This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I received a phone call today from a private caller with an Indian accent saying he was from Microsoft Support.
He told me my computer was constantly sending windows errors to Microsooft and we needed to fix it.
He went on to ask me how many computers I have in my home and said all of them had to be fixed.
He had me go on my computer, type: EVENTVEWR in the box and look in options,all of this sounded strange as he kept asking me what i was seeing on my screen at the time.
I went on to ask him to hold and googled "Microsoft Support Call Event Viewer" in which I found a blog with lots of people having the same thing happen to them(http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-security/phone-call-scam-received-call-from-a-technician/6ed2b99c-20ff-468b-a69b-aec78b93f287?page=22&tm=1407939072026 )
I then hung up the phone and he kept calling back(4 times)and this time it was a local number(15129633287), of which I googled immediately, bringing up a list of local numbers on a list with a foreign language as the titles.
I then decided to call Microsoft Support directly to confirm it was a scam and was informed that Microsoft never makes calls without a customer request and that Microsoft has its own set of programs it uses to fix computers instead of "event viewer".
I was told I could submit a post on here to let Microsoft know of the Incident, which is the purpose of this post..in addition to help anyone else from having to go through the experience many people have had with this issue.
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.
Yes, just had similar call. Was told all my computers, tablets etc had problem on them. I told the guy upfront "Look let's stop this right now, as you and I both know this is a scam call".
He was incredibly persistent. Most of them usually hang up at this point, but he went on and on. gave me this number 0800111 0563 and an address of 123 Chingford Rd, B13 0LY to prove he was real.
In the end I repeated three times, "I am ending this call" and eventually I had to hang up to shut him up.
This happened today to my 81 year old mother. Fortunately she got suspicious after they got to the event viewer screen and before she allowed access to the computer.
But they did have her open a command prompt on her upgraded Winows 10 machine and type what she thinks was the command assoc. it brought up a ZFSendToTarget=CLSID line that might have had her user account name in it. I am attaching a picture I found on another site that looks like what came up on her computer.
Was as running the command dangerous? Did it compromise her or open any access to her computer or do anything else that might be harmful?
Thanks for any thoughts.
Just received the same call from the telephone number 313-687-3918. This happened last year with my laptop and now I am receiving calls again since purchasing another PC. I don't understand how these scammers have access to my number and information, Microsoft.
That was one of my complaints to Microsoft and Dell , GoHack. Someone on the inside is getting our information. I filed a fraud complaint with both companies but I have yet to figure out whom else to contact to help end this scam before others get hurt.
It's rather a common scam. I think a few years back my mum got a call from one of those scammers, fortunately she recognised it as suspicious. Report such scams to your local law enforcement.
Event Viewer is a program included with Windows though. It lets you see the logs made by Windows and various programs and can be useful for troubleshooting computer problems, and opening it won't do any harm. There will often be warnings and errors that aren't important, and the scam probably relies on trying to convince you that one of them needs "fixing".
