Phone call from windows

dumpyA1

Hello Ive just had a phone call from windows saying they have detected harmful viruses on my computer (I use a laptop) Told them to ring back on Monday as I was at work. Are they for real? Done a check and my virus protector has detected some but has dealt with them.


Can anyone tell me if the phone call was genuine as he wanted me to have my computer turned on so he can go through what needs doing.

Im not that good on computers lol

warehouse

No, it's a total scam. When they ring back play a game where you see how long you can keep them on the phone for without giving them a single detail. It can be quite fun.

brewerdave

If you stay on the phone for any period of time they will get you to open event viewer -this will show loads and loads of warning/error messages which they CLAIM indicates that you have problems - but its perectly normal with a Windows system to have such messages. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES let them persuade you to install any remote software on your PC!!

wiogs

My record for keeping these people on the phone is just under 12 minutes. I'm hoping to make it to 15 one day.

Don't worry about it or think about it any more - it is a scam. And they are scum.

starrybee

No, it's a total scam. When they ring back play a game where you see how long you can keep them on the phone for without giving them a single detail. It can be quite fun.

There's also lots of fun examples on youtube

ElkyElky

I've never once in my life had one of these phone calls. Why?

WTFH

wiogs wrote: »

My record for keeping these people on the phone is just under 12 minutes. I'm hoping to make it to 15 one day.

Don't worry about it or think about it any more - it is a scam. And they are scum.

I think I managed about 15 minutes - we went round in circles, I asked him where he got my number from, he said from my IP address. I was bouncing off European & US servers at the time, so I asked him what my IP addy was. He said he wasn't allowed to give it out.
Then he went through the whole thing of looking at your event log, etc. I spun this one out for a while, saying I could see all the errors, etc, and tried to sound very worried about it.Then he asked me the usual thing - download his file and install it. At this point I pretended to play along. He talked me through going to the download folder and installing the program.
I asked him where the download folder was.
He told me, then I said I couldn't find it.
He was getting a little frustrated with me, but kept going.
I then said I'd found the file, so he asked me to run it. I told him it wouldn't work. This got him confused, but he kept going - check your download, etc, etc.
Finally I said to him that I thought it was the wrong file extension. He said it wasn't - the file was a .exe and that was correct. I said that wouldn't work on my computer.

Then he asked me what operating system I was using.

OSX, I replied.

He wasn't very happy as he put the phone down.

wiogs

Yes my playing along was similar although I ended up saying I was using Linux.

I think the next time one phones I'll spend some time "looking" for a laptop before I get to the switching it on stage.

cookie365

To the OP - the people who mess with the scammers are safe because they're quite tech savvy.

If you have to ask the question at all, you're probably not very tech savvy, so don't try this at home. Don't get in a conversation, don't listen to their persuasions, don't try to explain to them how you know it's a scam.

Just say 'not interested' and hang up.

Oh, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but by engaging with them in the first place, you've highlighted yourself as a possibly lucrative mark. You'll get more calls like this in the future as a result.

elsien

My mum strings them along a bit doing her doddery deaf old fool impression, then after a while casually asks how they know she has a problem with her computer which keeps them on a while longer. Before explaining that as a technophobe and confused oldie she doesn't actually own a computer.
Not actually true, but it does stop the repeat calls.

scheming_gypsy

dumpyA1 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if the phone call was genuine as he wanted me to have my computer turned on so he can go through what needs doing.

are they genuine? when was the last time you gave your phone number to Microsoft.