Scam Alert

[red_ned]

Scam Alert: Just had a phonecall from someone (sounds like India or Pakistan) pretending to be from Microsoft. They talk about submitting a problem report via windows, try to find which PC is running Vista and claim you have the Bluebird Virus. They then ask you to install TeamViewer so they can dial in and fix the issue by installing some software which you can then pay for and buys you support for the future.
When i challenged the caller a few times they basically hung up. All major Virus scanner brands are fine with this virus so if you are up to date then dont worry at all. Letting a complete stranger remote into your computer and install "software" without seeing any credentials is basically eSuicide. Update your virus scanner regularly and if you find you are infected with anything then disconnect it from the internet and have it sorted offline.

Just found this online so it is still happening.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... ll-centres

[Direkneed]

We list all known phone numbers in our house phone and then if we get a phone call from places such as "India" or "Pakistan" it comes up as "International" and I never answer those, but If i get 3-4 calls a day from the same number who want to sell my insurance for a non-existing item I have in my house I like to piss them off for a bit by acting like a redneck living in the UK.

[frags]

i get them all the time to my mobile, asking me about stuff like unclaimed payment protection money i'm owed? Never had a loan.... or from 3 mobile pestering me to come to them even though I have 16 months left on my contract... I want to know how they get my number and they also ask for me by name. But guess thats what happens after having the same number for about 8 years or more.

[Nagash]

i get phone calls from the same number several times a day, always different come the next day. Thought it's no scam, it's because a swimming pool/resturant/etc type place has listed my phone number on their website... with no other form of contacting them. So i tracked down their facebook profile to moan a little and discovered their facebook profile is only used by naturists that use the swimming pool for nude swimming days :S

i wish i got telemarketting phone calls and scams :/

[Thaldarin]

My father almost fell victim to this. It was a guy with an Australian accent claiming he was from a virus company in Brisbane.

My dad being a brainless idiot let them use teamviewer. They looked at his administrative reports (Windows 7) and claimed that simple "erorrs", one of which was an application cycling problem and a system crash report, were causing his computer to go slow.

So my dad, not being the brightest with computers and I have only recently got him in to them spent 45 minutes on the phone asking what was what and how and why and taking ages to understand. At the end they ask for payment, he said he has no money (blatent lie) to get rid of them, they said they want payment for their services and he said okay, what's your phone number, when I get paid I'll ring back. They refused to give the phone number but rescheduled a phone call. He never paid for anything.

I've trounced through his computer, virii scan, malware scan, installed a password key, reconfigured ports, viewed error reports and made a check for installed software. Everything came up normal/negative, so it seems to me this is a simpler scam, which is to scare people.

I do however believe part of the problem lies with someone at PC World selling information on, or so I'm led to believe from scouring google, seeing your article link and knowing my dad purchased his PC from PC World himself as have other customers who have complained of this.

It's a scare tactic. Straight up using data, ie. customer age or profile to assess if they can force them in to believing it. And let's be honest, most people that buy from PC World, suck eggs on their technical support, so can be more easily duped.

[red_ned]

none of my computers come from pc world
at least my dad wont do anything on the computer without me so he just handed the phone over to me instead.

[Kop]

LOL

[Emmz]

just tp bump this up again, ive recently had a couple of phonecalls from a chap claiming to be from microsoft, I told him i wasnt buying anything etc also said my partner knows a lot about computers to which his reply was *you cant get better than microsoft people* erm we prob know more than them, Hung up in the end

[Kop]

im just loling at the fact a possible scammer has just posted in this thread, deal with it please

[red_ned]

changed mind and banned