Tuesday 19 July 2011

Microsoft Scam

Just to update this post, I am pleased to say that due to the volume of complaints received by my mother's bank, they accepted the payment was taken fraudulently and in their words "clawed her money back"
I am so relieved that they didn't get away with it, though am sure they did in many thousands of cases!


Today I was at a softplay date with @mediocre_mum when my mum phoned.  She said she'd just been called by "microsoft" saying that she had viruses on her computer and they could help clean them up.  She was suspicious and said no thank you and immediately rang me.  I confirmed she had done the right thing, it sounded suspicious and I would ask twitter.  Which of course I did, and lots of my lovely friends on there agreed it was definitely dodgy and not to be trusted.  
I rang her back and she said its OK she's on the phone to them now!  Chrissie immediately looked suspicious, like you could get hold of Microsoft that easily - at minimum email enquiry first?  When mum called back she explained she'd rang AOL to see how these people called her, they told her to phone Microsoft direct, she googled and hit the first number she sees, genius, she is now calling the spammers back!!!!!!!   
£200 later she rings me saying she has given "Microsoft" control of her computer, it was an Indian Call Centre - double head desk from Chrissie and I - and they are cleaning it up for her!  So she has paid, not by Paypal or Credit Card it transpires, but from her debit card.   The card she used has since said they cannot refund as it wasn't a fraudulent payment since she gave number!  Yet more genius! Credit to Chrissie her concern was not to panic my mum any further, but we are at a loss what to do without our laptops to hand!
I could go on, yes I know I already have, but thanks to phonecalls, emails, texts and tweets, all kicked off due to twitter, I felt more in control!   Doubt she'll see the money back, but hoping thats the end of any scamming!  She is now in the hands of her security provider who, last I heard, confirmed this company had done nothing except take her security off her system!


For now just want to say huge thanks to my twitter mates, you all know who you are, and offer a couple of links to confirm that this is a huge viral scam and please tell everyone you know about it.  


Advice from Microsoft on the matter
Similar story with audio of them confronting!

They appear to be preying on the older people, my mum is 68, my FIL has had 3 calls and he is approaching 90!


Do we need to resurrect the old Grange Hill "Just say No" - on a tangent with that but its been a long day!


Thanks for listening and tell everyone you know!
Annie x

3 comments:

  1. Annie just a thought gas your mum informed the bank to put a stop on her card?

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  2. Hi thanks for the interesting blog, this is something we have had a lot of experience with, we operate a legitimate UK based IT support company and many of our clients have reported this to us, we took the liberty of partnering up with the Get Safe Online scheme and the Action Fraud team and have some information on our blog with information of who you can report these scams to, and what safety measures you can take if you have been effected by this issue. We also shed some light from a technical perspective on what is actually going on, and what these conmen are showing you on your computer.
    You might find this helpful to share with your network: http://blog.remotetechs.co.uk/?p=28

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  3. then people called my house a lot and being on a mac myself i pretended to go along with the indians who barely speak a word of english and btw how would they suddenly know i have viruses or care to ring every person who does to help them fix it? but of course people who dont use the computer all the time could easily believe it and i wonder how many thousands a day they make, so when they rang me i tried to play along waste their time and see what commands they wanted me to type but they kept asking what i saw on the screen and i could not play a long for long so i would end up scream down the phone and tell them to go F*beep* themselves and hang up on them and they rang a tone of times but each time the same and they have not called in a while now, maybe they put my number as a dont bother calling number but if they do i am going to scream down the phone at them

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