Windows Event Viewer phishing scam remains active

Event VWR (run) event viewer scam

Yep same call just then, Indian accent claiming they where from Microsoft I thought I would do a Google and bang found this right away. Never ever let anyone that calls you access anything on your pc. Tell them I will hang up now and call Microsoft and let them know, then watch how they try to keep you on the line lol...

Look out guys scam scam scam!!!

I live in Cork Ireland and just a few minutes ago recieved the very same call, i was wary and pretended to enter the text that he told me whick was eventvwr into the run box, i pretened to do it and he sqaid oh miss i see hundreads of bugs also he said i was using vista, which im not im using XP.. i hung up and he proceeded to call me 3 more times i have just ignored teh call..

I live in the Highlands of Scotland and have just had exactly the same phone calls and I'm currently ignoring all the call backs from the unknown number.
What's this all about?

SCAM

I JUST got off the phone from this scam.
I was really wary from the start. Not to be offensive, but, I do get heaps of tellymarketer calls and alot seem to be indian, so when I heard the mans voice I emediatly thought he was selling something.
The line in which he called was lousy, I could however hear other people talking in the background. His accent was heavy and at some points of the conversation I could not understand him.
He asked if he could speak to Mr or Mrs Robins. My name is NOT Robins my Partners is. - So again I thought it was dodgy! e said he got my name (Mr and Mrs Robins) from Microsoft when we signed up. This is not true, as EVERYTHING to do with my computer is in my name.
He then told me that Microsoft has been monitoring my computer and that I have downloaded a serious malicious virus and if it is not fixed immediate my computer will crash and there is a chance that all my information will be accessible. I kept asking how he could see this information, and which Computer he was referring to, as I have 3 different computers. He replied "Mam, the computer which you use on a daily basis" - I asked for his number so I could call him back when my partner got home, and he told me he was unable to give out the number. If felt so odd, and I dont even know about computers. But something in the mans voice - like a sense of desperation to get me to do the things he was asking..made me feel really uneasy, he just kept, almost begging me to turn on my computer and go to something. I told him I couldn't understand him and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor, he immediately put me on to another Indian, he told me exactly the same thing that the other man did. I kept asking him to explain how he can see this information. And where he got the names Mr and Mrs Robins, as NOT ANYTHING is under those names as we are not married and my last name is BATTY!!
In the end I hung up the phone and immediately got on my computer and looked this up. I have found several articles from all over the world saying the same thing as me!!
Thank GOD I didn't give into this low life!!
I could just tell by the lack of information that they would provide that it was a scam

Got 'em, lol

I let him go through his spiel for a while, then asked him who from Microsoft authorised him to call me at home.

He started on with his spiel again and I said "now. I want you to listen to me VERY carefully"

He said "ok ma'am"

I said louder "I want you to tell me WHO authorised you to call me at home"

He said "I am from virtual pc doctor and we have been asked by Microsoft to contact all Windows users in Australia. Why do you wish to know?"

I said "it's important for me to know sir, because you are a liar"

He said " I am telling you the truth. Why do you say I lie?"

I said, even louder, "Because I work for Microsoft!"

Line went dead, lol.

total scammer

my wife got this same call and although she isnt technical and didn't know for sure it was a scam she took him for a ride. She just screwed with the guy for several minutes and then hung up on him. He had the stupidity to call back later when I was home. I'm about as technical as it gets. I worked him a bit to figure out what the gag was and when I started telling him what he was doing before he got there he got pretty nasty. I hung up and he called back again...this time just waiting for me to say hello before telling me f-you. I told him what he could suck and hung up.

he's gonna tell you that you have a bunch of lame !'s in your event viewer...big deal. we all do. Then he's going to want you to go to a website where he'll help clean up your system so he can actually gain access immediately, lock you out and then start capturing your account info--and everything he can off your system. probably phishing for account or personal info.

I was a victim in this scam.

I received a call on the 4 June by the Virtual PC Doctors. The representative is called Mark Robinson with a very strong Indian accent.
I am not so knowledgeable about pc stuff, so i kinda believe them when he said my computer got problem, coz in fact my computer seems got a lot of problem.
I did pay them AUD$520 for the service. I was tricked by them, because he said the first 30days is money back guarantee and your credit card will be charged only when i am satisfied with the service after 30days, so i was expecting they will ask me again after 30days or so. A week after, i received an invoice from them, i was very upset and probably know that they are doggy. I called the number they gave me (0388070958), and no representatives answer(i called 5 times).

Do anyone know where can I seek help? thanks
Just hope that no one is as stupid as me and those people in "Virtual PC doctor" all go to jail.

Event Viewer Scam

I Just had a call like this today. It is supposed to be for my mother but they are asking for a Mrs Clark and she hasn't been Clark for 17 years. I thought it was pretty odd that they didn't seem to bothered that it wasn't actually her they were talking to. I was also suspicious when they said it was a "malicious and vicious virus" What software company uses emotive language like that? When I told my mother about she is said they had called last night and she had followed some of their instructions but become suspicious and pretended to drop the phone to cut them off .Apprently it is an excercise intrust and if you do what they say it looks like you really did have a virus and they fixed it. They then ask for bank account details etc etc. Today they said they would ring back and so I think I might use the "I work for microsoft line"...or just read out some of the comments here lol. How do people like this sleep at night?

eventviewer scam

I recently recieved this call from an indian call centre. Fortunately I did not become a victim of this scam, as I spend most of my time infront of the computer and very quickly determined that it was not legitamate, especially as I have never dealt with Microsoft through an Indian call centre, only US and AUS call centres.

However, I do urge people to report this issue and to increase awareness about these scams. As I fear that others that are not as computer literate are likely to fall victim to these activities. I discovered that you can report these calls to the ACCC (1300 302 502). Hopefully if enough people report this issue, they will start to educate the population about this threat - as I had no idea these scams were occuring until I was targetted.

a scam

I received a similar call from Virtual PC Doctor just now. The guy with strong indian accent told me my PC got some virus and let me check if there are some errors in my event logs. When I told them there were indeed around 10 errors in my PC, he told me "my God, your PC is infected and your hard disk will crash soon, we can help you to fix these problems, please allow me acess your PC first." And I said "sorry, I can not do that, because it's not safe, I don't know you and your company, and I'm still wondering how you get my telephone number and my information?" He said "we received some reports recently and a lot of PC were infected around your area, and we know your PC is one of them." Then I told him I need do some research first, he can give me his contact information, if it was necessary I would call him back. He kept persuding me to let him to fix it now, but I refused it. An interesting thing is the guy is an indian, but he told me he was calling from Melbourne, and his name is Nick Venson, and I called back his company number 038807095, another indian guy did answer my call, but I didn't speak anything, just hanged up.

HAD!!!

I am usually pretty good a picking a scam but my head was in another place being pregnant and tired I fell hook line and sinker for it! I even let the guy access my PC. shortly after this a felt sick and realised it was a huge scam!
Can anyone tell me if they are just after money or if my PC is now damged in some way??? Is there a way to check that it is still safe to use? I have current Kaspersky Security and and doing scans all the time!
Please help!!!!

event vwr

ARGH! Yes this scam is still alive and going well. I've only received 3 calls so far this week and all from my friendly Indian telemarketer with the same old spiel - I am calling from...your computer is...etc. etc.
Gee, my computer must be really screwed up, judging from the attention I'm receiving from these pests!
YES! IT'S A SCAM. DO NOT GIVE ANY INFORMATION OUT, INCLUDING YOUR NAME !

ALMOST got me on this

I thank my lucky stars that I know a LITTLE bit about computers. When the caller asked me to open the RUN area and type something in there ... that just did not feel right.

Thank goodness I thought about it for a second and also remembered that the call came in as UNKNOWN on our Caller ID - no name, no number. And the caller did not clearly state a company name; just tried to sound legit.

Before I hung up I told them I would feel more confident calling our computer's service company. He said, "I understand".

PLEASE be careful people.

Annoying

Played along for a while, they are very persistent.. Eventually told him that I really really wanted to help him out but I couldn't access windows/system32 from my linux box.

He said he was only authorised to "sell ... (stumble), help with windows operating system ..."

Kept using "mate" a lot ... which i figured MS would probably avoid doing lol.

Damn online white pages... quoted my name to me exactly as the listing.

Virtual PC Doctor

Have had the same phone call as people have commented on. The Website they quote does look real, and when you ring up you get a recorded message. Never mentioned anything about Microsoft, but had the speil going, doing the windows event viewer thing, his name was Nick Venson, and his company number was 038807095, as one of the other comments said. They already have your name, as they must have a data base somewhere. Does sound convincing though, but I am always wary of phone calls.

Even if they sound credible, they're probably not!

