Microsoft phone calls

missesther

My dad got a phone call yesterday from someone in India (his guess) who commented on his computer downloads. He asked him where he was from and he said "Microsoft" and then asked if my dad was near his computer and if he could turn it on. Now my dad has had me warning him about scams for a long time so he told the bloke that he didn't think he was legitimate and that Microsoft wouldn't ring him and proceeded to put the phone down on him.

What I don't understand is - if it is Microsoft, why would they ring about downloads (now my dad said he didn't understand everything due to his accent and partly because he's not got 100% hearing) and if it isn't legit - then what did they hope to gain from the call??

Has anyone else had a phone call like this and can shed some light on it please? It seems a little bizarre.

Thanks

Browntoa

its a con, many threads on here about it

they will charge around £70 for doing basically nothing (or infecting it with some other software)

missesther

Oh thanks for that - glad my dad is on the ball then! :T

fluffnutter

It's not Microsoft. It's a company who will 'find a virus' on your computer, alarm you about it for hours, then charge you a fortune for 'software' that removes it. Of course all of this is rubbish and there's probably nothing wrong with your PC - certainly not before they got to it anyway

pip007

I had one of these last week, the guy was very rude when I said I was happy that my pc was secure (I had read about the scam and know that microsoft don't just ring you out of the blue) and said to me that I was being an 'irresponsible citizen' by not giving him the information he wanted!

hayleymoo

I had one of these a couple of weeks ago too. The guy told me they had flagged down a virus on my computer.

Funny I told him, I have a Mac and there aren't any viruses to be had on them He wasn't quite sure what to say to that!

wik

I had the same call last night... Told the lady who didnt even pronounce my name correctly and called me Mrs........ that I didnt know what she was on about as I dont have a computer and put the phone down on her:D

missesther

Apparently he spoke to my mother first and kept telling her it was serious and she needed to check her computer. She told him she doesn't deal with the computer stuff but he was persistent so she passed him to my dad who, like I previously wrote, told him he wasn't legit and put the phone down.