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Computer Scam
Today I had a telephone call on my fixed line in Brussels, Belgium. I suspected that it was a scam. The person on the other end of the line said that he was providing a service for Microsoft, that his company had an agreement with Microsoft and that the company was responsible for providing this service for Microsoft in Europe. He said that he was in the technical and maintenance department. I asked him for the name of the company and he said that it was Opsyst. He said that my computer had been sending many error messages to Microsoft and other people in the “internet world” and that he would help me to solve the problem. I just had to boot up my computer and he would tell me what to type into it to solve the problem. He also said that my computer was at a high risk of crashing because these errors would corrupt the hard disk.
I told him that I did not think there was anything wrong with my computer. I asked him where he was calling from and that before I would boot up my computer I would call him back. He gave me the telephone number of 44 33 000 11 11 7 and said that he was calling from Glasgow. I asked him his name and he said that it was Austin Rose, although his foreign accent certainly did not agree with such an Anglophone name. I did not call him back. I suspect that he would have eventually asked me to type something into the computer that he had no business requesting.
I called Microsoft in USA and they gave me the Microsoft number in UK. If you need it the number is 44 08 44 8002 400. The person I spoke with was very helpful and indicated that there have been many reports like this. As I suspected he said that this was a scam call and that Microsoft would never call anyone on a private number.
This is posted for your information and protection. Obviously if you get such a call do not type anything into your computer that the caller requests you to type. .
Next time you get a call like that, just tell them you have an Apple Mac.
Yes, it's a well known scam
By the way, the call back thing scammers do is easy.
They give you a (sometimes genuine) phone number to call, you put the phone down, but they stay on the line. Then when you pick up the phone again, they play back the sound of a dialling tone and a ringing tone, and then "answer" the phone so it seems like they are on the genuine number.
This poster sounds genuine and it seems that the Microsoft number they quote is genuine. It does go to show how careful we must be. I'm so cautious that at the mention of 'Brussels, Belgium' I went looking for other 'Brussels' around the globe. I found this: http://www.brussels.info/brussels-outside-belgium/
We are not alone...
So thanks poster, a bit like 'Paris, Texas'?
Question: When were you dumb enough to give Microsoft you personal phone-number details?
This has been going on since 2008. If you have some extra time and want to have some fun you can always play along like this guy: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/11/malwarebytes
I have been getting a lot of these calls lately, I also got one at 20.00 in the evening saying they were from KBC Bank and had been asked to check if I had an account with them, when i asked them why a bank would not already know who there customers were, the caller hung up. I contacted KBC and they told me they would never call like this and thanked me for reporting the call. So be warned, I usually string the callers along a bit, once asking one what he could see out of his office window when he said he was calling from Rue Royale.
Had a few of these calls myself. The latest was some 2 weeks ago when I received 2 in one day! I either lay down the receiver and let them prattle on or tell them my husband is the one who is computer literate! One of the callers got really stroppy when I refused to turn on my PC!
