Quote:
Originally Posted by fitzyjm76
Seeing as VM have started pushing Digital Home Support this may now be appropriate.
A work friend recently had a phone call from someone claiming to be from a home support company stating that they have been contacted by Microsoft to advise that his PC has been infected with viruses and for a small fee (£95 not so small) they could remote in and sort the problem for them.
My mate being fully aware of what was going on (and has great knowledge of pc's) started questioning how Microsoft had passed on his details without his consent (breach of Data Protection) and was advised that they have been contacted, do you want us to sort it out or not. My mate said OK on you go then remote in and sort it out and I'll pay. The response came that they were having trouble accessing his pc to which he replied I'm not surprised as I'm running Linux. Needless to say the caller soon hung up when they realised he had cottoned on to them.
Have heard some other people mentioning this so it could be worth while just mentioning to friends and family to be careful if receiving calls from someone claiming to be from a support company. |
That's without mentioning that Microsoft would not be able to determine the telephone number of the owner of the "infected" pc without having full access to the billing records of the ISP providing the connection. Even then, they wouldn't be correct in all cases (for example if you pay for someone else, the billing address would be your house, but the service wouldn't).
And yes, I had one of these calls.