Solved I'm getting phone calls from Microsoft about

[ARC1020]

Would the authorities really be that interested?

Sometimes.

“Hello, I’m definitely not calling from India. Can I take control of your PC?” | Ars Technica

“I am calling you from Windows”: A tech support scammer dials Ars Technica | Ars Technica

How Windows tech support scammers walked right into a trap set by the feds | Ars Technica

 

[oboedad55]

If you have caller ID get their phone number & report it to the police.

Or the FCC, ICC, FBI, or somebody.

It's very unlikely it's their real number.

Ask them to mail you with more information. ( USPS )-- ( mail fraud )

People like them are scum.

EDIT--

If they are stupid enough to mail you,don't open it.
Take the letter to the police so it can be dusted for finger prints.

Would the authorities really be that interested?

I'm sure the NSA is on this, so just sit tight and the SWAT team will soon be at your door to help! :shock:

 

[David Bailey]

Damn - Sounds like someone was doing a Teamviewer scam on you. They can use your system to do all kinds of crap. Did the guy try to give you a special Teamviewer login? That would have enabled them to connect right to your system.

That is exactly what they were trying to do and they # on the caller ID was disconnected and when I told him I was on Disability and had know money he gave me a # to call back on which was a 253-271-4520. I told him to give me a toll free # and he said it wouldn't cost me to call that # which is a lie, because that isn't a area code in my state.

I used a reverse phone # tracer:

Phone Number Trace and Reverse Cell Phone Lookup

I found this:



You have to pay $0.95 to get the owner's name.

 

[XweAponX]

a buck? thats good. Thanx for the link!

 

[caperjack]

it worked almost ,i used my own number and it found me ,but was about 12k from where I live ,close enough i guess
I like the part that it can find possible relatives ,maybe i could use it to find out who my Daddy was ,lol

 

[azasadny]

Our bass player just got hit by this scam. The criminals claimed to be with Microsoft and sold his wife a pkg called "Secure 24x7" and all it did was screw up his PC so bad I had to reload Windows from scratch. I had MSE on it as well as MalWareBytes, but this variant got through. Fortunately his data was safe, but I stored his data on a separate hard drive and I imaged his system drive so WHEN this happens again, it will be easier (and faster) to get his PC back up and running...

 

[apprenticegamer]

FYI phone tracer wont leave you alone, continually sending emails and here in Canada I tried one #, said they had the owner info, paid $0.95, info was service provider. Now they fill my junk email every day. Complete rip off

 

[David Bailey]

FYI phone tracer wont leave you alone, continually sending emails and here in Canada I tried one #, said they had the owner info, paid $0.95, info was service provider. Now they fill my junk email every day. Complete rip off

It's a shame there are so many rip offs on the internet.

I called that number & got an answering machine.
A woman with an English accent.
I left a message asking if they had gotten a phone call from the FBI yet concerning their operation.

They haven't called me back yet...

 

[crawfish]

FYI phone tracer wont leave you alone, continually sending emails and here in Canada I tried one #, said they had the owner info, paid $0.95, info was service provider. Now they fill my junk email every day. Complete rip off

Hard to believe this would be surprising to anyone.

 

[XweAponX]

It's a shame there are so many rip offs on the internet.

I called that number & got an answering machine.
A woman with an English accent.
I left a message asking if they had gotten a phone call from the FBI yet concerning their operation.

They haven't called me back yet...

I KNEW it was too good to be true - Most valid phone tracer sites charge at least 20 bucks per trace.

 

[crawfish]

I KNEW it was too good to be true - Most valid phone tracer sites charge at least 20 bucks per trace.

 

[JasonH76]

The word gullible comes to mind...

I work in Tech Support and I hear at least twice a day people being hit with these scams...

If they call, just hang up or you could sound really worried and then hit the mute button and have a cup of tea and get on with life!

I have had people call me who don't even own a computer be called by these scammers. Some now even proclaim to be calling from the manufacturers...

'Hello, I'm calling from Toshiba.. we have detected multiple issues with you computer', to which the reply is, 'Oh dear, that is a shame. I have a Sony laptop...'

 

[azasadny]

The people I know who have been hit by these scams believe them to be legitimate because the scammer use social engineering to find out they have a Dell, are on Comcast, use Windows, etc... then pretend to be with these specific companies and the users believe them, unaware that they gave the scammers this info. Most of the people I know who have been victims of this are of a generation that were taught thet people are basically honest (they aren't, of course) and that they are to trust authority figures, so anybody who pretends to be in authority and tells them something are to be believed... very sad.

 

[Hopachi]

I Googled the site I came up with was How To fix and open PNF file extension
This site has a free download that will clean my computer to fix the problems. Rich will you look at the site and tell me if it is also Bogus?

It's bogus as well.

All those 'shiny' extras are ads on the site. I got tired of all that and now I use Adblock extension in the browser to get rid of those.

Without an adblocker you'll always see more than what the actual content was provided on almost all sites (even on the forums). And the bad ads are to be avoided at all, especially (don't click) those that want to repair your computer, scan for errors/viruses or repair registry.

 

[XweAponX]

I've seen that site, it SUCKS, they need to DIE! They offer fixes for some of the most difficult things to fix in Windows, in a free download. It's Snap.Do or Sirefef! F***ERS!

 

[towget]

If you have caller ID get their phone number & report it to the police.

Or the FCC, ICC, FBI, or somebody.

Ask them to mail you with more information. ( USPS )-- ( mail fraud )

People like them are scum.

EDIT--

If they are stupid enough to mail you,don't open it.
Take the letter to the police so it can be dusted for finger prints.

What if they approved to make such calls from authorities and permit for tele-calling?

 

[alkaufmann]

PNF and INF Files wanting to take control of my computer to delete those files. They say they're Junk files and if I don't pay the $40 + my computer will soon crash!

Is this bogus or not?

It is obviously bogus! I just fixed a computer owned by an 85 year lady with the short term memory of a gnat. She gave the bogus Microsoft caller her password and allowed remote control of her system. I demoted her from administrator to standard user on her own computer and hope that will stop future problems.

I don't think she is out of the woods yet, she is one of those people that uses the same password for everything.

 

[CountMike]

Wander how many would believe if they got a call like "we detected you have a problem with your roses in the garden" ?

 

[Edwin]

I recorded my last episode and wasted a whack of their time!
It's quite amusing; maybe I'll make a FLV of it and post it someday!