Microsoft Tech Support phone scam

M

Mike the Wino

Member
Like a gazillion other people around the world, I've been receiving a bunch of calls from different phone numbers that turn out to be from call centers (boiler rooms) originating in India. Apparently, if you answer, which I never have, they tell you they are calling from the Microsoft Technical Department (or any number of other like-sounding places) and that your computer is sending out malicious files or is infected in some way, and that if you allow them remote access, they can clean up your computer problems. Phishing, obviously.

Seeing as how these scams show no sign of letting up, does it make any sense to block the phone numbers of these callers as shown in Caller ID, or are the spoofed numbers they call from randomly generated and never ending? The reason I ask is, I started getting more of these calls recently than I had in the past, so I started blocking them. Now it seems the calls have escalated even more, all from different numbers. When my phone blocks a call on my call-block list, it simply disconnects the call...i.e.: the caller doesn't hear anything. But since I have only 250 call-block slots, I'm wondering if blocking any of them auto generates a new number they can call from. Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
You should answer them and screw with them for a while. It's actually quite fun, and I had them remote into a virtual machine one time. They ended up screwing it up when I told them to screw off :D
 
voyagerfan99 said:
You should answer them and screw with them for a while. It's actually quite fun...
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I thought about that, but after reading online about other people stringing them along and how the callers start swearing and using all kinds of vulgar language, I decided against it. It's not that I'm a prude....more that I just don't have time to deal with these types of people and then get cussed out in the process. Not worth the energy.

I'm just curious if blocking these calls exponentially increases the number you get from different numbers....do the phishers have an unlimited supply of spoof numbers to call from? Can their phone "systems" somehow tell you've blocked the number they called from so they just start hammering you from others?
 
voyagerfan99 said:
You should answer them and screw with them for a while. It's actually quite fun, and I had them remote into a virtual machine one time. They ended up screwing it up when I told them to screw off :D
Click to expand...

I wouldn't do this Voyager. Some numbers and staying on the phone could get you large charging fee's. Thats what they do. In the hundreds. I have the same problem though. Not near what i used to get though. Procedure is get your name on the do not call. www.donotcall.gov
Also if your on the list you can report the number there on the link involved and they could get fines. Im on it and still get them. they don't follow guidelines. they said in the past do not call them, pick the phone up then hang up etc. just confirms someones there. just the same. its a pain in the asss.
 
tremmor said:
I wouldn't do this Voyager. Some numbers and staying on the phone could get you large charging fee's. Thats what they do. In the hundreds.
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Unless you still have a traditional land line with a god awful subscription plan, the days of high fees for long distance calls are no more.
 
tremmor said:
Procedure is get your name on the do not call. www.donotcall.gov
Also if your on the list you can report the number there on the link involved and they could get fines.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion, but we are already on the DNC, and reporting phishing/spoofing/scammers does no good. Only legitimate companies can get fined for violating the DNC, but these aren't legitimate companies, nor are they calling from inside the US so the DNC doesn't apply. The FBI might take an interest because of the scam issues, but there's probably so many of these operations, they couldn't shut down but a fraction of them.

And Voyager, just an FYI, if the phisher/scammer is routing the call through a 900 type of phone number, which is a "pay-per-call" plan, you could be accruing huge illegal charges on your phone bill which you'd have to spend time disputing. Even your neighbor might have a 900 number so he can legitimately charge people for "tech support" by the minute, so it doesn't have to be long distance.

I probably should have posted this on a "Telephone User's Forum" if there is such a thing. Or maybe a "Phishing Scam Forum"...? I just figured since these lugnuts are pretending to be from a computer tech support outfits, that other computer users who get these calls might have experienced a drop off of them after blocking as many as they could, or do they just keep multiplying like little bunny rabbits?

I could just ignore them instead of blocking them, but the douche bags even call at night!
 
There really is nothing you can do but report them and I'm not even sure how or where to do that at. Might want to do an online search about that. Other than that, get used to it I guess.
 
Love the way they spoof who it comes from too. Had one recently showed my own phone number as the caller. been some other strange ones in the past too.
 
Spoofing caller ID is pretty easy. If you have something like a SIP service you can mask as whatever number you want.

Seems like a pretty lame tactic though. I always enjoy seeing what they come up with if you ask them for the specific piece of 'identifying information' for the computer supposedly broadcasting whatever.
 
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