Just had a strange phone call from a person who in very broken English said he was associated with Microsoft and he understood that I had problems with my Computer, which was true (System crash which resulted in reformatting disc)
He said that it was a problem with word, and he would fix it free of charge, and asked me to turn on Computer.
I asked him if he worked directly for Microsoft and how I could verify that he was genuine, he replied that I must turn on my Computer and everything would be alright!
At this point the alarm bells were ringing, so I told him that I did not believe that he was from Microsoft and that I was terminating the call, which I did.
Has anyone else had an experience like or any idea what was going on?
Would it be a way of directly accessing the information on my computer?
I guess it depends what he was going to ask you to do.
I would guess that he was gonna string you along and then say you needed to buy a piece of s/w.
Never had a call like that, but I would have done what you did
Not much of a hard guess for sometone to make that the typical computer user has 1) Microsoft Software and 2) had a problem with it
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?"
She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
One of the problems is that it was one of those "International out of area" calls, and his broken English was difficult to follow.
Not an easy situation to have a sensible discussion with the caller.
Exactly so. Always terminate the call, and call them back on a number you know to be legit. Sure, this costs you money, but it's a small price to pay to keep your data secure!
Generally, the only way someone can access your PC is if you let them. It can still be done, but generally hackers would rather go for a large payload, rather than take a chance with random people, with little to no chance of pay-off.
Telephone is great for support, but it's not very secure. A company like Microsoft would not fix bugs in software manually, and over the phone. They would send you an Email containing a link to their website, where a patch can be downloaded. Or, they could run you through the process over the phone, or even access your PC, but only after you have called them from a number you know to belong to Microsoft.
The same applies to anyone who turns up on your door step claiming to represent a company. As inconvenient as it is, you should always call the number you know belongs to the company, and you can validate the persons identity. Scammers are still around carrying out such scams, and lazy scammers will exploit you over the phone or internet, meaning they never even have to leave their home to do it!
Hope this helps.
Remember the 8 Ps:
Perfect Planning and Prior Preparation Prevents p*ss-Poor Performance...
Thanks for the response, the fact he wanted me to turn on my computer set the alarm bells ringing, as I guessed the next step would have been for me to access some website, which would have opened up my computer to him/them.
Better safe than sorry!