I just got off the phone after a VERY similar situation. As I was surfing the net I received a phone call from an individual claiming to be from my Internet service provider. And he made all the same claims...my system had been infected with a very dangerous virus and my system was at risk. He asked if I was running XP then proceeded to tell me to press a series of shortcut keys. I assume to get Windows Run activated. Luckily I didn't fall for his scam and informed him I was going to contact my service provider directly...then hung up. When I contacted my service provider, they had no record of any calls placed to my account. Folks, these large companies such as service providers and Microsoft don't call the little guy. If there is a problem with your system......you'll call them soon enough.

If nothing else..log on and check Google...that's how I found out.

Virtual PC Doctor

I just got a call from an Indian man, and I realised pretty quickly that something was fishy (phishy?). He told me in some vague terms that my computer was infected and that he would fix it if required. He led me very carefully through opening the event viewer window, and told me to Please not click on any of the error logs, or my computer would be destroyed (I had to try hard not to laugh at him). He asked me to estimate the number of errors showing (lots and lots). After telling him there were about, oh, twenty errors, he gasped and was horrified and told me my computer was in very serious condition. He escalated the call to his supervisor, who got me to do the same thing and was similarly aghast. He said that each error message represented 100 corrupt files on my system (causing me to snort coffee out my nose). He tried to get me to connect to the very reliable and skilled technician, who could fix the problems remotely. He gave me a street address in St Kilda Rd Melbourne, also threw in that it was opposite a prominent girl's school (which he pronounced badly), and a Melbourne telephone number - 0388070958. He told me that to prove that I could trust him, if he did anything to my computer that was bad, I could ring the number and complain about it, and he would be fired. His name was Richard Roddrick and his manager was Travis Dyer. Fine Indian names.
I told him I didn't trust him, and I'd rather go to a shop with my computer. He said "but the shop will charge you money and we can do it now for free". Why would they do it for free??

I have a rule that I don't buy anything from telemarketers or door-to-door salesmen, because they can make things seem very attractive, and don't give you time to think about it. I saw this one coming, but I can see how others may not, and it bothers me.

virtual pc doctor Ireland

I stupidly allowed the caller remote access to my pc when i entered the number they gave me in the logmein.com website. They performed a whole scan on my system and now i'm afraid of my life they've robbed my personal details or identity or something!! how can i check everything's ok?

PC Doctor scam

I had the same call from Virtual PC doctor
The call came from overseas Indian I think and used the same event viewer suggestion I told his I would not do anything with out more info as he claimed to be from Microsoft
He gave a tel number of 02030263982 name of Sam ( busy chap this Sam)
My advice hang up

well yup its still active just got of the phone was on for 5 or 6 mins was asking me to go to event viewer ect ect i just hung up he rang back 3 times saying the line just went dead i said no i hung up your boring me now dont ring me again to which i got a call back saying he is worried about my pc and that i dont care about it and i should let him fix it guess what i said next
lol ive not had anymore calls

i trust people will get stung by this as id not herd of the scam untill i got a call lucky for me i trust no one and didnt come down in the last shower ive just done a search to see how common it is and seams to be extreamly common just glad it was me that got the call and not the misses ;)
some right scum

same here

They just rang us at 1:25pm Monday 8/8/2010, tried this and failed. Exactly the same as the below people. What do they gain from doing this? Is it to hack your account details?

me 2

i just received a phone call from a lady named Amanda saying my computer needed checking for bad files. she told me to press my flag button and the letter R at the same time then told me to type in PRESETCH in the box. she claimed she was from your online pc doctor 66 albert rd melbourne phone number- 0390160638. i am so happy that i didn't fall for it.. and cheers for having a site that lets you know you done the right thing by hanging up.

Spiderman works at microsoft ?

Just had a call from a man saying he was a representative of Microsoft, calling about corrupt files downloaded to my system. He had an indian accent said he was calling from Sydney. He was insisting that I log onto the computer and follow his instructions. I refused and told him my husband was in IT and he had not mentioned anything was wrong with our computer files. He said we wouldnt be able to tell. Told him when hubby came home I would pass on the message and he could contact Microsoft himself if he thought it necessary. He still wouldn't let me go insisting I logon,but when I told him hubby would call him he gave me a phone number 02 80915661 when I insisted on a 2nd name to go with Peter he said PARKER .... now isn't that spidermans name ??? and with an indian accent, good grief.

More on Scam

Well folks - looks like I just avoided having my computer trashed.
Similar story to those published - was told that a "software warranty" had expired - leaving me vulnerable to virus attacks - despite the fact that I had a fully paid up registered and regularly updating antivrus software /firewall.

I even told them to "get that through your thick skull" but they must be so used to abuse that it did not phase them.

showing me the event /error logs triggered alarm bells as they were not interested in dates and times which as a technical person - not on pc-s I know are relevant and was told not to "click on them" which I later found brings up information on each report.

i did almost give them access via logmein.com but something (luckily) went wrong and we never got that far.

They started talking money which I cannot afford at the moment - so with a final parting doom and gloom warning that my pc was going to die a slow and lingering death without their help and the payment of $$$ they gave up.

24 hours later my pc works and I am still online telling you my tale and I am going to keep on telling it until these #@%$#$%'s get what they deserve!!!!

Event viewer scam

Preston Victoria Australia 3.30pm 12 August 2010

Scam is alive and well.

Event viewer scam

Daylesford Victoria 2:00pm 16 August 2010

Scam continues on its merry way

Same thing is happening to me. Except This time i told them if they call again, i would be suing them for misrepresentation. he preceded to beg me to believe that this was in fact an honest attempt to fix my computer. So I asked him, "How did you get my number? It is a silent line and I am not in the phone book?" He says "Our researchers have found your windows copy to be compromised." Yeah buddy? how bout answering my question? "our researchers have found your system to be compromised" Well if my copy of windows wasn't registered for warranty, and mt number is silent how do you even know my name? "our researchers..." look buddym wgere's my verification? why dont you know any other details? He had to ask me what copy of windows i was using. every day at 1240 he calls and every f&^%*()ing day i tell him where to go stick his malcous software speech im calling the accc and reporting this because i've had enough. Dont fall for it it is a dead giveaway when the call starts. they dony know anything but your name and are only taking a wild guess that your a windows user. tell them you use a mac, that'll screw em.

Windows Phone Scam

Same thing just happened to me.. Sounded Indian and there was a delayed before he spoke. He seemed to only know my name. Claimed that he was calling from Microsoft head office in Melbourne and said they were getting error messages from my computer.
He kept asking me to turn my computer on because it has malware and needs to be fixed - this went on for a while until I told him I don't own a computer. This threw him a bit and he then said 'well turn on your laptop then you own a laptop' . I told him I wasn't sure that this was a genuine call and would like his name and phone number and I'll call him when I think there is something wrong with windows on my comp.... he hung up :)

sam brown was the name i was given

called to say he was worried about my computer, he was from microsoft and my computers hard drive would crash if he didnt run me through some simple steps.aparently i needed to reinstall microsofts. i actualy thought for a while he was ligit. thank god my computer was having one of its moments, maybe it was me who knows, but after reading this site what a fu#*# waste of oxgen he was. aparently he was calling from melbourne. i askt him if i could call him back and this is the bogus number i was given. 61399996738 who are thease people and what is it there trying to acheive?

Event Viewer Scam

Woodberry , NSW , Australia
Saturday 21st August
7.30pm

Same scam as the others, calling about your computer

Phone Scam

Dublin, Ireland - I had the same call yesterday. He said his name was John Cooper (again a very strong Indian accent). Initially I thought he was calling from a computer repair shop near me call PC Doctor which I had used before and so started up PC. I began to have suspicions though and questionned him further regarding the name Virtual PC Doctor, and then asked him where he was calling from, he said New York and that microdoft were calling all users to check for viruses, I said he must be very busy!. I told him I was in the middle of something and wouldnot have time to go through this now.

virtualpcdoctor scam

whatever you do,if its an asian voice,hang up,i was stupidly taken in and gave them my details,they cant fix the problem i had after many hours,asked for my money back,and it looks like im getting taken for £100 for a few hours of useless work HANG UP

Virtual PC Doctor again

6 unsolicited telephone calls in 15 minutes from these scammers,
I wonder how many unfortunate people have been fooled by these crooks

Call from Tech Ace

It would seem they have a new name now.
I am actually really happy I received one of these calls.
My wife gets them all the time, and I have been looking forward to the opportunity to waste some of their time.
So they called me this afternoon on my personal mobile. They knew my surname too.
I played along for a while, sounding surprised and concerned that I may have Malware on my PC.
So when she asked me to turn on my PC so she could show me the problems, I asked "Which One?" She said how many do you have and I responded with 5.
I then said of course you will need to tell me which of the 5 are infected, so please tell me the computer name, the IP address and the software that has been granted permission to send error logs to this so called department that collects these reports.
She was persistant and said that it didnt matter which one it was, she just wanted to show me.
I then said well I am actually a software engineer, and have worked in IT for a major global software developer. I inplement expensive software solutions with firewalls, proxy servers and anti-virus capabilities every day. My PC's are like fort knox and first of all logs cant be sent from my PC without my firewall getting approval to let it through, secondly I run three sets of Virus scans and spyware scans every single night at 1pm on all of my PC's, even my Kids.
All of this is true. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing.
Of course she promptly hung up.
The funny thing is that every time I mentioned something I needed an answer to, she said she couldnt hear me, that I would have to speak louder.
Indian accent, blocked number, delay at pickup.
Two things they are after guys:
The least dangerous is a credit card payment from you, they remote into your PC with software they give you to install and then they wipe the event viewer.

