Tele-Marketing Scam

[Rodehard 2058]

I live in the Ottawa area but I am sure that this is happening all over the place.

 

Last weekend I received a random phone call from a person purporting to be an "On Line Support" tech from Microsoft who was going to help me with the "problems" that I was having with Windows and my computer. I thought the call was a little strange as I was not having any problems with my computer and the tech support that Microsoft offers is online, not over the phone. This person was going to help to "restore or increase the operating speed of my computer".

 

Warning bells were going off in the back of my head big time!

 

Wanting to know where this was all going, I decided to play along and find out what the "problem was and how to fix it"......this will only work on Windows supported PC's, it will not work on a Mac as there is obviously no Windows key..........

 

Most people that are familiar with the various versions of Windows know that if you use (type) the Windows Icon key and the letter "R" together it is a type of shortcut to open files, documents, folders or the internet.

 

This is when the "scam" started and I decided to have some "fun" with this person......I went into "a computer illiterate state of mind" and made this guy repeat all the instructions as to what I was to do over and over, this made him very agitated and aggressive!

 

The "Support" tech directed me to access the Events Viewer by using the Windows key, from there I was directed to Custom Views and Administrative Events. Opening this log will show a display of all kinds of "Warning, Critical and Error" icons and messages. This is quite normal for any active computer.

 

This "Support" tech person told me that all these "Warnings etc" were viruses or bugs (all this with a lot of "tsk tsk and oh oh comments and this is not good! along with a heavy East Indian accent) and this what was slowing down my computer! This was going to wreck my computer if it was not fixed right away......"You have to fix this right now, and I can help you!" I told the "Support" tech that I had "virus protection" and that it was impossible that I had viruses or bugs in my computer. His reply, "But look, its already in your computer!" The "support" tech then told me again that he could fix the problem and make sure that it would never return....I told him again that I did not have any problems but he "insisted that I did and wanted to know why I did not want to fix my computer!"

 

Playing along I asked him how to "fix my computer?" Through the Windows key I was directed to input "onlinepccare.com" which brought me to a website with subscriptions to plans of varying support levels and durations, any of which would provide the cure!. The good news was that I did not even have to pay for anything until my computer was fixed!

 

Google "onlinepccare.com" and see what turns up................

 

All they are trying to do is to gain "remote access" to your computer and once they do, look out! If you have any credit card data, it can be accessed, they can download spyware, malware and all kinds of things and even "take control" of your computer!

 

This is a scam that is based out of India that has made its way to North America and Canada. I am wondering how many members of CERB may have been approached and cannot help to think that some of the members who are "not tech savvy" would or will be easy prey.

 

I know that a lot of the members of CERB rely on their computers as an integral part of their business and likely spend enough money on systems and ISP services without losing money to a scam.

 

CERB members use extreme caution if you are approached by these people, they are really good and quite convincing and if they get the idea that you do not know much about computers then look out!

 

Rodehard

 

P.S. I finally hung up on the guy, but he was pretty convincing..........

[GT500 100]

Thanks for posting this warning, these people can fool the best of us. While not wanting to make light of these scams I couldn't resist posting this very short audio clip of an extremely clever way of getting back at a telemarketer. I'm sure some of you have heard it before but if you haven't it's well worth a listen. Here's the link:

[Ventrue 120]

The one that called here didn't even say what OS it was. To bad I wasn't the one that answered or the alarm bells would have rung louder and earlier. Though I did end up hanging up on him and calling Microsoft. The street sounds over the phone helped with making suspicious. Call centres would not have that sound and no call centre sounds at all. Bet he was in an internet cafe somewhere.

 

Seems this is happening a fair bit according to Microsoft. So beware after all it's head enough to get legit tech support. For them to call you? Not likely.

[yellow_dog 804]

As with banks, any phone purporting to be from a major company that comes out of the blue simply is not real. Never, ever. It's hard enough to get them on the phone when you call.

[whiteman 14028]

I had a different tele-marketing scam call my house a couple of months back. The guy purported to be from my phone company. I already knew some kind of scam was coming. I asked him what phone company that would be, he guessed right and said Bell. Oh well, can't get rid of him yet, we'll wait for him to screw up later on. Anyways, he had a thick arabic accent, which is not very unusual, as I'm sure there are plenty of them in legitimate call centers.

 

So he's trying to tell me that my phone company was going to be in my area tomorrow, and that they will drop off some prizes and gifts. I asked why and what kind of prizes? He said, because I've been such a good customer all of these years and that I've always paid my bills on time, they would drop off some t-shirts and baseball caps. Alarm bells started going off in my head: since when does Bell ever appreciate or even care about my business? :icon_lol:

 

He said then that he's going to hang up, and an automated voice message will call me up and give me a code number. This code number is the verification code for my prize. After the number is given, he would then call me back up and obtain that verification number from me. So this scam was starting to sound pretty complex and fascinating to me, so I decided to keep playing along. So I let the automated voice message call me. The message was from Craigslist, and within the message they specifically warned me not to give this number to anybody else because that would be a scam. So after I hung up with the automated voice, within a minute the previous guy called back asking for the number. I gave him the number but I reversed a couple of the digits, naturally that came back wrong when he tried it, so he said it didn't work. He asked if I was sure those were the right numbers, and I said that I was -- technically it was true. ;) So then the guy said, he'll try to send me another number, and this time get the number right. I said sure, and I did the same thing again. He started getting a little frustrated by the third time, and then he noticed the little chuckle in my voice at this point, and so he hung up at this point. I enjoyed torturing him. :icon_twisted:

[Rodehard 2058]

Wonders never cease. I recieved another of the "scam calls" again. this guy asks for me by the name that is listed in the phone directory which is not my name.

 

As a sidebar to all this, when I moved into my current residence over 11 years ago I registered the phone service in my dog's name. This was done to avoid nasty and irratating calls from my ex-wife. The dog used to recieve "pre-approved" credit cards and prizes from Ed MacMahon and Reader's Digest all the time but that is another story in itself.

 

So when this guy asked for Mr.********* I knew that he was a tele-marketer of some kind and decided to have some fun with him.

 

So I proceeded to ask him what he wanted. With a heavy East Indian accent he told me that he was a technician working for Microsoft and was calling about the problems I was having with my PC and Microsoft and that we had to fix them right away before "it all crashed". He was going to help me get it all sorted out and fixed. All I had to do was go to my computer and we "could fix it right away"

 

I have no idea as to why he hung up so rudely when I told him that I had a MAC and not a PC with Microsoft Windows!

 

Rodehard