An important warning about scam phone calls going around.
I have been receiving unsolicited phone calls (859 547-4475) from people telling me "they are from the helpdesk of esupport.com and sometimes say they are a contractor of Microsoft and that they need to help me fix my computer" but they can't provide me any details on my computer or account information. It sounded really fishy or "phishy" like a scam. Within 5 seconds of searching online I found this is common where they direct you to a website and the site installs malicious software on your machine which phishes personal login data or causes your machine to crash and provide a solution to fix it for a fixed fee. Don't fall for this scam that has been going on since 2010 and recently picked up in activity again.
I reported this with the FTC and my local States Attorneys General and they were all very aware of the scam and frustrated at inability to stop the callers from overseas. I would have hoped that since the scammers are using the same phone number that the phone companies could just block that number to customers but apparently not.
Make sure to warn your friends, family, and colleagues.
I personally enjoy doing my best to keep them on the line as long as I can, by telling them I doing what they ask me to do, but it’s not working. I keep asking silly questions about why the computer is not working correctly, all the while not touching my keyboard. I kept them on the line for around 10 minutes before they finally hang up in frustration. I figure that 10 minutes keeps them from hassling someone else who might not know they are a phony.
I have a friend who is a whiz at software programming, so he is aware of these scams before the general public hears about them. He warned his family members about this scam and told them not to fall for it. Then one day, they called his house where his fourteen year-old son answered the phone and knew right away what was going on, and he asked hit mother “Mom? It’s that computer scam dad told us about.. can I be RUDE to the guy?” to which his mother said “go ahead, dear”, and then the son replied to the scammer on the other end “No thank you, and you can suck my d… ”
The mother broke down into hysterical laughter and promptly posted the experience on Facebook
Just had a call from “Adam” saying it would only take 5 minutes for him to help fix my computer that had vicious malware – how did he know? Told him several times if he would send me an e-mail, I would walk thru the process myself – finally he just hung up! Jerk!