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Author Topic: Is this real?  (Read 753 times)

Offline 1Cane

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Is this real?
« on: February 20, 2014, 10:09:10 AM »
Yesterday someone with a heavy accent called and said" they were from Microsoft and somebody was using my computer illegally" I was on a roll in a tempest and I really didn't want to talk to him.  So I asked him to call me back in 1 hour knowing I wouldn't be home .  There was no callback and now I'm just curious if that it was real or some scam?

I gave out no information to this individual. :noid

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AkCaine

Offline mechanic

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2014, 10:10:12 AM »
sounds dodgy to me
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Offline wpeters

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2014, 10:19:46 AM »
Quote from: 1Cane on February 20, 2014, 10:09:10 AM
Yesterday someone with a heavy accent called and said" they were from Microsoft and somebody was using my computer illegally" I was on a roll in a tempest and I really didn't want to talk to him.  So I asked him to call me back in 1 hour knowing I wouldn't be home .  There was no callback and now I'm just curious if that it was real or some scam?

I gave out no information to this individual. :noid



same thing happened to mom. She handed it to me and I hung up on them and ran a scan on the computer
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Offline Wiley

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2014, 10:25:00 AM »
Scam of some kind.  If you'd engaged them they'd likely have told you to go visit a website to fix the problem, etc etc.  My dad was getting calls from somebody like that every once in a while for quite a while a year or so ago.

Wiley.
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Offline katanaso

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2014, 10:30:33 AM »
It's fake.  MS will not call you like that.  Good job on hanging up.  Never give out any information on the phone when you're being solicited for it.
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Offline Bizman

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2014, 12:53:59 PM »
Definitely a scam. I've been reading about that for over a year now, it keeps popping up at computing newsletters such as WindowsSecrets every now and then. Even the free part is worth following, and the paid subscription price is up to you.

As katanaso said, MS won't call you like that. Ever.
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Offline Delirium

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2014, 01:02:00 PM »
I hope they call me, it sounds like it could be a lot of fun terrorizing them. The last sales call I was so irritating but polite that the guy trying to sell me siding for the house swore at me and hung up. It is akin to playing "chicken", the first one to hang up loses.
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Offline MrRiplEy[H]

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2014, 02:20:05 PM »
You need to file a police report on this kind of scammers. Nowadays many police departments have special cyber crime officers who can try to trace them.
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Offline zack1234

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2014, 01:58:31 AM »
It was not me and you cannot prove it, I was at pipzs watching the Waltons :old:
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Offline Ack-Ack

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2014, 02:11:28 AM »
Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on February 20, 2014, 02:20:05 PM
You need to file a police report on this kind of scammers. Nowadays many police departments have special cyber crime officers who can try to trace them.

It's pretty much a waste of time in the States, especially if the scam artists are outside of the country. 

ack-ack
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Offline 715

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2014, 03:07:49 PM »
I've had this happen to me, but I had read about the scam previously so I said "Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?"  Apparently, that wasn't a smart thing to say as the Indian on the other end got abusive quickly.  If I had been stupid enough to fall for it, I believe they instruct you to open your computers event log which shows many (harmless) warning messages.  They use that to scare you into opening your computer to their remote control at which point they probably install malware and then charge you to remove it. 

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Offline bustr

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2014, 05:51:45 PM »
At one company I worked IT for, we got a registered letter from MS asking us to prove our licenses were paid in full for all seats and servers. Our lawyer told us to buy the licenses if we were in violation, or show MS we had them. That was back in 98. I've never met anyone with a home product who MS contacted over licensing. But, you hear urban legends from other IT professionals about friends of friends kinds of things.

Does anyone still get that sudden splash screen from the FBI or DOJ saying the contents of your PC have now been scanned and you are in potential violation of some obscure child pr@n statute? I got that once back in 2012 during the election cycle when I clicked on a BrietBart.com link from TownHall.com.

Microsoft comes after you with a registered legal letter or serves you papers or a US Marshal with a lawyer. Only scammers, IRS and collection agencies come after you over the phone. The IRS is the rudest of the three.
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Offline Bizman

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Re: Is this real?
« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2014, 09:08:57 AM »
Quote from: bustr on February 21, 2014, 05:51:45 PM
Does anyone still get that sudden splash screen from the FBI or DOJ saying the contents of your PC have now been scanned and you are in potential violation of some obscure child pr@n statute? I got that once back in 2012 during the election cycle when I clicked on a BrietBart.com link from TownHall.com.
For a year and a half it seemed to pop up with a new version every month or so, but recently I haven't heard about new cases until today: A neighbour called and said their computer has been infected by the "Police Virus". Funny thing is, her husband works for the Police as a crime investigator! Another not so funny thing was that the ISP helpdesk had suggested a total reinstall as the only possible remedy to remove the two files from Temporary Internet Files and the Startup link.
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