Creepiness. Microsoft operating systems doesn't have a support center somewhere in India that calls you first, do they? Should I call trace him or just blow it off? Where did he get my number?
Asked by
anartist (
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September 10th, 2013
I just got a call from an Indian-sounding man named “Michael” relayed over some pretty bad lines or low-lying satellites. He was calling because his Microsoft “operating system support center” [or something like that] found serious problems with my computer. My reaction was WHAT? I didn’t call you. Why would you notice me out of the millions upon millions of Windows users in the world? I should have just hung up. He wanted to access my computer but I said no thank you, so he told me to look at event viewer and filter for “warnings” and “errors.” And there were a ton and I saved the log and even went back and saved another one with “verbose” [how verbose is it?] and “critical.”
I thanked him and told him I would have someone look at it. He insisted he could help me. I asked him to send me an email from his microsoft office, instead he said he could call later after I had checked it out. I asked for his phone and instead he said he would call me at 12 noon tomorrow. [This call back instead of my calling was actually done once by a real microsoft person in india so it is not that far-fetched]
I looked at the log. Lots of errors but the latest batch seemed probably due to my abusing my memory working with lots of 300+mB files and keeping 80 tabs open on firefox. However some have been really inconvenient. The next batch of errors seems to be a day I watched a dvd on the computer [paging error device cdrom0] and the last batch [task scheduling error] might be the times I unplugged my data backup systems to not back up while I was cleaning off a virus.
Problems yes. But warranting an international call?
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This is a virus scam that is going around. We were told about it at my school.
worth tracing the call? Is it likely to be international? why me?
Just a random number. It is like when you ask a hundred woman to sleep with you thing. One in a hundred will send you a couple hundred bucks to fuck up their computer.
And thanks for the reminder. I need to remind my mom of this scam. She would fall for it.
great article! btw the thank-so-and-so button is missing but thankyou
@anartist Noticed that about the thank button too.
As for how he figured out your phone number, he didn’t. They just dial thousands of randomly-generated phone numbers until somebody picks up.
I love those guys!
My last call was like: “Well why don’t I just give you my social security number and bank account?” “You’re a liar…. pause…” wait for him to start speaking, interupt: “You’re lying.”... and again.. “You’re a liar. You’re a liar. You’re a liar.”
@ninjacolin haha! my other half just likes to spin them out, gets real rambly and drawly and tells long tangentially related shaggy dog stories burning up their time.
@PhiNotPi :: Back in the Dial-up days i used the phone book to figure out the range of phone numbers for the school. Tried to call all of them for a modem. (this was 1993) I eventually got the modem and the rest is passing chemistry.
@johnpowell suzy wouldn’t fall for it.
re the phone calls were you just looking for a date like mark Zuckerberg?
Suzy (my mum) does get frustrated very fast. She would if she couldn’t get ahold of me in a few fours.
Thanks all! gotta go. bye
I get very frustrated with these calls… the last one i got, I said something like “Stop calling us, there is nothing wrong with my computer!! STOP CALLING US!!” Not that it will do me any good, lol!
It’s a very common phone scam. Try searching for “Microsoft scam call” in YouTube for a zillion videos of people having fun with the scammers – it can be cathartic.
Just send the money by Western Union to Bangalore to fix it,
SCAM+
Don’t call me, I’ll call you means something.
Unsolicited calls of this nature can safely be said to always be scams.
Scam, lead him on then hang up on his ass after going as long as you can. The longer you keep him busy the less harm he does to those who know no better.
Hang up on them, they are even phoning the UK on a daily basis and scamming people out of thousands. It has now become a joke that the ‘Windows’ caller is on the line.
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