The more dangerous version of this is that they do the same, but the software fishes out all of your personal information, and they either wipe out your bank account or they steal your identity.

Dont fall for it.

LOL

Got a call from an Idian lady tonight from virtualpcdoctor.com

She told me to right click on my compute icon, click manage, click application, and then tell her how many red or yellow errors there are. Then she tells me to close the window because "You are not to open this window for a long very time" LOL. Then she tells me to go to the website click connect to technician enter the code & then D/L the file. I acted stupid said I did and hung up I wan't born yesterday. Probably is a mirror site that downloads a key logger to steal information.

Jarrod
Brisbane, Australia

Event VWR (run) event viewer scam

Keeping a referees whistle by the phone is a wonderful way to keep these people on their toes. Just talk more and more softly, then blow full-time!

virtual pc doctor

Now calling UK addresses randomly, or using auto.dialler? from allegedly Manchester IUK) no. but actually 034009054 according to my phone record. Same alarm call to show your log of rec and yellow triangles (my computer-admin tools - Event viewer- application log).Quotes sale of software to cure my ills at £66.99 for 1 year and £289 for 5 years. Strung the foreign lady along - I thought she said Virgil PC until she dictated carefully VIRTUAL - and she quoted a website www. virtualpcdoctor.com

Scam - eventvwr scammers

Like others, I received an unsolicited call to my home phone. Indian accent, bad line and others in the background. Caller suggested my computer had been infiltrated and would soon crash if I did not do anything about it. She said they had received the information from Windows and that she was calling from the official Support Centre for Windows. She asked me to go the the run screen by pressing windows key and letter R at the same time and then type in 'eventvwr'. She asked me to scroll through and let me know of any red icons that appeared. None did but when I commented on yellow exclamation marks she said "Oh yes, this proves that your computer has definitely been infiltrated, but you must not click on any of them ma'am as you will allow them further access." This girl then put me on to her 'supervisor' (another Indian accent) who then asked me to type 'prefetch' into the run screen. This needed permission to get further access and although I pressed accept, I became concerned that I was having to take these steps without any knowledge of who I was talking to. I then started to ask more questions about which company she was calling on behalf of, and how she knew about this problem on my computer in the first place? She had answers for everything, although when I asked if she knew my name, she gave me the name of the person who previously held my number. She stated that my protection software agreement had expired. I asked her to call back once my husband was home as he sorts all our computer stuff (to buy some time and to search Google) and now I know they were complete scammers. I should have trusted myself in the first place (I had doubts from the beginning) and hope that they haven't already been able to access anything with these 'prefetch' and 'eventvwr' commands. I am fuming as I am sure their ultimate aim is identity theft and some money to boot. I have sent an email to the ACCC to report this - the more reports they get, the less likely someone will be scammed. www.accc.gov.au

When mine called they stumbled a bit and finally got out life4pc apparently my guy was newish to these calls and was not prepared for somebody to ask the company name, it would seem they just make one up. I asked where he got my number from and he said it was from windows sending an error log to them. I explained to him that that was actually not possible, because I don't send the error logs and I didn't include my landline number in the setup of windows etc, actually I always use my mobile number when signing up to things too but it could have been one of the other 2 people living in the house who use the other computer, who gave out the number, or maybe they just get them from the white pages, but he didn't ask about another computer or people. He said again that that was where he got my number. I knew it was fake right from the start, but I do love to waste the time of telemarketers, which is what I thought he was at the time.

I asked him which version of windows and he said windows, I asked him again which version of windows and again he said windows, so I let him continue. Again, I think my guy was new.

He proceded to tell me to look at the errors/warnings mentioned previously. The error I happened to open was one saying that it had failed to send error information (because I always click don't send I assume). I told him this and he asked me to tell him how many I had, I told him I didn't know, about 10 recently and some older ones.

He asked me if I had a paid virus scanner, which I told him I did. Then he asked me if I know what a firewall is, which I said yes to. He told me it's what stops viruses from getting through.

He told me that my computer could crash at any moment because I had a virus. I asked him which virus I had and he told me it was trojan horse. I asked him which one. He said trojan horse, I said yes, which trojan horse is it? He said "yes there are lots of them I will have to put you through to customer service and they will be able to tell you which one and fix it."

So I said "Ahh, I don't think so, but thanks for lying to me."

they TRIED to get me

just got a call, same deal, picked up, got a ringtone, then some guy (strong accent) answered and asked if i was me (he knew my name).. i answered yes, then he went on about his name and company (can't remember what he said) but i didn't recognise any company like that, so thats 2 gut feelings of a scam.. he then said i had errors and virus's on my computer, to turn it on and he would guide me through it. i said " i will get my friend to fix it" (he is in IT), and the guy just said "just turn you computer on".. i replied with "don't talk to me like that thanx," and i hung up on him.. LMAO
then i googled and found this site which confirmed my gut feelings, so thanx for having this site, i have spread it around facebook to warn others :) just hope i don't get more calling me back like other have had.. but if they do, i now know whats going on and can stuff them around a bit LMAO :)

Scam from India

Look out guys, these Indians are operating in Melbourne (Australia). Details are the same as for all previous people who have commented.
I rang scamwatch.gov.au and they know all about the scam but find it difficult to close down. The Sydney number the Indians quote you to call their technician is redirected to India (without you being aware!).

If not sure of a scam, go to scamwatch.gov.au or call them on 1300795995

They got the business from me!

Luckily for me I'm a pessimist & I work with these uber smart tech guys. When the Indian guy told me to check the event viewer\applications I grew even more suspicious. Why the heck would I check how many times my programs crashed, and not the security. Then he had the audacity..no.no.no...the unmitigated gall to catch an attitude with me! How effing rude.

Anyway, I scanned my computer three times with AVG, McAfee & Norton, and nothing came up. If he calls again...I'm really going in on him. And yes, he knew my name too. But he told me I registered my computer with Microsoft. Which was a complete lie, because my computer was built for me. Like seriously, what are they getting out of trying to infect people's computers with viruses? Someone needs to put an end to this, because I was floored for hours after that phone call.

Event veiw scam

Well i just had a call from a guy yesterday at 4 pm whom said he worked at Microsoft and warned me of virus that will be on all pc's I could tell straight away that it was a scam but to learn more played on pretending I was entering the information that he asked me to in to my pc ( but I was really just writing it on paper ) I had him believe that with his help we had found that there was bad stuff on my pc ( my paper pc lol ) and he said that he now wanted me to allow his tech guys to help me allow them into my PC by entering a website in to my run menu in my PC, he even gave me a password to enter - at this point I asked this guy his name and where he was calling from he said "Peter Johnson from Sydney" , he went on to ask how my entering and downloading of the so called program to connect the his tech guy was going, I said "mate having issues please put me though to your tech guy" he did, I asked the tech guy if he worked in the same building as Peter he said "yes I'm beside him" so I quickly asked how the weather was in Perth ( Peter said Sydney ) he said today here in Perth it's been nice - I said wow Peter next to you said he was in Sydney - with that I heard him say to Peter " I think this one is onto us " then Peter said "just hang up" and he did
So all I can now do is warn you guys of this as even Telstra can't help but yet they do know of this and may other scams out there - please don't trust anyone on the phone ( Microsoft won't waste there time calling millions when they could just issue an update ) -  good luck guys

windows scam

this just happened to me,
i have caller id on my phone and when it rang it said overseas, i normally would not answer it but we have friends overseas at the moment,
the caller sounded Indian and there was a lot of background noise so he was obviously in a call centre.
I think this threw me because I'd expect scammers to be solitary.
He said he was from a company (i didn't catch the name) that represents Microsoft and they have detected my pc has been infected by a virus and if i turn on my computer they will take me through what i have to do to fix it.
i have been having problems with my computer lately so i guess this is another reason i was sucked in to going along, but because of this it takes a while to boot up so that gave me the opportunity to ask questions
i asked how did they detect a problem he said something about Microsoft receiving an email??
i then said i have never heard of this happening why do Microsoft want to help me like this, he said something about providing good customer service
then once the pc had started he said go to start, run and then enter www.logmein123, etc
that's when the alarm bells started ringing i didn't want to go to a website, i thought he was going to tell me how to remove "the virus" by going into 'my computer' or something, i said this is all a bit suspicious
but he was very no no no don't worry and all that, then he said have i done what he said and i said yes but firefox was installing updates and it hadn't opened yet and he told me to enter in the logmein thing again and i just wanted to get out of there, so i said i have to go, you are freaking me out and i will take my computer to someone and i hung up
then i grabbed my laptop and googled windows scam and here i am

Same kind of call...

