How close was I to getting phone scammed?

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My dad told me a great story when he got a call like this. They call him telling him there's a problem with his PC and wants him to follow a bunch of instructions by going to some site. My dad doesn't believe a word the guy is saying but plays along "following his instructions". After 10 minutes my dad finally tells him it's not working but that's probably because he doesn't even have a PC (a lie, he just wasn't doing what the guy told him to do). My dad told me he heard the guy sigh in frustration and hang up. My dad loves fucking with people who call him for bullshit. :lol
 
Fuzzy said:
My dad told me a great story when he got a call like this. They call him telling him there's a problem with his PC and wants him to follow a bunch of instructions by going to some site. My dad doesn't believe a word the guy is saying but plays along "following his instructions". After 10 minutes my dad finally tells him it's not working but that's probably because he doesn't even have a PC (a lie, he just wasn't doing what the guy told him to do). My dad told me he heard the guy sigh in frustration and hang up. My dad loves fucking with people who call him for bullshit. :lol
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Quite a lot of tech support guys who get these calls will just string them along for 1/2 an hour to an hour, pretending to be super ignorant. They figure the more time they waste on them, the less time they'll have to prey on people who will actually fall for it.

Sadly I've never received one of these calls in my 9 year tech support career.
 
The Awesomest said:
Thanks you guys. I'll be reformatting or reinstalling asap.
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You really don't have to go that far, it's a bit of an extremist reaction. Definitely run a virus scan with a good, updated antivirus (I use Avast) and then download MalwareBytes and have it scan too. That should take care of any viruses or malware they got on your computer. Since you didn't actually pay them it doesn't sound like they remoted in in the first place though, did they? If they did, just go and uninstall TeamViewer or whatever they used just to be safe.
 
I received quite a few of these last month, but I'm hoping I managed to get rid of them because they haven't called back lately. One time I asked which Windows version I was on and they kept avoiding the question and repeating "This is really urgent, your computer is at risk!!". Surprised they didn't try guessing the OS!
 
If you gave them access to your computer then you really need to change passwords for everything you've ever logged onto from that machine and cancel any credit/debit cards that you've used too.

Last time I got one of these calls I played as dumb as I could, as I didn't have anything on that day so I thought I'd waste their time. I thought back to all of the IT support horror stories and played through them all, such as nothing happening when I press the power button and wondering if this cable needed to be plugged in. Fair play to the guy he was a trooper and kept at it! Then as soon as I got to the PC being up and running, I thanked him for fixing it and hung up.
 
You've been had. It's a common scam, something I've had to warn people at my job about. These scammers will take advantage of you and infect your machine. Truly disgusting behavior.
 
My poor mom got hit by that scam. Thank god my brother, who was living at home at the time, was able to figure it out before it was too late.
 
I've never heard Microsoft being the ones to call you first. Especially over something like that.

yea you definitely got got
 
I got called by one of these scams two years ago. I ended up playing along for about 10 minutes acting really dumb, and then I said that I couldn't figure out how to do this on my arch linux installation and the guy hung up on me.

what a dick. :(
 
I usually just get automated messages when it comes to phone scams, but one time some guy with some kind of vaguely African accent called me about winning a lottery I never entered, so I stalled for like 30 minutes while playing Fire Emblem. I could hear the frustration in his voice slowly build until he just said "fuck you" and hung up. So satisfying. I wish I could do that more often.
 
The Awesomest said:
He hung up, the remote support thing seemed to disconnect, And I immediately went and googled "microsoft scam" and lo and behold, the website says they never charge anyone to fix stuff over the phone. So now I'm left with some questions:
- How could they have known my computer wasn't receiving Microsoft updates? Lucky guess?
- Am I still at risk from that Supremo thing? It appeared to disconnect, and there was some message saying so, but I still worry that he has access to my computer now.
- The tech support guy gave me a name and number, which is probably fake. Should I report those anyway?
- What do I do now?
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1) If you have anything to save (pictures, documents, etc) save it on a brand new or newly formatted (from a known good computer) drive.

2) Reformat the living shit out of the drive. I recommend using kill disk.

3) Once you reinstall Windows please install a good antivirus suite and malware application.

4) Scan the drive with the stuff you saved. I would do this on a live CD rather than in windows. I would recommend Hiren's Boot CD for this. You can also use some linux live distros.

5) If you EVER put any personal info (ssn, bank account, anything related in finance), immediately call your bank and change all passwords on any and all accounts you have accessed. Actually, I'd put this as #1. Do this ASAP before anything else.

Optional:

You may want to consider running linux and have windows on a virtual machine, and access your personal stuff from the linux OS, and do everything else on the VM.
 
