Nasty Scam from "Microsoft Technical Support"

[Joyce Davis]

Several months ago I was forwarded information about a scam where telephone calls from "Microsoft Technical Support" informed you there was a problem with your operating system.  MTS offered to fix your problem.  You had to give the caller access to your computer, naturally.  It gets more interesting (see link below).

I tucked the info into the far recesses of my brain.  This was going on in Europe.

Well...got a phone call the other day from these folks.  Very personalized, used my name, waited for me to respond, then said the next thing.

Guess what, it was a very clever voice recognition program that took what I said, fed it into their database, then came up with the next words to say.

When I told them I knew what they were doing, I got "That's a lie."  Each time I said something about what I knew, the same "That's a lie."  The volume, tone and pitch of the voice was exactly the same.  That confirmed my suspicion that I was talking to a computer.

See:  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security...

Hope this saves you some grief. 

 

[Joyce Davis]

That's why I put it in quotes.  Good point.  We don't want people thinking MTS would make such a call.

So let's add this:  Microsoft does not initiate contact with its users, not by telephohe, not by e-mails. 

What impressed me most:  the clever voice-recognition program they're using.  A less savvy person would believe they're talking to a live person.  You could ask it questions and you'd get a reply. 

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

You should clarify it's not actually "Microsoft" but individuals pretending to be Microsoft.  The title of your post makes it sound like Microsoft the actual company is playing this game.  So not true.

[Glen Warner]

Wow --!  The nerve of these guys, huh?

Thank you for the link.  I will be putting that in the next Cheap and Sleazy update!