Helppconline.com - is it a scam?

Annieddiva · 15 April 2011 at 10:30PM

I received a call from Adam Lee at the above company, he gave me the website and a full postal address for Crawley and advised they give free computer support as a part of a government scheme - news to me? He sounded like he was in India tho as the connection was really bad! He then asked me to enter eventvwr in my run field, and this immediately made me think no way am I giving some stranger access to my PC, and he then shared all the details and said he would hold while I checked all these details out - I said I'd check it out after my dinner, and this made him really rude and he said I was completely wasting his time and raved on about this and then hung up. As result this is what made me super suspicious!! :eek::mad:

Anyone had any similar calls??? Cos if it is a scam jobbie then spreading the word is vital! If it is a valid company just with an employee with appalling customer service - then please arrange to delete this!

ashleypride · 15 April 2011 at 11:56PM

Loads of threads about these calls, yes complete scam. They will either get you to pay them to fix an non-existent problem, or steal data from the machine.

macman · 16 April 2011 at 8:01AM

Of course it's a scam, neither the govt nor Microsoft gives 'free computer support'!

societys_child · 16 April 2011 at 3:38PM

is it a scam?

I can't believe you had to ask.

Ypaymore · 16 April 2011 at 6:43PM

There is even a clue in the domain name helppconline

Also see http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2010/07/19/scam-uses-phone-call-claiming-to-be-microsoft/

AndyM67 · 30 May 2011 at 4:07PM

My wife had several calls from this company so I became curious. I work in IT so I wasn't keen on taking any risks with my own PC so I created a new virtual XP machine. Soon enough we received a call so I started the virtual machine. I was talked through checking for errors on my machine that had been reported to them. I said I'd never reported them but they insisted that when you get an error and have the option to report it to Microsoft, Microsoft forward the information to them.
They had me start event viewer and at this point I thought my game was up because I'd only just created this machine so there wasn't a single error message to be seen. Apparently I was wrong, those pesky information messages and 3 warning messages were a serious problem. At this point they passed me to a supervisor to take my bank card details, which failed because I insisted I only use cash and cheques. They kept insisting I must have a debit card so I hung up.
I doubt these guys could provide any meaningful support even if this isn't a con!

spannerzone · 30 May 2011 at 10:03PM

I also have a virtual PC at the ready for the next phone call... it's Windows 95 virtual PC

andy2004 · 20 September 2011 at 12:04PM

4 calls in 4 days, they are getting annoying, "we support windows xp through to windows 7", i just sat there and said yes, wanted me to open eventviewer so he could show me all the failures, told me i was using windows 7 when infact i'm on xp. already phone virgin and asked for the number to be blocked, cant do it they say.
I even told them 5 times i fix computers for a living, and still insisted on continuing. I think its about time this INDIANS where taken down, i'll get another phone call tomorrow i've had one 4 week days in a row, last thursday, friday, monday and today.

as someone else pointed out, if they get your bank card details they will take everything in your bank account.

Swipe · 20 September 2011 at 2:15PM

These days if I hear an Indian accent when I answer the phone I generally hang up without speaking. If it's important they'll contact me by post.

spannerzone · 20 September 2011 at 8:51PM

If you realise the caller is doing one of these 'we're calling from Tech Support / Windows / IT support' or whatever name they use this week then just hang up... there's no need to be especially polite about it or try to explain to them that you know it's a scam, they know that already!

It's very easy to do, if you know it's a scammer put the phone down plain and simple.

andy2004 · 3 October 2011 at 8:16PM

I get these calls 3 times a week, today they insisted i was using Internet explorer, lol, even after i said i never use it, i use firefox, no you dont came back the reply internet explorer.
I never use internet explorer only firefox. then he put the phone down, I really wish there was some way i could get my number that these A-holes keep phoning me redirected to some voice service which then would say thank you for calling, your call is be redirected to your local police station for further assistance, or thank you for calling, your number is being traced by the webpolice.

Helppconline.com - is it a scam?

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