Except the guy I spoke was really urgent and pushy, made it sound like my computer was about to start running around murdering people. Even though I know a bit about computers from living with a programmer, he was so insistent that I nearly panicked and listened to him.

It was only when I asked him how this could have happened when I have the best anti-virus measures in place, and he responded with "it's not a VIRUS, it's an INFECTION", that I snapped out of it. I actually laughed, mainly with relief, and told him that if my computer tried to kill me in my sleep I would call technical support. He was still talking when I thanked him for his time and hung up.

I shudder to think what would have happened if they'd reached my mum instead of me; I've grown up with computers and was nearly sucked in. Even now I'm feeling a bit paranoid... It's not ethical or fair to compromise a person's feeling of security, especially in such a personal and invasive manner. I hope that all of the people making these calls stub their toes. Lots.

How do you remove it

we just had the same call, unfortunatly we proceeded and loged them in so they could show us. We did not give any creditcard details but how do we remove their login???? help

Me too!!

I was called at 1.30pmish yesterday. The man had an Indian accent and said he was calling from Windows, that my computer had been identified as being at very high risk and that he would lead me through steps to sort it out. I don't know a huge amount about computers and believed him, though thought it odd that they had called my landline number which I was fairly sure I hadn't given to anyone to do with my computer. He was very persistent and not how I thought a professional from Microsoft would interact - so doubts grew. Each time I tried to end the conversation he told me that if I didn't act now my computer would crash and Windows would take no responsibility/accountability for it. Thankfully in the end I ended the call without having turned my computer on. I later called Microsoft support centre to check out the phone call (as I had started to worry that what he had said was true). Microsoft said they wouldn't contact people by phone like that.
I was nearly had and could see how people even less confident with technology than me could be taken in.
I told a friend who thankfully suggested i use google and I ended up at your site - amazed at how many others have been in the same position. Get the word out - it's a scam.

same here
Shane rang from

same here
Shane rang from virtual pc doctors
he was ringing me on behalf of microsoft regarding windows 7, vista and xp support because my pc is at high risk, sending virus's when switched on for the last couple of months and microsoft are concerned
he was very persistent and wanted me to switch on my pc and he would guide me through a procedure to remove the infections
told him i was not near my pc, he was very insistent, wanted me to go to my pc and he would phone back, asked him for a phone number that i could call him on when i was at my pc and he gave me 01014880689 which does not connect

beware and very careful

It seems that my sister has accidentally allowed this company to gain access to our computer. However, I thought it was suss and after watching what they were doing for a small while, I turned the computer off. When I turned it back on, they still had access and were asking for permission once again.
I declined that, but how do I know if they can still access anything? Would they have taken any details?
Is our computer safe? What can we do to fix this!
Please help, a reply would be great.

your online pc doctor

i just read your comment about uronlinepcdoctor and we fell for it :( only because we had a alert go out to windows and then they called .I was very wary at first but it was to coincidental so i got sucked in and listened more and before i knew it we had AVG it is short for crapolla in the dictionary it says a quick way to loose money haha not. I must say we have had about 2000 viruses/Trojans ect get through i really wish i didn't perches avg or give those buggers $204 for it and as for onlinepcdr i have had them working on my comp for about18 -19hrs over 5 sessions it sucks. From what i have worked out they are a bunch of indians in a call center in india or somewhere else they gave me the same info and i have to ring them every 2-3 days to get them to fix my comp and when i say i am going to take my comp in they say no its fine i will fix it arrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhh i wish i didn't get sucked in C.A. was working fine until i looked at lime-wire anyway glad to here you were strong enough to hang up i wasn't
unhappy

Me Tooo!

I got home from work last night at 6pm. My husband told me that some computer guy rang to fix some bugs on our computer & to do this he had to turn on the pc & follow his instructions, but hubby was in the middle of cooking so he asked the indian guy to call back in 30mins.
My husband & I are not that computer friendly (but certainly not stupid!) so I rang my brother to see what he thought. He said it sounded like a scam. "Ask him where he was calling from , BUT dont turn on computer", my bro told me.
The Indian guy rang back & his name was Ricky. I asked him what company he was calling from. He said he was apart of the technical team for PC Solutions in Sydney. I couldnt understand him at first, so I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. He began to get quite abrupt and told me to turn on my computer because he had received error files and i might loose some very important files off my hard drive. I could hear people in the background prompting him to say things.
I then asked him how he got my home number, and he said that the postcode of 6025 was randomly selected......blablabla
My brother called me back & told me to have a look at these forums.
Thank Goodness I didnt get sucked in!

September 22

This thing is still going strong, got a call today in Adelaide. Same deal, Indian sounding woman telling me to run eventvwr, heaps of errors. She then told me to run 'ins' and at this point i told her i was actually on my way out of the house and i'll call 'microsoft' back when i get home. Didn't get as far as the website login, thank god, but it sounds convincing so i hope not too many people get scammed.

scam

Hi got a call today from someone who knew my name. he said his website was ring2geeks (http://www.logicocean.com/43/TSindex.htm). He asked me to go to the run box and enter logmein123 so that he could take over my computer and "fix my problems with windows. At that point, I hung up.

My Son unfortunately fell for it (ugh)! I won't repeat the story as it is similar to everyone else's.

Now..like many others all I would like to know is.. what can we do ! Is there anyone out there with knowledge about what the next step is please ?!

cheers

telephone call informing me that I have an error on my computer

Hi,

I had this once and was suspicious, but did let it slip that we have a pc.

When they called again, I pretended that we don't have a computer and the person on the other end of the phone was obviously completely flummoxed by this answer. It was really funny.

Good luck everyone.

Marianne.

scam phone call regarding windows operating system

I am in Adelaide and just received a call from an Indian man saying they had been receiving a lot of error messages from my pc operating system, he was very pushy and got agitated when I questioned him, i told him that was unlikely as I had a security system that would notify if I had a problem. I said I was busy and unable to look at what he wanted, so he called back in 30minutes. By this time I called Microsoft Support Centre and they said Microsoft would never call individuals and that they have been getting alot of calls from people getting these phone calls.

There was a lot of chatting background noise, which sounded exactly the same when he called me back, almost like a recording.

Microsoft said to simply hang up on them. Which is what I did.... I asked them not to call back and I am not interested in what he had to say.....DON'T GET SUCKED IN HOWEVER LEGIT IT SOUNDS...

World PC Tech - International routing service - yea right!!!

I've just received a call (13.22 Tuesday 28/09/2010) from a woman with an indian accent claiming to be calling from "World PC Tech" (after several requests from myself for a company name) who advised me that I "may" have viruses on my pc and requested i do this that and the other.....

when I asked her several times to repeat herself as when she spoke her voice sounded slightly gurgled... she became rather patronizing and told me it was in my best interest to co-operate with her, I snapped back at her saying ALL I asked was for you to repeat yourself as your accent is hard to understand, so if anyone is NOT co-operating here love it is you!
This woman was rude and abrupt, and well I let her have it on several occasions... call MY house telling ME my PC is at risk... what company does that? Rang of scam straight up.... so I began to ask her questions.... she was not very forthcoming in answering them, but I made sure she knew unless she did then I was not listening to anything she had to say.... I am sure she felt the sarcasm cut thru the phone line....

"Apparently" the call centre is based in the UK and the caller claimed that they are the international routing service where ALL computers in the world go thru.... (yea right... she think I am stupid?)

and get this... she stated that she has 35, yes 35 techs standing by to assist me with removing any viruses/bugs that my pc MAY have.... now for ALL the computers in the world you only have 35 techs.... give me a freakin break love!!!!

she then proceeded to instruct me to type "eventvwr" into run and hit enter.... I didn't... I typed it straight into google and found this site....

I politely read some of it to her "The scam involves a random telephone call made to an Australian number from an offshore call centre... oh what ya know that is what this call is" she sat listening intently...
I read on.... "A computer is used to do predictive dialing and connect the call, which is characterised by a delay of a few seconds before the other person answers...... .oh that's the same as with this call" silence on her end.....
i kept reading.... "The caller then claims to be a representative of a software company and requests the recipient to run a program to fix 'bugs' in the operating system..... that is exactly what you have just tried to get me to do..... it's a SCAM...you are a scam.... look love you have a great day and a LOVELY evening, now FU*K OFF" I hung up the phone!

