Phone call PC SCAM

I had the first call a while back too.

Now It looks loke they are starting up again.

People just beware........

I've just had another one of these myself, this time he claimed to be from the "Microsoft Maintenance department" but I think he could tell by my enthusiastic tone that I was out to play and hung up before I had any fun

My Charlotte had one last week, told the chap, I have a Dad for that.

We’ve discovered this telephone scam is aimed at English-speaking countries, including North America and the United Kingdom. The callers pretend to be from Microsoft and try to sell the victim something, direct them to a specific website, asked for remote access, to install software, a credit card number, or run a bogus security scan that showed an infection. The Trustworthy Computing Team conducted a survey of 7,000 people, and found that more than 1,000 people had received calls. Of those 1,000 people, 22 percent of people fell for the scam (234 people total), and 184 of those lost money - on average, more than $800.
You can check out some tips for avoiding phone scams here, but we want to remind you will never receive a legitimate call from Microsoft or our partners to charge you for computer fixes. If someone does call you claiming to be from Microsoft:

• Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team with whom you are already a customer.
• Never provide your credit card or financial information to someone claiming to be from Microsoft tech support if you did not initiate the call to Microsoft first.
• Ask upfront if you are required to purchase software or pay a fee or subscription associated with the "service." If there is, hang up.
• Take the caller's information down and immediately report it to your local authorities. If you think you’ve been the victim of a scam, check out these tips that can help you protect your money and identity.

Windows Security Blog

I too just recieved one of these calls. Being extra tired I was more gullable than normal so I let it get right up to the invoice payment before I realised it was a scam!!!!

It was a call from an indian man that said he was based in sydney for a company called EPROTECTIONZ which are the only security company that is able to detect a new virus that has spread right across the UK and US and guess what - it was days away from completely destroying my computer.

'David Morrison' the technician set up all these alerts saying my computer was incredibly infected and my Norton Anti Virus despite being up to date could not fix this problem. He then gave me a contact number which was 02 5809 7072 whist he installed a program named IObit. 'David' then put me through to his 'senior technical officer' who's name was - wait for it - 'Jamal Fingers' At this point I'd come to my senses despite 'jamal' giving me the same contact number with his extension of 4408 that he said he could be contacted on 24hrs a day. He started getting a bit nervy when I told him I couldn't pay the invoice because my credit card was not nearby and I would have to do it later when I returned from my 'office'. He then tried to be personal and asked me why I was working so late on a saturday and why was I so tired. I gave him a false mobile number as the only number I could be contacted on to confirm a later payment which I will certainly not make. $265.98 for a three year subscription to EPROTECTIONZ when I already had purchased up to date security from a reputable company - I don't think so!

When I was off the line I called the number I was given and the 24hr service was not correct so confirming my suspicions I then deleted the IObit program and called Norton who ran a scan over my computer and it is safe again.

Hopefully nobody will be as gullable as me!!