"Microsoft Support Call Scam"(Event Viewer)

Anonymous
2014-08-13T14:31:05+00:00

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.

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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  1. Anonymous
    2017-01-17T11:28:27+00:00

    17 January 2017. Exactly the same MO as above. It appears this scam is not over. I asked to phone him back.

    It will never be over so long as gullible people fall for it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-01-17T04:47:05+00:00

    17 January 2017. Exactly the same MO as above. It appears this scam is not over. I asked to phone him back. The number he supplied was 1800 049 064 and that his name was William. Optus advises that this number has been disconnected.

    Carl

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-10T09:31:09+00:00

    Same happened here, about one hour ago.

    The number was apparently a local Swiss number (069854258), but after a check with my provider we realized it's probably spoofed (in their registry, even local calls appears with +41 in front, and no leading 0).

    I just let them guide me through the whole procedure (without really doing anything, at home I just have a Mac), and he was quite surprised about something not working. He must have realized I was just pulling his leg, and suddenly passed the phone to his "colleague", that told me I wasted their time, since they were just trying to help, and they'll call again and again because "it's their duty".

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-24T15:13:33+00:00

    Basically you should never give information out over the phone unless you have initiated the call - it's all evil though as my stepfather and his generation just aren't savvy enough to know this sort of stuff and he fell for this scam.

    I entertain myself by pretending to be unaware of what is going on and pretending to follow their advice until they get to the download bit - often getting them to repeat things multiple times as I suddenly become hard of hearing. This last time I managed 20 minutes and got to speak to three different people (all from Talk Talk allegedly) before they eventually hung up themselves. Anyone beat that? I think I need to get out more...

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-03-25T18:24:04+00:00

    Just happened to me and they asked to type in eventviewr, anyway I asked them not to diddle and where they wanted me to go as I had event viewer open and they said "ok you see all the errors" I said yes and then I asked if they could see the errors and he said "yes" so I asked him what happened at 2016-03-.... and he said error message, I told him unfortunately for me it was a Warning message, he had the gaul, lol to say oh yes its a warning message. I then told him oops I was wrong it was an error message, he hung up. Then they called me back on the 9002 number and I answered "Hi this Robert you have been transferred to the Internet Fraud Division". They havent called back.

    I would like to thank people here for posting details so I knew exactly what was going on because these people could suck in someone that isnt very computer savy or that has had some issues with their computer. Unfortunately they are pretty good especially for someone who doesnt know.

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