I am so glad that google is my friend.... if I am ever unsure of something I ALWAYS google it <3 that I found this site.

I hope that no one falls for this crapola!!!

Scam

Just got the same phone call, I'm in QLD.

They wouldn't give me a company name, simply said she works for a company that provides support to all microsoft windows computers. Wanted me to renew my warranty to remove all the errors in the event log :roll eyes: Apparently event log errors only ever occur due to malware on the pc.

Don't fall for it. Educate your family on it, as mine almost got sucked in, lucky I was home!

Scam Still Alive

Got The same call as everyone else this time from a lady claiming she can fix my pc i kept her on the phone long enough to google her instructions then told her to get f**ked and that she was a scammer and i hung up : ) hope i wont be hearing from them again

Still @ it

I cant believe people still insist on trying this, almost had me fooled until she told me all the files in windows/inf need to be deleted.... its hard enough to live in this world without people trying to screw you at every turn...

they will have to come with something better than that

they just called me not 2 minutes ago from a private number. my brother answered and gave the phone to me (im the computer savvy one in the family). right off alarms started to ring in my head so i just hang the phone up in their face, googled it and this was the first suggestion that came back. do these people actually think we are that stupid?

Warning Scam,
These people

Warning Scam,

These people are just hopeless aren't they.

As with the previous person I also received a call from the so called "World PC Tech" people claiming that Microsoft had sent them information that my computer was running slow and that "viruses" were to blame, if alarm bells didn't go off then!

Why would Microsoft be giving my personal information to random companies if they knew that viruses were on my PC, why not call me themselves?

The first 30 seconds I was transferred to another person who claimed to be a "Supervisor" who essentially repeated word for word exactly what the first person I'd talked to had said, making me open random folders saying that all the files in this folder were viruses that no anti-virus software could detect(yeah'right).

Then this person directed me to their website were they connected me to the "Head Manager" who was going to save my PC from the "DREADED VIRUSES".

While I waited for this so called "Manager" I happen to type their companies name into Google and what do you know I found a page in which that World PC Tech was on a list from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce in an article written by Chief Security Advisor from Microsoft Australia! Stating that World PC Tech was yet another scam in which they call you out of the blue (cold calling) and claim that your computer is infected with dangerous viruses and they are the only ones who can remove these said viruses, which I happened to mention to this "Manager" who after quite a bit of silence.... simply hung up.

Ah the power Google, if your never sure about something with your PC just Google it, you'll be surprised just what you can find.

I really hope these people call me again and then I can have some fun :) hahahaha

your online pc doctor

They called me not 5 minutes ago, saying they are the registered technical support for the windows company, and they are calling me because of blah blah files on your pc blah blah slow internet blah blah.

I got bored after a while and hung up on them. Same as the others are reporting here, from a call center in India with a delay before I hear anyone on the phone lines.

Tip for Scammers

A common mistake for the enterprising novice telephone scammer is a poorly chosen fake name.

As with many other international telephone based "services", the majority of people entering into this line of "work" these days seem to be doing it in India. If you introduce yourself as Peter or Andrew but sound more like a Ranjit or Sanjay, many people will immediately become suspicious. This isn't a racial slur - just basic common sense.

Embrace your heritage and choose a false name that fits your accent.

I hope this has helped. Now F*** Off!!!

they're using a new company name

just got a call same as all the above

said he was from a company called Support Virtual and that my computer had (for the past two months) been sending error messages to other computers

i hung up

I allowed remote access to my computer to fix log errors, however shut them down soon after realising I'd made an error. how can I be sure that they are not still able to access my PC - I have run norton with no unfixed issues arising

Supportvirtual scam

I almost fell for the same scam, Was contacted by a male sounding Indian or other Asian. Stated he was getting messages that my computer was in danger of crashing and that he worked with Microsoft.Did sent me to the event viewer and had me almost convinced that the errors where dangerous,then sent me to their web site to have someone fix it for 49.99 which I would pay after they would fix it. I was supposed to give permission for them to do it but then I read that I was giving permission to copy files among other things. At this point I refused and became suspicious ( stupid me it took me so long!!!). I asked for their phone to call him back if I changed my mind and he gave me a 020-8144-0285. Any ideas where is this and how can I report this.

Thanks

same deal... 'WORLD PC TECH' phone call, 2pm on a Saturday...

Just had this call, Immediately suspicious, claiming to be in Melbourne, giving the web address as www.worldpctech.com and saying his name was Ray James (in a very Indian Accent). The website is really shonky, poor spelling etc and the 'about us' just says it all:

About Us
The information you find here on WORLDPCTECH is not guranteed to be 100% correct, but the site does strive to bring the most factual information it can find.
The photos and information contained on this site are considered to be in the public domain, as they were found in various places on the Internet.
This site in no way wishes to infringe on anyone's copyright. If you have found anything that you feel infringes on your rights I request that you email me and I guarantee the item will be removed or altered to fit your wishes in immediately.
By this, I mean that if you wish for the item to be removed, that is completely fine with me, and I will do so immediately.
Please be as detailed as possible when sending email, as to the picture number, the reasons why copyright has been violated, etc. I promise to be quick and efficient in resolving any copyright matter.
I have set aside a special email address so as to ensure a quicker response

It was a really poor line, he was using a few scare tactics so I said I'd check them out and get back to them.. Gave me a Melbourne phone number which I've immediately passed on to Consumer Affairs in Victoria to check out...

Suggest we all report this if you haven't done this already...

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/reportascam

Just received such a call too, from a person purported to be in Adelaide. The caller had an Indian accent, and he basically repeated most of what everyone else has been saying (your PC has been sending us error messages without your knowledge, need you to give me remote access, got your name and number from the IRS International Routing Service lists etc). I was suspicious and asked him for the name on his reports, told him that wasn't me and hung up.

Question: How exactly does that 'predictive dialling' work, and how can other people who visit this site be aware of the dangers of this potential scam?

I got one too. I looked at event viewer and saw many messages but they would specify which one was the problem. They wanted me to go to there website so they could get remote access.
They said several times they received an error message from my IP address, but they refused to tell me what it was, say it was sensitive confidential info. Eventually I was put through to a supervisor who explained they provide a service for WIndows. I asked if they were working for Microsoft, they said no. Eventually he admitted that they were offering separate service he asked me to go to their website.
He said if I looked and saw they were legitimate I could ask them to help fix the problem (he still didn't say what it was).

I got one in Melbourne.
They

I got one in Melbourne.
They claimed my motherboard and hard disk were at risk and could cost over $300 to fix.
They wouldn't say how they got my phone number, wouldn't explain their connection with Windows (but at first suggested they were a "Windows" service). Wouldn't detail what the "error" was.

Scam continues in South Melbourne

Just got one of these today. Dodgy phone line with terrible reception, after I called their bluff they told me to "stop talking shit". Kind of ironic really....

had one of these calls today. The indian guy told me how i had malware on my computer as they were recieving reports that i supposedly sent. he then asked if i had windows xp or vista at which point i said "shouldn't you be able to tell me that" to which he replied actually yes, so i hung up. a minute later got another call from private number and the man just kept saying hello in a quiet voice. basically told them were to go...

Just had the call

This is the second call in a few weeks, the first time they gave up after I pretended I couldn't hear. It was an Indian sounding woman who said to turn on my computer. She said they were a service provider much like Vodaphone has service providers and they provided supprt for coumpters with errors. I said what company. She said an independant company that provides service to Microsoft customers. I asked her why for all the years I have owned a computer, are they only now calling me to assist? When I challenged her, she offered me to speak to her manager. I said why, so he can spin me the same story! She asked me again to turn on my computer. Little did she knopw that it's been on for a while and I'm talking hours here.
At this stage she managed to talk me into opening the event viewer and sort by type. So naturally there were all errors stacked together looking like a massive issue. Little does she know I work in IT. I know most PC's and even servers register warnings and errors for minor events, over days ans weeks. So I wasn't convinved.
For the 5-7minutes of dicking her around she claimed that she was having problems hearing me and she would call back. It's been 25 odd minutes now and she hasn't bothred! Would a genuine support company really not bother calling back??
Be wary of these idiots!

me too

i'm on the phone to one now!! persistent bugger, he even called back after i hung up on him! he was getting snotty at me when i questioned his authenticity! I even rang the number he gave me t verify his identity (02 8091 5005) and it just rang out (which I assume wouldn't have happened if he was really from Windows!). He is trying to scare me saying that my computer has corrupted files on it downloaded from updates and that Windows are calling people on their database to help fix the problem and that if ididn't do as he says that my computer could die at anytime!! These guys reckon they were in Sydney but I swear the first person said she was in Malaysia!

