phone call from Microsoft engineer

McKneff

I just ask them to 'please hold' put the phone to one side, then go and have a bath or a coffee lol.

imatt

It is a scam. Just as your bank will never email you, Microsoft will never phone you.

It would appear this scammer simply wanted to gain access to your PC and do God knows.

Either hang up right away or string them along for fun. I often do this, although to be fair I have not had such a call in over a year now.

Once a woman phoned me(probably Indian based) claimed to be from MS. She said there was a problem with my computer and that they needed remote access to sort it out. I kept her talking gibberish and eventually told her that I knew it was all a scam. Lo and behold, her supervisor came on the line and had the cheek to shout at me and demand I get off the line even though they phoned ME!!!

Heedtheadvice

I don't respond to ANY unsolicited phone calls unless I know I already have contacts with the company calling. I feel I don't have time to waste on scams,fraud, marketing/political/purchasing surveys etc.......but that idea of preventing a call to another is worthy of consideration!

Best responses I used to make was to play dumb (not difficult for me!) And then tell them non of their instruction were working on my CPM or Amstrad etc. etc. Computer. Is it the third from the right as I have 10 monitoring at my Police workstation?

prowla

booksurr wrote: »

Is this for real?

I have just received a phone call out of the blue from someone claiming to be a microsoft engineer calling because I had not responded to the "many" notifications they have sent me

he told me to look at my system configuration utility screen and note the very many applications listed on there whose status is "stopped"

I was then told to hold the line whilst he transferred me to a technician. Said technician then asked me to type www.showmypc into the run programs box off the start menu

I suspect the call may have been genuine but how would I prove that myself as I m not going to allow someone from an Indian call centre to tell me to connect to the internet on the basis they called me

they did have my name and address ....

I hung up on the caller for obvious reasons so does anyone have any advice on how I confirm that MS technicians do make cold calls and can I find a UK contact point who I can check with myself

Please, there is no point telling me it is a fraud unless you have concrete evidence to support your statement as I hung up on them because I do not need to be told not to respond to cold calls!

It wasn't genuine.
It was a fraud.
It wasn't Microsoft.
It was scammers.
You don't have to believe it, though.
Here it is on a Microsoft forum: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/cold-calling/1ce44307-de96-4ae1-af76-121fa5d6adcb
And here's Microsoft's official word on the matter: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx
(If you still don't believe it, next time they call, ask them which PC is sending them alerts...)

Jivesinger

imatt wrote: »

It is a scam. Just as your bank will never email you...

This is nonsense, of course.

My bank emails me frequently - and I am sure it's really them.

If banks never email anyone, why do the online banking systems have a box for 'email address'?

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

No problem, I have one a day and love it when I tell them I am on the iPad, how can I connect!

abibee

Jivesinger wrote: »

This is nonsense, of course.

My bank emails me frequently - and I am sure it's really them.

If banks never email anyone, why do the online banking systems have a box for 'email address'?

What bank is that? Mine doesn't have my e-mail, nobody else's I know has theirs.

Jivesinger

abibee wrote: »

What bank is that? Mine doesn't have my e-mail, nobody else's I know has theirs.

I'm talking of a mainstream, high street bank, one of the big names.

I had account with another big name (now closed) and looking back I see they emailed me too.

If you haven't given them your email, that's your choice, and quite understandable.

But I suspect that nearly all of them will have email address as one of the contact details they collect in their online banking systems, and will probably use it to email you.

Sooler

booksurr wrote: »

Is this for real?

NOooooooooooooooooooooo. Next.:easter:

Geodark

abibee wrote: »

What bank is that? Mine doesn't have my e-mail, nobody else's I know has theirs.

I get regular emails from my bank, my wifes bank and from my credit card company. Banks do send emails, they make sure they are identifiable by quoting parts of account numbers etc.