget the exact name claiming that they were getting error messages and warnings from my router. Firstly, when they called my wife answered. They asked for Mrs XXXX, which was her maiden name so that was the first clue it was a sus call. They mentioned something about our ISP which is actually in my Name out phone is in her name. She said sorry youll have to call back at talk to my husband. So they call back. Windows 10 S is a new edition of Windows 10 that looks, and for the most part feels exactly like any other edition of Windows 10. This edition, however, has one major. A threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant has been hacked and the attackers are claiming to have lurked on his computer for a year, collecting his login. I just had a call from one of my customers who told me they were contacted by a company proporting to be acting on behalf of Microsoft and that their computer w. I get the whole Hi my name is xxxx, from Microsoft PC Support or something similar. I did fairly early on ask how do I know that they are from where they claim to be. They said no, no one would call from there if they werent from the company. Ah right, you just want me to believe you. Oh and he had an Indian accent, not that it really matters. Replace Hdd In My Book World Edition Login' title='Replace Hdd In My Book World Edition Login' />So I think okay Ill play along. Tells me some baloney story about how my router is sending them errors and warnings, and that its because my PC has a Trojanvirus. I said which PC as I have two. They said it doesnt matter. Another pointer to it being a scam. Says that I have a unlicensed version of an anti virus Wrong. Tells me that hell show me. Desktop Gadgets Not Working After Windows Update here. Basically gets me to look at a list of errors and warnings claiming these are all from the Trojanvirus. The errors and warnings are just simply every day run of the mill windows things, nothing serious. More blurb about how somehow my firewall has been broken through etc and that the anit virus is not picking up this trojan because my PC has been compromised. Oh and the phone connection died twice so my thought they are on skype. Anyway after about 2. I have to pass you know onto my supervisor. His supervisor comes on had does some more blurb, and claims my PC is in a very bad state, blah blah blah. Tells me to go to a website and install some software www. He asked if id clicked on the install button.