Some weirdos are calling me from "microsoft"

[moloko]

This is a scam. My buddy got the same call. They try to let you remote them into your machine, they will install software turning it into a zombie.

[fusi0n]

"DirectTV" called me a couple of weeks ago and told me they where going to give me all the channels for no extra charge.. (I already have all of of them).. I knew this was a scam so I played along to see what he wanted.. He wanted me to give him my SSN to "verify" my identiy.. lol I laughed and told me that I wanted to cancel and he got confused and hung up on me

[beanboy89]

Oh my God!!! Does someone from Neowin seriously have my phone number? I literally got a similar call minutes ago. I am shaking from shock and excitement. The phone rings and my dad says that it's for me. I pick up and it's a foreign-sounding lady from "Perfect PC Care" and she asks me how many and if what computers I use and what operating systems they're using. I quickly fire up a Vista VM in VMWare just for giggles. She starts asking me to open op Computer Management and looking through the Event Viewer and asked me to look for errors and warnings. She then asked me what anti virus I use, and I said I use MSE. I was then told to open IE and navigate to some site (not going to give the URL) and download their remote control software. I downloaded and installed it. At that point, there was some ID number and my local IP address and she wanted me to give her the ID number. At this point, I had been on the phone for 15 minutes and I had enough fun for the day, so I called her out and said "thanks for the quick laugh." I am literally shocked that this happened after posting in this thread earlier saying that I wanted a call like this.

[LimeMaster]

Microsoft employees have even had calls from these scams. :laugh:

http://blogs.technet...are-phones.aspx

[Gotenks98]

We had a few calls that students from the university I work for got. I had one who got their machine totally hosed by these guys. Its a shame people don't know better to not fall for this stuff.

[Pygmy_Hippo]

My wife has been at home twice when we've had these phone calls, sadly I've never been around to get involved - I live in hope though....

Loved this article from http://arstechnica.com/features/2012/10/can-you-fix-my-windows-95-computer-how-to-troll-a-tech-support-scammer/

While some troll scammers as a public service to prevent people from being victimized, others are simply out for laughs. Case in point: a person calling himself "Ted" kept a scammer on the phone for nearly two hours, recording the last 43 minutes and posting them to SoundCloud last week.

A good troll is a prepared troll, and Ted was ready. He dragged out the call by pretending to connect his Windows 95 and Windows Vista computers to CompuServe via dial-up Internet, by providing an expired credit card number, and by providing absurd answers to basic questions.

[ngc891]

I feel left out, the only calls I get are people asking about ppi claims or about the accident I haven't had yet... :(

[44MLX]

Never experienced this but would love to have fun with them :D

[killez]

Microsoft will never call a customer stating you are infected or this or that. Always shows you a fake event log my father called them and then asked me (I work in IT) and its a scam. Scan your computer.

[webeagle12]

Warwagon needs to really stop calling all these people

[Growled Member]

lol, I think I got a call like that. I can't be sure because I hung up about ten seconds into the call.

I tell them I run Linux and they hang up.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Ah... support scammers. Mostly out of Kolkata. You can always ask them how their local team is doing when they call.

One of my co-workers has been tracking these scammers for several years now, watching as their tactics, malware, scams and tricks have evolved, somewhat in response to law enforcement, but mostly because of what works for them, since they are still going strong. Here is a partial listing of his blog posts on the subject from last year:

New Support Scam Gambits: Frozen Virus a Frozen Turkey

Support Scams and the Surveillance Society

PC Support Scams: a Forensic View

Telephone Scams: it?s not all about PC support

Telescammer Hell: What?s Still Driving The PC Support Scammers?

FTC cracks down on tech support scams and feds nail fake AV perps

(actually, by another coworker)

PC Support Scams - Virus Bulletin paper

AMMYY Warning against Tech Support Scams

Support scams and Quervar/Dorifel

Dorifel/Quervar: the support scammer's secret weapon

Support Scammer Anna's CLSID confusion

Misusing VERIFY (and other support scam tricks)

The Tech Support Scammer's Revenge

Support scams: social engineering update

Support Scammer Update: Misrepresenting Task Manager/

Support Scam Poll

How to recognize a PC support scam

Fake Support, And Now Fake Product Support

Cybercrime and Punishment

He also got enough material out of the scams to write two papers for conferences on the scammers:

CFET2012 -

FUD and Blunder: Tracking PC Support Scams

VB2012 -

My PC Has 32,539 Errors: How Telephone Support Scams Really Work

Interesting reading. What's interesting about this scam is that it is so much more labor-intensive than conventional malware. The scammers can end up spending an hour or more on the phone with a victim. However, the reason they do that is in the payoff: Once they have your credit card, they will typically charge several hundred dollars/euros/pounds, regardless of what they told you they were going to bill.

If you, or someone you know, was the victim of a support scammer and gave them a credit card number, contact the bank issuing it and report the fraud to them. Right now, that's pretty much the only recourse consumers have.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Hum]

Oh my God!!! Does someone from Neowin seriously have my phone number? I literally got a similar call minutes ago. I am shaking from shock and excitement.

Yes -- we can get your number, if you are on dial-up ... :shifty:

[+Warwagon MVC]

Warwagon needs to really stop calling all these people

Give me your phone number, i'll add you to my list.

[MikeChipshop Member]

Play with them.

Install a VM and allow them to teamviewer in to it. Set up some hardcore porn as your wallpaper and completely screw with the system before you allow them in and then just play games with them. Hours of fun.

P.S. If you do this, make sure to film it :p

[REM2000]

tell everyone i know to simply respond with "i use a mac / ipad" it's a waste of time speaking to these scamming a***holes

[fusi0n]

lol, scammers.. sadly they get a lot of peeps