AMMYY Scam

I was given a number to call on (7/09/13)by Amazon.com to have my Hotmail account "fixed".

This was in response to my Kindle purchases to be verified by Amazon.com.  since I had been unable to access my hotmail account.  I called tthe number aand an Indian soundiing man answered and he said they could help me fix it.  I am an older woman and don't know much about computers, so I was extremely naive and believed it was just a simple thing so didn't know to question the man.  To make this shorter, he said I was "fixed" and i owed his company $199.00 for this service whiich I stupidly believed,and paid him (he sent an invoice to.me on my email) .  The next day I found out from my daughter that no one could fix a hotmail access except Microsoft. I stopped payyment on check. At that point he called me and asked why I had stopped payment, that they were a legitimate company  wanted me to Google AMMY to verify this. I saw at that time the scam alert under Google AMMY.  I hung up and ignored further calls from them. I am still arguing about payment.(with my bank.)  Does this type scam happen to others? I learned a valuable lesson from this.  Am I doing the right thing to stop their payment?  I have to prove to the bank that he couldn't possibly do what he stated.

And, it continues. Phone call from male with Indian accent.  "Your computer with 'windows' continues to send error messages to Microsoft servers.' 

Asked which of the 5 computers.  'The one running "windows"'.   "..please type the following ... in the url area and we will send you a list of all the viruses infecting your computer."   I hang up. 

He calls back to tell me if I do not comply my Windows will stop working and license revoked to use Windows.  

When asked for his phone number he provided me with (804) 532-0068 -  a number showing up on my other computer as a scam # used.  

On the other phone line, I called the cybercrime unit of the FBI.  They stayed on the line when he called back.  I kept him on the phone for the next 5 minutes in hoping that might be sufficient time for the cybercrime unit to track; doubtful with disposible phone numbers but this was a landline. 

Anyway.... SCAM, SCAM and even worse if I had typed the url that he demanded to be listed in my browser window. 

BEWARE, BE CAREFUL.   I fully believe that if by some really remote chance (lol) that this was a  Microsoft tech and my OS stopped working as a result, that MS would have taken care of the tech and my problem.

We received a similar call yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 29) at 12:17 p.m. (Eastern time) from a BLOCKED CALL.

The man claimed he was calling about our Microsoft OS computer.  He also mentioned a warranty.  I asked which computer he was calling about.  He said Microsoft OS.  I said Dell, he said "yes, Dell."

The man wasn't a good English speaker and did not sound too sharp.  I asked where he called from and he said India.

He appeared to call from a call center as I could hear the background noise.

He too tried to get me to the ammyy.com website.  I played along with him.  When I saw that ammyy.com was for remote control of my computer, it was obvious what he was trying to do.

I yelled at him and he hung up.

My concern is that this appears to be a massive scammer operation.  It must be obvious to fraud investigators (Secret Service or credit card companies?) where this scam is originating.  How come it isn't being stopped?

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I expect some cooperation from the Indian government considering USA is probably their largest market.

I e-mailed ammyy.com tech support to inquire if they knew about the scam and/or if they were involved in the scam.  They sent me this link:

http://www.ammyy.com/en/admin_mu.html

THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM IN AN ATTEMPT TO REMOTELY CONTROL YOUR COMPUTER AND ACCESS ALL YOUR FILES AND PERSONAL INFORMATION AS THIS CAN NOT BE DONE WITHOU YOU REMOTELY ALLOWING ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN BY GIVING THEM ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER.

Today I too received one of these phone calls from a guy with a heavy indian accent. He told me he was from Microsoft and was calling because my computer was infected. He directed me to INF from my start menu and informed me that the files I did not recognize were infected. He then walked me through a website www.ammyy.com. I knew immediately this was a scam, so I told the guy my internet connection was lost and he did a poor job trying to walk me through restarting my connection. When I asked for a phone number to call back he passed the phone off to another guy who also tried to walk me through reconnecting. In the mean time I typed in ammyy.com and read the reviews about a scam and when I told the guy this phone call appeared to be a scam he began to yell and swear at me, how funny. I did stoop to his level just briefly and then hung up the phone. THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM IN AN ATTEMPT TO REMOTELY CONTROL YOUR COMPUTER AND ACCESS ALL YOUR FILES AND PERSONAL INFORMATION AS THIS CAN NOT BE DONE WITHOU YOU REMOTELY ALLOWING ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN BY GIVING THEM ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER.