Hi,
I have no idea if anyone else is aware of this, but one of my customers has just called me to tell me they had been contacted by Microsoft because they had malicious software on their PC.
The caller asked for the ladies husband by name, but proceeded the call with her as he wasn't in.
The caller was very forceful in his manner asking the lady to turn her PC on so that he could connect to her PC so he could rectify this problem for her. Thankfully although she knows nothing about PC's she is the suspicious type, so she asked the gentleman who he was and who he worked for. He said the name of the company he worked for so fast that after getting him to repeat it three times she still had no idea what company he was from. The only bit she did catch was 'on behalf of Microsoft' . She also asked for his number so she could call him back. Needless to say that this number is ' currently unavailable' when you call back.
He repeated told her to start up her laptop and became very forceful when she was reluctant.
Obviously money is the motivation for this, but I don't know if he would fix her PC (even though its fine) and then bill her accordingly or try and access bank/credit details. Who knows?
Just thought I would post this as I've been doing this job for over ten years and never come across this particular scam.
EDIT: Just found this > http://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/85702/police-issue-warning-over-microsoft-telephone-scam.aspx
I have no idea if anyone else is aware of this, but one of my customers has just called me to tell me they had been contacted by Microsoft because they had malicious software on their PC.
The caller asked for the ladies husband by name, but proceeded the call with her as he wasn't in.
The caller was very forceful in his manner asking the lady to turn her PC on so that he could connect to her PC so he could rectify this problem for her. Thankfully although she knows nothing about PC's she is the suspicious type, so she asked the gentleman who he was and who he worked for. He said the name of the company he worked for so fast that after getting him to repeat it three times she still had no idea what company he was from. The only bit she did catch was 'on behalf of Microsoft' . She also asked for his number so she could call him back. Needless to say that this number is ' currently unavailable' when you call back.
He repeated told her to start up her laptop and became very forceful when she was reluctant.
Obviously money is the motivation for this, but I don't know if he would fix her PC (even though its fine) and then bill her accordingly or try and access bank/credit details. Who knows?
Just thought I would post this as I've been doing this job for over ten years and never come across this particular scam.
EDIT: Just found this > http://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/85702/police-issue-warning-over-microsoft-telephone-scam.aspx