SCAM? Phone call from "Microsoft Windows Repair Support, Albany"

I have been getting phonecalls at least 3 times a week lately, saying my PC is infected (last night being the latest) always seems to be about 6.15pm, I just tell them to F**k off, and hang up. (and yes ALWAYS Indians).

I understand where you're coming from. I have received a call like that, too. The caller claimed he was from Microsoft Tech support and that their system detected a virus in computer. Lol! I may not be savvy with computers but I know for sure that computers do not send out alerts or anything on their own. I called the bluff and hung up.

Besides, I don't have a Windows computer. What I got is a Mac.

I'm wondering. Did the caller use a phone number with 416 area code? The call I got came from that phone number. And I'm sure it was a scammer because I Googled the number and 416-915-3536 - Austin and James Dawson, Toronto, ON - page 1/2 came up along with several complaints from other people, associating the number to this fake Microsoft calls.

No restore points for some reason. No image files... etc. This is the same problem described by others and resolved by using Dzomlija "Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery". I followed this procedure and my problem is now solved. Many kudos to Dzomlija!!!

In the meantime, I see that many others have been approached by scammers similar to my report. It just so happened that they stumbled upon a struggling non-pro that really thought Microsoft would respond to their own report gathering of my issue. What a set-up! Now that I have read some of these other complaints, I don't feel so bad about being hood-winked up to a point. I don't think I would have given them a second thought if it weren't for the Microsoft dialog box in the midst of my issue telling me that Windows Repair could not fix my problem and asked if I wanted to report this fact to Microsoft. They should make it clear that no response will be forthcoming.

MS will only interact in that case with possible Problem solutions sent back to you which may or may not be queued under the Action Center in System Tray. For this reason it will prompt you occasionally to Check for Solutions, so it is worth it to send reports since they will sometimes generate solutions including links to drivers and patches.

Glad you got the actual problem sorted. If you want to go over your install thoroughly or just save them if needed later here are Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.