I've just received a call from Microsoft

[RichardCoulter]

...and whilst your wasting their time for your own entertainment, they are leaving others (who may be taken in) alone.

[rogerdraig]

they happen all the time first thing i tell friends and family when i set up machines is if any one calls supposedly about your computer hang up. One day when i am board i may set up a spare old laptop to send something nasty to the one they try to connect with when i get a call, though I would have to turn off my call guardian first lol

[Onramp]

You know it's a scam when they tell you they're calling from "Windows". Not even Microsoft, but "Windows".

Here's how they make money.

There are many small IT companies in India that sell antivirus software. In order to increase their sales, some of those companies pay people to dial random numbers in English speaking countries and then read them a script, which tries to convince the person being called that they have a virus. Since a lot of people don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to computers, this is fairly effective. Once they've "demonstrated" to the user that there is a virus on their computer, according to their predefined set of steps (which involves them logging in remotely to your computer) they either install a fake virus or point out normal programs in your system that might look suspicious to someone who doesn't normally know what it is - and then they offer to solve the "problem" for you by signing you up to their antivirus solution.

Sometimes they install legit antivirus software, sometimes they don't - depends who calls you.

Ironically, if you give many of them access to a computer that is not running Windows, they don't know their own arses from their own elbows, and will will follow their script anyway and get confused, continuing to assume that it is Windows. Normally, they will realize something is wrong but not know what, and continue to bluff their way through to try to make the sale anyway.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by rogerdraig

they happen all the time first thing i tell friends and family when i set up machines is if any one calls supposedly about your computer hang up. One day when i am board i may set up a spare old laptop to send something nasty to the one they try to connect with when i get a call, though I would have to turn off my call guardian first lol

Exactly

[tweetiepooh]

Another scam is they get access to your PC, encrypt/password the SAM database and then request payment to release it. The patter is more on the lines of illustrating problems that aren't (normal lines in logs that look bad but really are nothing), offering to help, showing there is now a real problem and charging to fix it.

There are some brilliant YouTube videos of people getting their own back on these including using virtual machines, key loggers and the like. One of the best has someone talking to obviously a new employee, getting them to set a number of BIOS passwords on their machine, rebooting and hearing the moan of despair as they suddenly realise their PC is now locked out completely. (Well to them anyway! I'm sure their IT folks can reset BIOS).

[nashville]

We used to get this a lot in our neighbourhood. But I think they got fed up with people telling them to get lost or just hanging up. Most annoying

[007stuart]

Ever since we bought trucall phones life has been so boring.