Virtual Pc Doctor

I everyone!
Same think happened to me andI think that I was very naive to think that they could be genuine. I think the fact that them showing the amount of warnings and errors I had on my computer made me do some crazy decisions!
Yesteday I was called by someone from this company sounding very much Indian but pretending to have a kind of American name! They told me to enter a code so they could delete all the infected files that I have on the computer. But this came with a purchase that I had to make by credit card which I did...unfortunately. So they fixed everything and installed the latest AVG anti-virus. But after that, becoming very fearful, I did some research and found some interesting reviews about people getting called by them. So as a matter of security I cancelled my credit card, changed my passwords and went to a some technicians to get some advices. One told me that it looked fine to them but the other told me that I should format my computer just in case. However, the thing that I would like to know is that: Have some of you purchased the actual package and got some problem regarding your bank accounts, email passwords or other? I can see lots of people mentionning that it is a scam but has anyone had some issus furter to the purchase?
Please let me know.

Well, they sounded really genuine but people are sometimes not who they pretend to be!

Cheers

can they be related?

ok so last week we got a call from d.c. saying that my wife was going to get a grant for $7000.then they asked for my wife's bank account info or credit card number or account so they can credit her thu funds.we told them we don't have any cards and they said they could just mail us the check....yeah right we looked up the $7000 grant scam on Google just like this scam and it was almost the same setup. Indian accent American name.they called today asking when was the last time i used internet i said it was down and not working right now then i asked for his number to call back and he gave it to me he said his name was Steve 760 514 0111 ext 108... so it looks like they have my number and are using it to try to scam me ha-ha i would hope that they would get there head out of the sand and smarten up and realize that we are allot smarter then them....and i thinks its a shame they would try to pull one over on the down-under!!!!

I received the same call yesterday twice, the first time i hung up on him.

He was telling me of some nasty viruses corrupting windows users. I told him that i am fine and i have the software to remove most viruses. He then persisited to ask me what version of windows i am on. I told him that i have a Mac. He hung up striaght after that.

Oxford, England - Just had this call, went along with them for a while, while frantically Googling "Virtual PC Doctor" (needed a couple of tries to hear it right) and upon discovering it was a scam asked to speak to a supervisor and while being reconnected hung up. Would advise anyone else who gets this call to do exactly that

fake support call in nz

Yeah same story here in NZ.
Someone calling from Microsoft Operating sysystem company. Wanted me to press windows flag key and the r button to display the virus problems on my computer..... yeah got agro when I kept saying "why would Microsoft be calling me?" Very adament I should do it. I asked for a number to call them back on, the guy kept saying the last two digits really fast and unclear. I told him that I had had enough of the game and hung up. WARN ALL IN NZ!

Phishing

Just got one in west.australia. Maybe a Thai accent, not philippines or india.(I speak a little of both) Said she was from "Windows". and they had been getting notifications that my 'puter has "trojans" and it is about to crash. I thought 'wow' what great personalised service, all those error reports that I allow the 'puter to send actually go to someone. Got me to run event veiwer, no worrys, I'll do that for anyone. There were plenty of errors but she seemed to be a bit out of her depth when I told her that there was nothing serious or anything that suggested that there was viruses or it was about to crash. Got me to open www.ammyy.com. Don't know this mob but i'll go for a look.....she wanted me to run 'Ammyy_Admin.exe". I asked her for a phone number so I could call her back after a quick bit of googling, Her good english suddenly got very bad and communication was breaking down so I told her that I will not run an unknown executable on her say so, she told me that because I don't want to proceed , my 'puter will crash and I will lose everything and then she hung up. BUGGER! I only wasted 10 minutes of her company's time. I could have got 20 if I had played it right.
Cheers
Tony

claiming to be tech support..!!

i just had a phone call from an indian woman claiming to be from ring2geeks telling me i had errors on my pc and that it could crash at anytime,so i followed her instructions..up untill the point where she asked me to click on pay now$199.99 dollars for them to fix the problems i have with my computer...as soon as i questioned her authentisity she became very defensive proclaiming that they were a reputable company..blah blah blah...i told her i dont have that type of cash or a credit card , she gave me a number +(61)280-147284-896...i'm going to give it a call tomorrow too see who answers...!!

Call re tech support from WorldPCTech

Just got off the phone from this call in Sydney. This is the 4th time in the last week. First 3 were from an Asian female and I could not understand what she was saying or where she was from except it was a maintenance call re report given to her. I had been waiting on a call from Logitech support and told her I had no other problem when she kept insisting. On the 3rd call she got in quick and said my computer was filled with viruses which got my back up and told her no way etc and she hung up.
Call again today from a guy. Said they had got a report that I had stacks of polymorphic viruses and MS had asked them to fix it for me and that there is no program out there that can stop them. Basically told him I didn't believe it etc. Asked how he got such a report and he said every computer sends out a message if it has a polymorphic virus on it and they all get routed to the one place to be fixed. Call went on and on so decided to see where it led. Had to check the Events Log. He said everything you see in there is bad, there should be nothing. Tried to point out most was just normal day to day workings of the computer but he would not have that and tried to scare me. Next had to type in prefetch and that was a long job as could not understand him. Came up with the folder and he said everything in there was a virus and when I queried why were some of my normal programs listed there he waffled around it. Said he was passing me onto a tech who would access my computer and get rid of all these viruses. I said well why can't I do that myself then. He said that is impossible. I replied but if the tech can do it then why can't I. He ended up saying if I paid I think $199 to buy the service they would give me the program to do it otherwise they do it for free as a service to their client MS. Had to type in a web page , I queried again where they were from and he said based in Melbourne- World PCTech. I found the website but no au came up like he said. I also googled and found this page. When a guy came back online, supposedly a tech to gain access, I said sorry no way am I going to let you access my computer I just googled and read this is a scam. Click, he hung up. At least I wasted about 1 hour of their time. Did get 2 names, Jake Taylor and Ray James although they were Asian and 03 99996751
So thanks for having this info as confirmation. I have a bad feeling that my phone number and name I gave to Logitech support might have made its way to these people. Hope that isn't the case.

Another attempt

This caller claimed to be from "Computer Maintenance Department" at On Line PC Doctor. He soon found himself out of his depth and passed me on to his senior technician., Victor. He too was confused as my "windows flag key" wasn't responding. He wanted to know which windows I was using, 7, Vista or XP. None of the above I replied. He insisted I must be using 98. No, I told him. I also told him he couldn't be much of a IT tech if he assumed all computers had some version of MS windows. I was then transferred to Rebecca, the "senior registration officer" O oh, I never did register, I'm in trouble now! Not! She came to the conclusion I was using a Mac.She was good enough to give me a street address, 66 Albert Rd Sth Yarra. Turns out that is probably bogus. It's in Sth Melbourne isn't it? And a Scroogle search revealed a site with the same name of the claimed business name with the only contact being two US phone numbers.

She too insisted I press the windows flag, I didn't bother as it doesn't do anything. She wanted to know what "operations" I was using. Hmm, the last operation I had was for a hernia repair. She insisted there must be something wrong with my windows and I was about to loose all my data. Press the windows key and the R key. I explained I hadn't yet set up the keyboard short cuts. She didn't understand, and insisted I right click on my computer.

I don't have an icon for my computer. So then she wanted me to click on the C drive. Don't have one of those either. So then she wants me to put my windows cd into the CD drive. "What for?" So she can fix my computer.

Anyway, I placed my installation CD on the tray and restarted, wondering where this will lead. Some 30 seconds later the welcome screen appears, so I say, OK Puppy is up and running off the CD, what now? Silence. "Puppy, I don't understand" Puppy Linux, I have a dual boot system, Puppy5 and Wary090, a beta version.

I was about to start my Puppy rave session but the phone went dead.

The sad thing about this is several elderly people have fallen victim to these tricksters and later found unauthorised withdrawals from their bank account. If they are operating off shore and using VOIP, it may be very difficult for any Australian authority to do much about it.

One way we might be able to help is to say the computer won't start, I could use your help. Get a pay pal or bank account details, and forward that information on to the police.

Event Viewer errors

Got a call from an Indian 'lady'. Supposedly from PC Consultants in Perth, the service providers of Microsoft Windows. Tried to convince me there were errors in my computer and she wanted to tell me how to fix them. She insisted she didn't want any other info about my system... but then proceeded to tell me to enter a web address that would allow the technician to fix the errors.

Yeahright!! Strong accent and hard to understand, lot's of Indian voices in the background.

