There’s one going around right now. I get about 4-5 calls a day.
The caller identifies themselves as representing “Microsoft Technical Department”. They go on, saying they have observed suspicious activity in your account or some such.
If you continue, they have you enter a few strokes and a whole list of items pops up.(about 25) They say that each item represents someone, somewhere, who is currently using your computer for their own purposes without your permission.
They, of course, have a fix. Note, they do not ask for money.
Here’s the scam:
If you continue, they will lead you around Robin Hood’s Barn until they somehow retrieve private information about your finances, banks, credit cards, etc.
They sell this information to others, who eventually use the info to steal from you.
Play the numbers:
There are probably about a billion or more people in the US using a Microsoft Windows operating system.
Microsoft has a big enough “technical department” to monitor all of those people??? Not likely!
My latest call
The fifth today was from “Tech Central”. Same circus. different clowns.
This must be lucrative. The calls keep coming.
similar calls
I’m getting a robo-call (with a robot voice) every day about a refund for my “recent Microsoft support purchase.” I’m very tempted to call back just to mess with them, but sometimes just answering the call gives them key information–that your phone number is legit–which is then sold to other scammers.
Another Variant
Thanks for posting this important information!
Another variation is the calls from “card services”. They won’t mention your computer. They’ll say they can lower your interest rates. It doesn’t really work that way … you’ll wind up paying more, that’s how they make their (steal your) money.
The proliferation of these scams is a very bad sign for our society. The rise of a Trump means that the ‘kleptocracy’ factor is very high right now. Resist!