Beware the Fake Tech Support Scam - Comments Page 1

Yes, I have received one of these calls from an individual with a very heavy accent wanting to do a remote fix on my computer. Needles to say, I simply hung up as I only allow a very trusted source to access my computer remotely. Apears they are making literally millions of calls.

I get these calls regularly. One was just five days ago. I told him that he just wanted to load malware on my computer.He denied it and just carried on until I told him I needed to go turn on my computer so I could visit his site and asked him to hold. He agreed and I just hung up.

Yes, it is always someone with an Indian accent. I assume from India. It must be extremely difficult to find and prosecute these people. The cost of a call for them is possibly free or at most only pennies.

I actually find them amusing and less annoying than the carpet or furnace cleaners or credit card interest cutters or medical alert systems or burglar alarms, etc. who call regularly in spite of my being on the national do not call list (which has become a real joke).

Ashamed to say this senior fell for the "Windows Tech" scam. When I refused to pay for "repairs", they locked my computer with a password and I couldn't boot. They called and told me to call 262-872-0430 with a credit card to get my computer released. Tried everything and, thankfully, the FixMeStick came to my rescue. If you don't have one, I suggest you look into obtaining one! Fred

I got one of these calls a few years ago. Same deal, foreign accent. He took me to something in DOS which supposedly identified my computer to convince me. He read me a number which matched. I guess that is a series of numbers that is in everyone's dos. When he had me go to a website which would give him control of my computer, I recognized it and hung up. He did not call me back.

This scam seems to have died down over here in the UK (Unless my phone number has been "blacklisted"). I kept one of the "experts" busy for an hour. I did exactly as he requested but the programs he got me to down load didn't work. I got fed up after an hour and explained to him (in words of one syllable, in the end) that I had booted up into Linux not Windoze. He still didn't understand and was left wondering why I had "such an expensive operating system" (his words) on my PC!

I agree with most of what you've said, Bob, having received at least three of these calls to my cell phone. I always know they're fake, as I 1) don't use Microsoft products and 2) have a Mac. But I don't think getting their "contact info" will help. The tele #s are usually untraceable and masked, I doubt if the caller will give his right name, and besides, I don't think the callers are even in the U.S., making them untraceable as well. But as for the rest of the article, spot on!

Received many, and many more unwanted calls...a referees whistle works really well!!(Best to talk very very quietly, so they can hardly hear you) and then....Bloooooooow

What some might call a heavy Indian accent, I might call a light accent, but I have received two such calls from "Windows."

I gently explained that I did not believe a word being said and that they were lying. After I hung up, I ran Malwaresbyte as a stress reliever.

I too, got a call from a tech from "Microsoft" who said my machine was corrupted and asked permission to run tests, remotely.. Knowing that Microsoft doesn't initiate telephone support, I immediately gathered that this was a scam... I told the "tech" that there was nothing wrong with my computer, but he insisted there was and that the "tests" would take only a few minutes... Told him to have a nice day and hung up.. There have been no follow up calls... Al

Have had same calls- foreign, talks fast enough you can't 'interrupt' but when I got a break, told him I would let my son know as he is my p/c 'fixer/keeper'because I am too dumb. He kept saying, 'no, no fix now'. I said, 'no, no, my son will take care of it - he does this for a living! And hung up.

I have received the call twice from someone with an Indian accent, insisting that I had a problem with my computer. I told him I couldn't understand him and asked to be transferred to someone who spoke clear English. He transferred me to someone else with as strong an accent. I tried to get a company name and phone number to call him back, but he kept evading me. I realized it was a scam and finally hung up on him.

I have had three of these within the last 14 days - all with Indian accents. The give there names as Nigel, Mark or William - very likely !
I keep them going by sounding very concerned and finally ask how Microsoft can tell what is on my Apple computer. Phone call finishes abruptly !

Yes this happened to me about 6 months ago. They called saying that they received an alert when something in my windows XP system locked up and I got an alert "send error report to Microsoft". For awhile I thought that it was Microsoft. So I went ahead and granted this woman remote access to my PC. And then it hit me. STOP. Break the connection. Then I shut my PC down, restarted it and turned off the remoted access door. Then I restored my PC from a previous day restore point. How the hell does this scam company get error reports from Microsoft. Microsoft seems to be involved in letting these scammers operate.

I've received quite a number of them & like to play dumb & waste their time by stringing them along.
After a while I confuse them by telling them I'm on Linux.

I've gotten calls here in Sweden. I reply in Swedish and they hang up.

22% of people actually fall for this scam? I cannot believe that people can be so gullible. No wonder the scammers keep doing it if their success rate is 1 in 5.

*Shaking my head*

These calls have been happening for years. The first time I got one I went along for a while until he asked me to allow remote access. At that point I asked for his phone # and the company he worked for, and said that I had to do some research and I would call him back. He argued with me for a while, then he hung up.
Since then I've had a lot of fun with these scammers, if I have time to waste I play along for a while ( once I put him on hold for a few minutes at a time, then let him overhear me asking my invisible colleague if the cops had a trace yet :) hahaha. Other times I ask him to reveal what IP address he's getting the supposed error reports from. Anyway you get the picture, if you know a little about how the technology works it can be fun to waste their time. Maybe they'll put me on their DO NOT CALL list eventually. In the meantime I'm enjoying my retirement after 33 years as an engineer at BIG BLUE !! LOL :D

I've been receiving these calls of late. last time i believe the man needs a hearing aid cause i used a air horn on him. sorry i know it was wrong to do that but its every other day for the last month they call.

I too have received 2 such calls from Microsoft in the last 12 months. I simply told them I knew it was a scam and hung up. If only the average computer user was more savvy to unusual calls!

Grump, Hank and Jon have the right idea. The calls are not so much the problem as discouraging them from calling again. A friend found another solution for these and for marketing calls.

She's asks the person at the other end to hold, saying she'll be right back. She picks up again 15 minutes later, and says the same thing. When she picks up 30 minutes later, not only are they gone, but they don't call again.

In one case I told the speaker that telemarketing is illegal. Never called again.