World PC Tech - eventvwr

So just got a call from a lovely girl by the name of Nicole fromw World PC Tech, informing me that their international routers has just detected a Virus on my computer "oh noes!", what shall I ever do Nicole, please tell me, "please go to Start Button, click run, type eventvwr" scam starts, but I go along

Nicole: M'am do you have XP
Me: No
Nicole: do you have Vista
Me: No
Nicole: do you have windows 7
Me: since you're the ones that detected this, shouldn't you know

Me: where is your office?
Nicole: Melbourne
Me: Where in Melb
Nicole: Just Central
Me: What is your address?
Nicole: Sorry m'am, we can't reveal that information
Me: What is your phone number so i can call to confirm your details
Nicole: +61 3 9999 6751
Me: you're calling me from Melbourne, why are you telling me to dial +61 3

This is where the fun starts, i call them back on my mobile and left harrassed the s*** out of them, few times playing annoying music, abused them, then called again with an crazy made up accent saying i got disconnected and i was up to the part where i type in "eventvwr" so they say "you have very very bad virus, don't touch any files, we just need a one off payment of $248" in the end I told them they were lying sacks of shits.

So they ring me back and abuse me and telling them to stop making nuisance calls, THEY EVEN THREATENED ME THAT THEY WERE RECORDING IT!!. I said "great, saves me time then...."

tomorrow when i'm at work, i'll be sure to be ringing 03 9999 6751

how fun, looking forward to have more chats with "Nicole"

I got a call yesterday from a man with an Indian accent (who I could barely understand) he asked if my name was ----- ---- , I was immediatedly suspicious so I said "no" he asked who I was and I said I was her sister.
Then he told me that he was calling from Tech Support and there was a problem with my Windows XP and it could crash at any moment....He started talking further about me getting online etc. when I stopped him and told him it was my sisters computer so I would do nothing...He said "what?" I told him it was not my computer...then he said OK... before I hung up he gave me the toll free number for "my sister" to call him back that number is: 888-408-6651..... I had no intention of calling back but tried to find out using the reverse directory where the phone number was or who it was to, but there was no listing... I was afraid it might be a scam of some sort and from what I'm reading I can see that it was......
I do appreciate reading all the other people who have received these calls so I know that I did the right thing...

They are still at it .... Who do we tell?

Got a suspicious call at home on Friday. Asked for my work number so that they could talk to me about the errors and problems with my PC at home. (Hey, if it's running any version of Windows ... whats the likelyhood that you are not having problems with it. :-)
After 2 or more telephone calls (telephone tag) finally get the full blown spiel from them at home.
Not very polite ... GO and sit in front of your Computer. Why? So that I can show you the problem that you have with your computer. But my Internet is down now. Doesn't matter .... only need to type some keys to show you the problems that you have.
.. after a long exchange I explained to the caller - very bad line - you must be in India (No We are PC Consultants, located in ..... bad line) we got down to the same script (pardon the pun) Eventvwr again.
Sorry - I'm not buying anything. You are scammers.

To 90% of the unsuspecting owners of Windows computers, the 67,000+ events listed - that they are shown - would probably send them into panic mode.

The author of the article above got it right. Tell all your friends and the IT Departments. Write to news organisations.

888 408 6651

I received a call from this number 10/20/10 at 3:45pm, lady said she was with windows and that I had a problem with my system. She had me do a couple of things with my computer that didn't make any sense to me. I could barely understand her, she said her name was Alex Anderson and her phone number was 1 888 408 6651, she was working for My Pc Care, I told her I had to get off the phone, that I would call her back.. I checked the number, none was listed, no listing on the company either, I called back, a fellow named John answered, as My Pc Care, couldn't hardley understand him either. Definately had to be some kind of scam or something

Happening in America too!

I received a call from my mother who got a call from them about this very same thing. Fortunately, I taught her not to trust anyone with her computer or private information without consulting me. I googled the number she gave me and at first it appeared to be a good originization until i read the price. I googled more and got this website. Thank you for posting this suspicious phishing. I have informed the local media so they can warn others. I can't understand why an idiot would represent Microsoft when it would be the anti-virus agency to report this.

Just got the same call

I just got the same call from "john" at My PC Care. What a load of garbage. I was suspicious from the start and said that I didn't believe him and was sure that he would enter my computer remotely and he said no. I told him that he could give me the steps to "clean" up my computer, but I would not do them while on the phone with him. I said that I didn't trust him. He gave me the same 1-888 number and said to make sure and ask for him, John.

What a scam! I truly hope that people don't fall for this one!

Scammers

I had a call from these people yesterday, a very polite lady (she kept calling me sir) and had an Indian accent told me she was calling from Microsoft, that my computer was sending out error messages to them and that if I didn't act quickly my computer would break-down and would be Impossible to repair as it was infected with a nasty trojan virus.

she said for a fee they would send me a program which would fix the problem and put my computer back to normal, I was pretty sure it was a con and tried to find out more details and asked if she was calling from London she told me no Manchester but wouldn't give me any more Information so I put the phone down.

Same with me

I just got an almost identical call from an Indian lady claiming she was from Microsoft. Feel really silly not hanging up right then. She got me to open the Computer Managment tools etc. etc. At this point she said she would pass me on to her supervisor to fix the problem. I said I was too busy and that I would call back later. She was REALLY INSISTENT that I speak just quickly with her supervisor. I got a number and name from her: Suzanne 028006 1200. I called the number back, just to double-check that it doesn't exist.
I feel sorry for more vulnerable people who might get sucked into such a thing.

"mytechsupport.com" my foot....

I thought I would quickly relate a number of troublesome calls from an overseas telemarketing company.

The company attempts to gain access and control of your windows system through a system of social engineering techniques, frightening the unwary into logging in to a website and disclosing their details.

I went a way through the process to glean as much as I could without compromising my system.

The scam starts with an overseas call saying the caller is from "mytechsupport.com" and they are aware of a variety of SPAM and malicious programs running on your computer. The first thing asked to do is locate the Windows key, press Windows and "R" together to bring up the run screen and type "inf"

Doing this lists the windows inf directory and the caller states that these are all malicious files slowing down your computer. That may be somewhat true, but not exactly!

The caller then says to go to the run window again. This time, type in www dot fastsupport dot com (please don't inadvertently visit this site!) and ask what is there. http://preview.tinyurl.com/3xtgvoz if you are interested to see Google's cached copy of the site...

Once there, you are told to put in your name and a "key" which they provide to you. They gave me a 9 digit key.

I then got jack of the whole thing, told them that I was MCSE, they were a scammer, I was on to them, they had called a number which was on the do not call register and that they had broken any number of federal laws in Australia and would be reported to the relevant authorities.

For some reason, they hung up on me at this point!

In any case, please be aware of this scam going around, make sure the ISPs send it to their customers so that they are NOT sucked in, and perhaps, all being well, we'll save a few PCs being compromised.

So - summary:
International call claiming to know you have malicious software installed is a scam
If a caller says they are from mytechsupport - scam
If a caller trys to get you to visit a website via the "run" command - scam
Don't visit the fastsupport dot com website - scam

Please pass the word around - this has been documented in a few places, however it is obviously becoming more widespread, and for the technically unaware, quite scary and daunting.

Unfortunately they hit a l33t user, not a noob...

Feel free to pass on to relevant people.

Same again.....

This sane thing happend to us

The did the same thing to me on Sat and I fell for it. Stole $100 and no return call and they had my full name, they called last week and I hung up on them and another "TECH" person who said he represented MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7 said my computer will crash today, I told him no more scam and he hung up. So what do we do, we are on the do not call registry and the phone they called is brand new phone, Pay pal and my bank are now involved help any one?

same thing but three times now and now its personal

the first time it happened they told me they were from microsoft and that my computer had sent them error messages (it hadnt sent any )
and same thing run windows event veiwer to try and convice me with a list of inconciquential errors
i told them i dint belive them but would microsoft to check

i rang microsoft and they told me no one would ring me unsolicited from their company unless i requested it

2nd time same call they again said from microsoft and same as before
but i pretended to do what they suggested and just rote it down so i could send details to the nuber microsft told me last time

3rd time now they are saying they are from "windows service center" i said who do you work for microsoft and they said no windows service center

ive a degree in computer programing and did advaced compuer science for 2 units of my hsc
so the first two calls i saw through them fast
and dint waste my or their time

but after they rang me the third time its become personal this time i wasted his time for 25 min
before i told him my internet refigerator has no windows icon

but not before i took down their url and any info that will help me to make their dream come true
belive me they will be verrry busy fixing computers but they will be their own ones

like they say an eye for an eye and

never ever try to muck with a real geeks computer

World PC Tech Scam

Had the same poeple call me tonight and looked up this during the conversation, pretty much the same as above.

Basically they'll ask you to run "eventvwr", then "prefetch", followed by "www.logmein123.com". The first two i was dubious about, seeing as most of the errors related to Ad-Aware, AVG, Bonjour, etc. Asking me to enter in a www address was what really started alarm bells.

When I asked for a number with Microsoft to confirm authorisation, I called the 03 9999 6751 number provided, which turned out to be these scam artists once again (Guess they've learnt not to use the +61 3 now).

