Phone support scam

fuzzball172

Just a word of warning, a friend of a client of mine was contacted by a very persuasive technical support representitive claiming to be from microsoft. He told my client's friend that his PC was suffering with some serious problems and that he could pay a one off fee and the tech would connect remotely and resovle the problems.
£138 later he realised that this was a scam, by the time I got to the machine it was riddled with trojans and numerous personal files had been read. Luckily the guy cancelled his credit card quickly and informed his bank, paypal etc within minutes of discovering the tech was a fraud.

Be very careful about unsolicited calls for PC repair.

CHR15

This has been going an for ages... I don't understand how people think this guy got hold of the phone number in the first place.

Seems to be profitable for them.

The_Grandmaster

Hmmm - wouldn't it be good if techies on this board actually did this BUT instead of what the scammers do, actually fixed people's computers?!

robt_2

The_Grandmaster wrote: »

Hmmm - wouldn't it be good if techies on this board actually did this BUT instead of what the scammers do, actually fixed people's computers?!

No, it would be a very bad idea.

If something goes wrong, the person who fixed it can instantly be blamed (even if it wasn't their fault).

That is why only advice is given for people to follow themselves.

Also don't quite understand why you think people on here should fix strangers computers for free (assuming that is what you meant).

fiddiwebb

As CHR15 says this has been posted on the tech boards before as to handing over £138 to a complete stranger on the phone well......

Always, always double check first if something like this is kosher or not, either google or use these forums to ask first.

Did your friend pay via Paypal using a cc card?

If so your friend did not need to cancel their card as Paypal don't give the card details, all that needed to be done was to open a Paypal dispute or cancel the payment if time alowed.

The_Grandmaster

robt wrote: »

No, it would be a very bad idea.

If something goes wrong, the person who fixed it can instantly be blamed (even if it wasn't their fault).

That is why only advice is given for people to follow themselves.

Also don't quite understand why you think people on here should fix strangers computers for free (assuming that is what you meant).

Fair point about being blamed. But I was thinking of people being paid for their efficient services of fixing computers. Well I guess that's normal tech support (apart from the efficiency normally).

jimbms

To be fair I would also expect anything by Microsoft to also be a scam

superscaper

jimbms wrote: »

To be fair I would also expect anything by Microsoft to also be a scam

On the contrary, I've always had efficient and pleasant experiences whenever I've had phone and talk to Microsoft call centres.

Simon_B_2

We had this for a number of days after moving into our new home, thought it was for the previous occupiers or whoever had our new number before but it carry on for about 2-3 weeks usually every couple of days.

It would always start 'hello i'm from microsoft, i believe you bought a new computer recently', my reply was an immediate 'F*** off' after the third time they called, they were persistant for a while after that too.