Tech support scam Got a call from Computer Security Technical Support, which contracts with Microsoft to resolve Windows Updates issues. Being in the industry, I knew the call was a scam, but was curious whats their deal. Long story short, lady on the phone directed me to run msconfig, and had me sort the Services by Status. She then pointed out all the stopped services, including many from Microsoft (for non techies, this is NORMAL - not all services run at all times, and not all services need to be running, even if they are from Microsoft). The lady, who identified herself as Sasha and gave me a call back number of 347-674-9911, then explained that if I want to fix all these serious problems, all I have to do is go to this website called teamviewer... this is where I started laughing quite uncontrollably, and abruptly ended the phone call. For non-techies: TeamViewer is a remote access software that allows someone to control your computer remotely. Unfortunately, I can see how this ridiculous scam can actually work on a non-technical user. Please remember, Microsoft, or any other company, will NOT call you, unless youre paying for professional/enterprise technical support and maintenance contracts, typically for servers - read: if youre just using a computer or a laptop at home, or even a small business, ANY unsolicited tech support call is either an attempt to sell you something [you probably dont need] or a SCAM.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 19:49:15 +0000
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