misterfish
Established Member
The phone just rang and it was a 'gentleman' (in the loosest terms) with a very strong Indian sub-continent accent that introduced himself as 'Sean' from Microsoft.
Now this was a bad line with distortion and drop outs and what with the introduction I was already convinced that this was going to be some sort of scam.
He proceded to tell me that my PC was sending lots of error messages and would shut itself down very quickly unless I followed his instructions.
I asked which computer and he said it was 'my PC'. I then said I have more than one PC, so afterin asking how many he couldn't understand my answer of several, kept thinking I said 7! So after him waffling a bit with me 'hmming' back at him down the phone I accidently mentioned being a retired IT/PC programming and network specialist and knew our systems were fully protected. I was just informing that as we were signed up to the Telephone Preference Service and that as he was calling was liable to be contacted by the authorities - at which point he hung up.
So this is a warning for those not too computer savvy to be wary. A search shows that this is a known problem - if you follow the instructions they give you will load Event Viewer with all its warnings etc showing which is expected to cause panic in the unwary and will convince you to part with cash for unnecessary 'repair' software.
If I get another phone call like that I'll string the caller along for as long as possible!
Misterfish
Now this was a bad line with distortion and drop outs and what with the introduction I was already convinced that this was going to be some sort of scam.
He proceded to tell me that my PC was sending lots of error messages and would shut itself down very quickly unless I followed his instructions.
I asked which computer and he said it was 'my PC'. I then said I have more than one PC, so afterin asking how many he couldn't understand my answer of several, kept thinking I said 7! So after him waffling a bit with me 'hmming' back at him down the phone I accidently mentioned being a retired IT/PC programming and network specialist and knew our systems were fully protected. I was just informing that as we were signed up to the Telephone Preference Service and that as he was calling was liable to be contacted by the authorities - at which point he hung up.
So this is a warning for those not too computer savvy to be wary. A search shows that this is a known problem - if you follow the instructions they give you will load Event Viewer with all its warnings etc showing which is expected to cause panic in the unwary and will convince you to part with cash for unnecessary 'repair' software.
If I get another phone call like that I'll string the caller along for as long as possible!
Misterfish