Just got a phonecall from "Microsoft"...

[Puzzler]

... (in India, apparently) saying that my computer had a virus and had been sending e-mails to them.

I said, "OK then, what's my IP Address?".

For some reason, she couldn't answer that question. It couldn't have been a scam, they must have forgotten it

(sarcasm)

[HarveyDarkey]

1. I get those

funny thing, I use Linux

[csziggy]

2. Gee, I get those calls about four times a week

Last one was from "Jason" who got offended when I asked him how many people fell for their scam.

Next time I'll ask them about the IP address.

[Duer 157099]

3. Well just tell them they can keep them, no charge

Or, maybe ask for the emails back.

[haele]

4. My mom got one of those -

Someone reading off a script saying that she needed to talk to their Windows 7 "expert" about an ISP virus that had affected her computer. She's still a bit afraid of the computer - which had been Dad's domain for the past five years, and could have been taken in if the woman on the line had been a bit less ethnic sounding and confused, and if she didn't already call Laz and me all the time for her computer help.

She was very proud of herself for catching the scam, but she was a bit worried that they knew Dad's name and that she had Windows 7.

I told her that they probably cold-dialed her off an old mailing list and had made a shot in the dark that if she had a computer, it probably was a Win7 PC, because that was the most common computer in the US.

Thing is, how many scammers might have gotten a similar computer-illiterate elderly person who didn't have someone to call to tell them it was a scam?

And what is the actual scam? An over-the-phone credit card and pin collection to "help" them fix the ISP viris, or does the expert have them log onto an infected site (and still get credit card info over the phone)?

Haele