If since you installed the software you've logged into ANYTHING, including Gaf, you need to change those passwords ASAP on a clean computer. Also, if you purchased anything online I'd watch your accounts super closely or cancel that card.

Also, any passwords you use on other sites that are the same or similar.
 
I just got a call around 7:15 AM this morning. The caller told me my computer has been breached. I just simply hang up the phone.

Right now I'm doing SUPERAntiSpyware/Malwarebytes/MSE scans on my computer, just in case. Do I also need to change all of my passwords?
 
Jane Mansfield said:
I just got a call around 7:15 AM this morning. The caller told me my computer has been breached. I just simply hang up the phone.

Right now I'm doing SUPERAntiSpyware/Malwarebytes/MSE scans on my computer, just in case. Do I also need to change all of my passwords?
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Likely no. I got a few scam calls like that awhile back, and they all of a sudden stopped when I said that I'd be on the horn with the Attorney General's office. And they used the same word..."breached."

They didn't get that far with me, but I imagine they'd start fishing for more information and try to have you give them remote access to your computer, from there fishing out personal data and having a field day. I made it a point of telling my mother in law about it, just in case (because she's fallen for scams before).
 
My dad got a call from these guys once. He only has a Mac so he says to the guy 'Are you a scammer? I only have a Mac. You're a scammer!' to which the guy responds 'You're a scammer!' and hangs up. I could only laugh at his gradeschool response lol
 
The Awesomest said:
My computer has been refusing to take its Windows updates for a while now. It tries and tries to install them, but in the end it just can't do it and undoes the updates. It just did it last night, in fact. So imagine my surprise when a guy from Microsoft calls me (my caller ID says "Unknown number", red flag number one) and asks if my computer has not been updated. I say yes, and he shows instructs me to take a look at some thing which shows me all these programs that aren't running. I think, wow, that's pretty serious, and he tells me it's because of some virus, and I really should be running some cleanup every few months.

The call gets cut off, and he calls me back in about 10 minutes, though this time the Caller ID says "Anonymous - Private Number", red flag number two. He gives me his name and number, gets me on this remote support website called Supremo, and transfers me to a technician, who shows me all these alert things. There are a lot of them, and it certainly appears to me that this ought to be dealt with. He says he'll take control of my computer for about 30 minutes and fix it all up. Sounds good. Oh, and there will be a fee involved. Big, giant red flag. The rest of our conversation went something like this:

Me: Wait, did you say there was a fee?
Him: Yes, it's only $25 dollars.
Me: I'll need to think about this. Can you call me back in the evening?
Him: Sir this is very urgent, we need to care of this right now.
Me: Well if there's going to be a fee, I need to consult the other person who uses this computer.
Him: Sir are you saying that you don't want me to fix this?
Me: Uh no I'm saying that I need to consult with someone before I pay the fee.
Him: Are you saying someone else uses this computer?
Me: Yeah. Can you call me back?
Him: Can I call back in half an hour?
Me: Yeah that sounds good.

He hung up, the remote support thing seemed to disconnect, And I immediately went and googled "microsoft scam" and lo and behold, the website says they never charge anyone to fix stuff over the phone. So now I'm left with some questions:
- How could they have known my computer wasn't receiving Microsoft updates? Lucky guess?
- Am I still at risk from that Supremo thing? It appeared to disconnect, and there was some message saying so, but I still worry that he has access to my computer now.
- The tech support guy gave me a name and number, which is probably fake. Should I report those anyway?
- What do I do now?

Oh and it's been over half and hour and the dudes haven't called back.
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Were they ever given access to the system? If so, start changing passwords on everything.

Completely nuke and pave. MBR and everything.
 
I got this call a few days ago, I didn't understand what company he said, but he said he was a 3rd party to MS and that I had a virus in my computer. I asked him again who he worked for, I didn't recognize the response, so instead if wasting more time with am obvious scam, I told him that since he obviously had my info, as an affiliate to MS, he can just send me an email.

I wasn't the one that answered the phone, but it was kinda apparent that he was fishing with how vague he was being.
 
This is why we need to teach computer science in schools. I'm a software developer by trade. The amount of people who look at you with a blank face when you ask them what Operating System they use when they come to you with a problem is disturbingly high.
 
I got this call while I was at my parents' house. Thank god I picked it up instead of them; they're not computer literate. He said his name was Jack Smith even though he was clearly an Indian guy; I know that's common practice but that wasn't the fishy part. The fact that he "knew" there was a virus on their computer and called out of the blue to help fix it was sketchy as hell. I just told him I'd take care of it, but wish I came up something more clever to have fun with them.
 
