Microsoft license key/IP address scam

Apparently not. I've had all four of our cell phones and landline on the National Do Not Call Registry since the year of inception, and every five years I re-register just to be safe. I have never stopped getting unsolicited marketing calls since, but the past two years have been the worst. I checked the National Do Not Call Registry last year and sure enough all four of our numbers are still on it. I reported violations like we are supposed to, but nothing ever happens and those same calls keep coming. There has also been a huge increase in the fraudulent kind: scam calls, threat calls, caller-ID spoofing, and calls like this Microsoft one to scare you into something that you think is serious. The caller-ID spoofing is a way around the National Do Not Call Registry for a lot of advertising too. If you can't prove they were the caller, they can't get caught.

It just ticks me off that Microsoft is not responding to those of us earnestly trying to find out if there is something we do need to worry about in regards to our Windows licenses or not, and to confirm with us that yes, this is a serious scam just as we are assuming and we need to continue to ignore it, and they will report this to the proper governmental authorities, yada yada. if MICROSOFT reports it, I bet it will get a lot more investigative attention than if just lil' ol me from the pokie boonies calls. My complaint will just get added to some erroneous list that collects dust. But if a big corporation complains? Something tells me that they'll sit up and take notice and get on it pronto. It's the least Microsoft can do for its loyal customers, you'd think, and doesn't take much effort on our behalf. Post something Microsoft!  It's hard sometimes to know for sure if it's ok to ignore a call - so you need to reach out to your customers as a whole. I called you twice, but alas, I couldn't afford any more of the 45+ minutes it took to navigate through a stick-a-fork-in-my-eye-instead-pleaseautomated system just to finally get to the "someone will be with you in a moment" point to wait to speak to a real person.

There are a lot of news stories and forums today discussing the caller-ID spoofing problem and how a team of attorneys are confronting the government head-on to get them to finally really do something about this, like give the phone companies power to detect the spoofing caller ID numbers right up front and block them, which will eliminate both the crooks and the abusive advertising - unlike the government's previous attempts that had no impact.

As for businesses and advertisers that ignore the Do Not Call laws that aren't being enforced, we need more manpower to enforce that in a major and public way to really deter new violations. Make an example out of a lot of companies doing this, not just a few, and you'll find that you won't need to continue keeping as much enforcement manpower in place in the future. But I've never heard of any company getting in trouble for violating the Do Not Call Registry, have you?

 But I've never heard of any company getting in trouble for violating the Do Not Call Registry, have you? 

Yes.  https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/do-not-call-registry/enforcement

Thanks Jim! No, I've never seen this. I guess you actually have to go to the ftc site to see it because I've not heard it or seen it in the general everyday news sources. Sadly, despite what the article says, it really was only a few examples made with cracking down, though not as many as they need to considering the sheer number of companies abusing this, and the amount of unsolicited calls every day. Also, most of their efforts are primarily focused on robocalls, and not as much the other kinds like scammers, or the biggest problem today Caller ID Spoofing. That gets lip service and mentions in their literature, and they talk about being aware and doing something, but there isn't anything tangible showing that they have indeed made progress cracking down on those using spoofing. But ... your link was very helpful for me personally since I don't just read an article, but click on the links too in order to learn more. So thanks for that.

The following is lengthy, but I'm hoping it will help anyone coming to this thread to learn how they can take some action with this Microsoft call, and feel empowered, rather than just complain like I was doing and commiserate with other complainers. Ya, commiseration is therapy in its own right, but unproductive and we want relief! You can thank JimWynne as much as you might me because all of this was found through his taking the time to post a link to an article, which he no doubt did a bit of research to do, and I took it from there.  Thanks again Jim.

For anyone else reading this thread, the FTC site had a really good page to explain why it is so important to take the time to report each call. One of those reasons is to help the phone companies as they try to develop call blocking technologies. Not knowing how the phone industry tracks call origination, I'm not sure how they can get a handle on caller ID spoofing like this Microsoft one showing my home landline on the caller ID, but apparently we are supposed to report those kind too. Since you report it with date and time of day, they must have some way of tracking the call at that time? Logic would say there should be, but  I don't know if the various phone companies spent the time developing systems that can go that nitty gritty. Here's the article:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/08/heres-big-reason-complain-about-unwanted-calls

**I would encourage anyone coming to this page having the same experience with the Microsoft license call to report them.**Date, time of day, caller ID number shown, (in my case it's always my home phone,) if you answered - then report anything that the caller said and what the subject of the call was. In my case, I will be reporting the details for at least 25 calls originating from my "home number" for this Microsoft scam just from the past 4 days since they are still in my call history log. Maybe if all of us do the same it will be worth our time. Following is some help if you want it... 

Even though I find it relatively simple, others can find it to be tedious navigating through a website's many links to find just the right place to do this. Since I just did it for myself and navigated through all the many menus and descriptions, I'll place the link here for the computer related reports to help out should you want that, and you can just go right to it and save time. Click here for the FTC Link to that page for starting a complaint related to computer scams - and it will have the following three categories:  

1. Hardware or Software
2. Spyware or Computer Viruses
3. Someone pretended to be associated with a company offering to remove a virus or malware from your computer

I'm not sure which one our Microsoft scammer would be reported to because technically a Windows license problem is "software" (category 1) but they pretend to be associated with Microsoft (category 3) but it is not related to virus removal but to your IP address being compromised and placing your license at risk (IP-related not listed specifically.) So ... technically it is just as much of a scam about your IP address as it is your software license. Good luck deciding. LOL  There is a category for Internet Services, but I believe that is more about the call trying to sell you internet services and support, etc.

There is also a category under "Scams and Ripoffs" called "Impostor Scams: Someone posing as a well-known business, a family/friend, or a government agency." Here is the direct link to start a complaint under that category: Imposter Scams. I guess our Microsoft call fits this one just as much as a computer related category, and I might choose this one since number 3 above specifically states offers to remove virus/malware. I haven't decided yet, but hope I've helped point out a couple places where you can go.

One last thing to the desperately annoyed like me:  there are also call blocking services you can try to use. I have one but it appears that after five years it is not working very well anymore given I have over 15 unwanted calls each day. Scammers are constantly changing the number they use and most of those services just block previously reported numbers. In that case I could have a full time unpaid job reporting all the calls that I get. But here is a link to information about other services and methods that I haven't looked at yet:   

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0548-blocking-unwanted-calls

I too just received a phone call on my land line, ( every 30 minutes or so today) the caller ID was my own phone number beneath a long curious number V0136194000012.   I was curious so I finally answered it.  

The robo voice (Shirley) said it was microsoft, that my windows license key was going to be deactivated in 48 hours because my IP address had been compromised from several different countries and they needed to set up a new IP address for me.  Iwas asked to press 1 to speak to someone.  I was then transferred to a person.   I hung up b/c it sounds like a scam.

I believe that the word you intended to use was "ditto".