I have already warned you about this scam. Microsoft Tech Support will NOT call you because your computer is broken or infected. But unethical jerks who will pretend to be from Microsoft will. And they will try to suck as much money off of you as possible.
Take this man. As the news reported, he was scammed out of $1300. He himself thought it was a large sum that could potentially pay for two brand new computers. Yet, he fell for the sweet talker on the other end of the phone call.
I personally have had several of these calls. The last one was automated. I picked up the phone and a robotic voice spat the following words, “This is Microsoft Tech Support, we are receiving errors coming from your computer. Please call 1-800-…” bla bla bla.
Several of my customers have reported similar calls.
Just Wednesday Fox News (Q13) reported a woman from Yelm was scammed by one of these purported “Microsoft Tech Calls.” You can see the story here:
http://q13fox.com/2014/07/16/dont-answer-those-questions-its-a-tech-scam/
Don’t get taken. You can read my previous post on this here.
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0076-phone-scams
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx
Okay, I’m done with scams. I would like to concentrate on more productive activities, such as making your life easier.
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I used Microsoft Live Chat for help and got an agent who took control of my computer to “fix” the problem and he turned me over to an extremely hard sell other person who tried to sell me some deal. I just wanted the control of my computer back. I finally told him I thought he was a thief and I should call the police! He immediately was off the phone. I will never use Microsoft Live Chat again. I have since been spreading the word and I hope someone sues and wins a suit with Microsoft for that kind of activity. The company is not properly monitoring its employees.
Great reminder Juan! I wouldn’t want to be like that guy in the picture and be taken advantage of by fraudsters!!! It makes me so mad that bad people take advantage of other people like that.
In case you did not know, that is not actual person who got scammed. The guy in the picture is me!
But you are right. I feel sad for the victims and anger toward the fraud.