There was a period of time last year when I quite frequently got theses calls. One time I strung the guy along for so long, when he finally realised I was fucking with him he lost it on the phone and repeatedly told me how much of an "fucking asshole" I was.
 
I was called by a scammer with the same story as the OP. Told me he was working for Microsoft. It was clear that it was a scam by then and I just hung up. They've never called again.

I feel bad for people who have no idea how a computer works and end up falling for such a scam.
 
friskykillface said:
someone from "microsoft" has called every other month for the past year, haha i just laugh and laugh and hang up

"very urgent, i need to help you now" is what the person says, i have had a guy and girl try to scam.



I should just say something stupid while hanging up next time
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If I'm bored enough I try and keep them on the phone. Tell them I can't figure out how to get the thing on, don't know where anything is, etc. good times.
 
It was definitely a scam. Microsoft isn't going to call you to help you.

Someone called my dad the other day and he was smart enough to know a scam. He kept them on the line for a while and kept emphasizing that he was using a Mac. Eventually the guy got the hint that he knew it was a scam and hung up. But not after like 20 minutes including a disconnect and call-back with an excuse that he needed to do something.

I on the other hand never pick up when I don't recognize the number. Maybe I should just to have fun. But with my luck it'll always be a computer doing the calling. None of them ever leave a message. Once I got a call from 000-0000. I'm not sure how that one works. See, all my family and friends text or FB message each other. There's no talking on the phone. Even my mom texts now, and less than a year ago she didn't even know how to reply to the accidental text she got once. So when I hear my ringtone it's usually either my grandmother or an unknown number. (Grandma is the only one who doesn't text.)
 
I literally JUST got a call from a "Windows Support" guy not even five minutes ago.

He kept telling me my computer has been hacked and after a while he just hung up on me lmao
 
Now I really want to format my PC and install Ubuntu. You guys are scaring the crap out of me. I just have Windows Defender (MSE) auto-update and scan but that's probably not enough is it? I could already be screwed and not even know it. I used to get viruses all the time when I had Windows 7. Maybe I have a rootkit or trojan hiding out in my porno. Man I hate Windows
 
Scammers are the absolute worst. Some lady signed our house phone number up to something dodgy and sometimes it's a constant barrage. "Ms. Hooper?!" "Ms. Hooper?!"

The regular response now is "If you ever do find Ms. Hooper, tell her she sucks"

"Ms. Hooper?"

"Ms. Hooper?"

Drives me crazy some days.
 
flaxknuckles said:
Now I really want to format my PC and install Ubuntu. You guys are scaring the crap out of me. I just have Windows Defender (MSE) auto-update and scan but that's probably not enough is it? I could already be screwed and not even know it. I used to get viruses all the time when I had Windows 7. Maybe I have a rootkit or trojan hiding out in my porno. Man I hate Windows
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Windows Defender is pretty much useless.
 
Related: Microsoft scam man is sentenced in 'landmark' case

A man who ran a Microsoft computer scam tricking people into paying for free anti-virus software has received a suspended four-month jail sentence.
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The victims, unaware of the scam, would offer remote access to the fraudsters - meaning their computers could be controlled from a different location.

Once given this access, targets' computers would be made less secure, at which point the scammers would offer, in return for a fee, to install software to fix the problem.
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This is an ongoing scam. Wipe your computer get your docs off and then becareful who you let remote into your pc with team viewer...
 
Oh man, I just got this call. :lol

They called my Comcast phone number directly, which I never use (I forward google voice to it and my cell).

I had a hard time talking because I was laughing at the guy the whole time. He was quite befuddled.

I asked what computer he was talking about because I don't have a Windows PC (I actually do). He kept reading from the script while I was laughing.

I asked him what my name is and he gave me the female name of the previous user of this phone number (unlisted and on the do not call list since I got it). Gasping for breath at this point cracking up.

He was so lost at this point. I repeated that I don't have a Windows machine. "How can you not?" "I have Macs." Then he hung up on me, awww.
 
Trouble said:
Oh man, I just got this call. :lol

They called my Comcast phone number directly, which I never use (I forward google voice to it and my cell).

I had a hard time talking because I was laughing at the guy the whole time. He was quite befuddled.

I asked what computer he was talking about because I don't have a Windows PC (I actually do). He kept reading from the script while I was laughing.

I asked him what my name is and he gave me the female name of the previous user of this phone number (unlisted and on the do not call list since I got it). Gasping for breath at this point cracking up.

He was so lost at this point. I repeated that I don't have a Windows machine. "How can you not?" "I have Macs." Then he hung up on me, awww.
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Now I kind of hope one of them calls me. I love messing with assholes.
 
terrisus said:
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Came in for this.
 
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