"Microsoft Support Call Scam"(Event Viewer)

Anonymous

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.

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71 answers

Anonymous

2017-02-21T05:20:31+00:00

Occams razor.

The scammers don't need anything more than a phone directory to carry out their scam. What makes you think they need information that only Dell has?
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Anonymous

2017-02-20T00:58:11+00:00

And how is it so clear to you Sir that the Dell's outsourcing has nothing to do with it?
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Anonymous

2017-02-19T23:33:20+00:00

I have no idea what might make you think that Dell is behind all of this, but it's clear that you didn't think it through.
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Anonymous

2017-02-19T22:46:28+00:00

I have forwarded information on these scammers to Microsoft in the past and though they seemed concerned I didn't hear anything from them. Dell on the other hand advised me to forward the information to the FCC whom I never received a response. I will never knowingly purchase another Dell product because I honestly believe these scams originate from their outsourcing purchase and warranty information. Dell and our attorney generals should step up their game after all these corporations have many resources to put an end to this.
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Anonymous

2017-02-19T17:12:40+00:00

This scam is alive and well in Maryland. I have been getting these calls for about 2-3 weeks now. Each time some guy with a thick Indian or perhaps Pakistani accent. What they lead with never makes any sense to me--something about detecting a problem with my software, blah, blah, blah... They never start by asking your name, giving the recorded call disclaimer, mentioning a case number, or even Microsoft product that they are concerned about. The first few time I just hung up because I could barely understand the guy. The last one who called me spoke better English, but again no specifics. When I told him that his story didn't make any sense he gave me a phone number @ MS tech support to follow-up (I seem to have misplaced that unfortunately).

Anyway, I never called because this was clearly a phishing scam, but wish I could pass that info along to MS. I see caller ID in my future again very soon.
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