Windows Support Scam - I was called by someone who said they were windows support and my computer was sending them warnings and messages!

Anonymous
2012-03-06T00:43:31+00:00

March 5, 2012

Windows Support Scam -

I was called at home by someone who said they were windows support and my computer was sending them warnings and messages!

They asked me to open Eventvwr (Event Viewer) to look at the errors. I was to count the errors and warnings.

Then they wanted me to go to www.support.me (don't go there BTW) and a microsoft certified technician would log into my computer and help me fix the problems.

Obviously a scam

I persisted on asking what company they were:

First they said "Windows Operating System"

Then "Customer Care"

And finally

"Softnet Communications for Windows"

They said the phone number was 209-813-0133 (don't call this BTW) and they were in the United States of California

They never could explain what the warnings and messages were.

Someone needs to stop these guys

--- Update ---

August 8 2015

They called again and gave me the same basic pitch.  This time a person with an Indian accent who called him self Kevin said that my computer was calling them because of a massive problem (infection by malware).  His company was Technical Support for Windows users and that the R&D group at Microsoft had a program that notified him of the problem.   After 5 min he wanted me to go to a web site (please do Not go here and click anything) www.121usahelp.com - which if you look at the web page source code will load TeamViewerQS.exe for windows or TeamViewerQS.bmg for Mac.  Do Not Fall for this scam they want you to pay them money and they load software on your computer that is Bad.  

Microsoft Please stop these types of scams - they are hurting less skilled users and older people with computers who don't know better.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2012-03-06T13:28:12+00:00

Hi,

Microsoft will not make unsolicited phone calls to help you with your computer. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up.

If you think you might be a victim of fraud, you can report it. For more information, see What to do if you've responded to a phishing scam.

**For your reference:**Don’t fall for phony phone tech support. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/securitytipstalk/archive/2010/03/09/don-t-fall-for-phony-phone-tech-support.aspx

Hope this information is helpful.

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Anonymous
2015-06-17T14:10:03+00:00

I had a call at 10:00 p.m. last night that my computer was "sending out error messages."  The woman had a very foreign accent and told  me she was from Windows Support.  I immediately went ballistic as I was in bed and told her it was 10:00 P.M.!  She said she knew it was late, but this was very, very important.  I then told her to take my number out of their system and to not call again and she said quite forcefully that they would continue to call me about the "problem."  I told her I was probably 10 times more intelligent than she was, I was very computer literate, there was nothing wrong with my computer, etc., etc., etc.  When I asked her where she was at, she replied "Windows Support," but when I told her I wanted to know what country she was calling from, she hung up!  I knew it was an obvious scam and called her quite a few choice names during the brief conversation.  Probably should have put her on "terminal hold" for the rest of the night!

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Anonymous
2015-02-14T22:31:45+00:00

@ climatechangeisreal

I have no idea why that link suddenly doesn't work anymore...

I've asked here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/feedback/forum/fdbk_commsite-feedback_other/why-is-official-msft-link-report-a-scam-broken/7c98c1f7-c788-4f53-8247-0d4b5e6815fb?tm=1423952532535 if somebody knows if it's a temporary glitch or something else...

Thanks for pointing it out :)

J

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-03T20:27:52+00:00

    Hey Cathy

    Many smart people have been caught by this, I thought I was too smart for them because I lead them on pretending to follow their instructions and then exposed them. When they started calling my names and insulting my I was so angry

    So you are defiantly not stupid

    Here is what you need to do

    Check your computer for any programs that you did not install on purpose

    This is good to do anyway and remove anything you do not recognise, even if you remove something you are unsure about you can reinstall from a genuine source

    Get a good Internet security package (Paid one) the free ones are ok but not good enough for cleaning junk from your computer.

    At least you didn't pay them anything, but the fear is that they can use your computer as a "Bot" Robot to do other illegal things on the internet and get you blamed.

    Mcafee

    Norton

    AVG

    Don't know where you live (Don't need to know) but a good Internet security will cost you less than £50 or $50

    You will mostly get a free months trial which will help you to clean your computer and you can pay for it after that

    I know it seems like a lot of money, but look how much you depend on your computer

    If you need any more advice, just ping a message back here, lots of good people here will help

    Paul

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