Though they vehemently denied being a scam, I asked for a physical address for them. Apparently this can be gained from their website (which I refuse to go to), yet they were unwilling to give this information over the phone. All they could tell me was the number was from Melbourne (apparently the fact Melbourne was in Australia was one of their confidence boosting points, like I didn't know that myself).

After threatening to pass any information I had over to the AFP, they still wouldn't budge. Not sure what the AFP can do about it, but I'll be letting them know, or finding out where I can have this investigated.

Also Still Learning

I have also had the same call in the UK with same telephone number given. Details provided about caller were Peter Solanki, Support Watchwell, 41 John Street, London GL40 1UG. Needless to say the address and probably the name is completely false.

eventvwr scam

I live on Gold Coast, Queensland and have just had the eventvwr call. The caller was an Indian woman asking for me by name, claiming to want to check my computer for harmful downloads. She obviously has a crib sheet for each operating system since she knows nothing, or very little, about computers but does know how to get you to run scripts. After finding out what operating system I run, but with no interest in the version (i use XP SP3), she wanted me to run the event viewer and told me how to do it. I pretended I didn't know what it was and told her I wasn't going to run anything a stranger told me to do without knowing what it did first. She seemed to think that was odd, and kept insisting that she would tell me what it did after I had run it! She obviously hadn't a clue about computers or security. I don't care much about the details of the scam, so in the end I rang off. I assume eventually they get around to persuading you to lower your security levels or buying some software from them.

The message to get across to people is that computer professionals just don't contact you like this, and that they would never expect you to run anything without you knowing exactly what you're doing, or having very reliable confirmation of their identity. Like you calling them back on a Microsoft number, for example.

And another...

Got the call at 1.40pm SA time, 20 Oct 2010. Crackly line, slow responses, guy sounded like he was Indian and used some very clunky English. He said he was calling from World Tech PC in Melbourne and that he'd received a message from his IT section to say that our computer had been infected with malware, viruses etc. I asked how his IT section got this information and he said they had been advised by Microsoft. (Yeah, right!) I told him my computer was fine and he said, "It may be fine now but your motherboard will soon run slower and slower." (Say what??!!) I asked him which operating system our computer used and he said he didn't have that information but that if I would turn my computer on, he'd lead me through the steps necessary to check and fix the problem. He spoke like a half-wit and was obviously dishonest. I accused him of being a scammer and he hung up on me.

sucked in

this happened to me 15 minutes ago, my mum picked up and i had no idea where he was from, but she said microsoft support?
didn't know any of this, was only suspicious when they sent me to the logmein website but i still allowed access :(
they tried to get me to buy software for $500.00
told them i don't have the money and they said i could pay it in a few payment etc. i told him i wasn't interested and hung up.

if i restarted my computer and deleted any files the "technician" downloaded is there any way they can still access my computer?

i feel like such an idiot!

World pc tech

Just got the dodgy Indian caller. Played his games for a while with my internet turned off then he wasn't happy that I wouldn't connect to the internet and go to his logmein123 site. Hung up on him end of story. Cos id already googles this on
My iPhone

Calling from Adelaide

Living in Qld and got a caller named "Daisy" (very Indian accent); said she was in Adelaide. Same story as everyone else - difference was the name of the company. Daisy (yeah right!) said she worked for C65 PC Support.

Daisy got irritated by my "confusion" ( I love stringing these scammers along) and actually shouted at me! When I said "Daisy! Don't shout at me, I'm just a silly housewife who doesn't know much about computers" ( I actually have 2 Masters degrees) she shouted again " I AM NOT SHOUTING AT YOU. YOU JUST NEED TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS PROPERLY MA'AM". Hilarious!

Eventually got onto a supervisor called "Harry de Costa" When I told Harry that by law any company calling needs to supply a phone number he gave me: 08 7200 0365. But he whispered it - very funny.

After about a half hour I got bored so told Harry that I am on the No Call Register and that he was breaking a squillion laws and that I would be reporting his scam to the Australian authorities then hung up on him.

melbourne scam

I just received a call (12:50 pm 29/10/10) to my home phone from a lady with an indian accent. Pretty much same as all the above stories above. Shae stated she was from the melbourne office and her name was Kristen David and her contact number is 0399996751.

Telephone from indian accent person about my windows some S H It

i got a call about 5 min ago in Australia from a Indian accent person i asked who he is ans stuff he said he was a partner of Windows and was working with the Australian government some shit. HE tryed to make me go on a website called isixo.co and also tried to make me go to RUN>EVEN WVR

i had no clue and seemed like a scam. The guy seemed fishy and his words kept breaking. I hung up as soon as i read comments of this website.

Same same!!

Yep, keep an ear open for Steven and Christina (sound like Asians) from Windows Support Centre and their on-line tech Ivan Davis. They go through the event viewer error and other rigmarole and eventually try to convince you to spend from $60 to $420 renewing the security license for your computer which, in doing his tests, their tech has discovered has expired. A very clear warning sign is when they ask you to connect to "www.letmein123.com".

I am in Brisbane. I had an eventvwr call just now - an Indian woman who gave her name as Elena claiming to be from the Windows Service Center. She ran me through eventvwr and I has half convinced cause I know my laptop does need stronger virus protection. I asked her to cut to the chase and tell me how much it would cost me to get rid of the viruses and she said there were a range of options from $200 onwards. I told her since you have my name and personal details, can you send this to me on email? She said she couldn't. I then asked her that surely Microsoft would have details of such services as she was offering on a website somewhere and she said that there was but she couldn't take me to the website before I had committed to buying their protection for my computer. I told her surely the website would be accessible to the general public and it would most likely be www.windows.com or microsoft.com and she said it wasn't and she couldn't divulge that info. All alarm bells rang at that moment and I told her that I'd just let my computer die and hung up on her. BTW she knew my husband's name which is disturbing. I then quickly googled windows service center and found this website. Any idea where I should report this?

29/10 20:05pm, we just got one of these calls and the guys was so rude to me and thats what made me question what was happening. I found this site while talking to him and thank goodness!

Same thing happened

I got a call yesterday afternoon 2/2/10. Girl said her name was Stephanie, and that she was connected to Microsoft and they had seen that I was getrting a lot of error messages on my computer and that this could mean that my security ssystem was not functioning properly and there was a lot of spyware on my computer. Luckily, although I am 70 and a pensioner, I know a bit about computers and immediately thought that this didn't sound right. She wanted me to turn on my computer and like the others said open eventvwer. I said no I couldn't I was going out and she said could she call me back later. I said no tomorrow and asked a few questions and for the company name. She said ring2geeks. I immediately went searching on google and found your information. Thank you.

03 880 709 58 scam.?

Was called recently by a female from this number and fell for it... was told my comp had thousands of infections and virus's that only they could fix. Said my other Macafee was not handling the crisis.!!
They said they would clean up my comp for free but I would have to pay over $200 a year to keep it that way. I stupidly gave my card details and they asked me not to use my comp for a couple of hours or so. What will happen now ? I did ring back the number they gave (after reading on here)and they answered the phone and denied they were scammers (but they would wouldnt they).
They told me their name was - www.virdualpcdoctor - and there is a site that comes up with that www. name ... but put the same name into Google without the www. and it only gives you Virtual Pc Doctor....the scammers . Do you think they have changed their name.??

Their number again was 03 880 709 58

Same guy!!

I probably had the same guy..... talk about pushy and rude!! I told him I would just delete windows, errors and all and install Linux because the protection plans they offered were far too expensive. He told me I still needed a protection plan.... Windows, Apple, Linux... I was yelling NO, NO, NO and in the end had to hang up!

I just got off the phone from these same scammers and thank goodness that while they were talking me through running PREFETCH prefetch and EVENTVWR eventvwr I was busily googling to see if this was for real.
I couldnt even understand the first lady - so I told her that I was sorry but I couldnt understand. After asking me if I could hear her (which I explained I could hear her but could not understand her) she said "OK - I will put you onto my supervisor" which she did, but she also had an accent I could barely understand.
Anyway, I could not understand how they could have known what number to ring because we only have a laptop, and windows was registered on it when we were in South Australia, and now we are in Victoria and not even my name is the same as now I am married - so I kept asking them how they knew who to call.
They kept saying it was from the error reports that automatically get sent to them - but when I explained that my name has changed and I have moved states they just ignored me and kept insisting I type in the information.
I looked up on google what prefetch did and it said it was basically a shortcut type search so your computer can run its processes faster or something - so I was happy to run that - and then when it opened she told me it was all of the corrupt files on my system. SO given this was completely different from what the web said I thought this was odd.
So then when she told me to run event viewer i was pretty suspicious as she told me that this would show me every time it had had a maliciaous virus attack - so i started googling "scams with prefetch and eventvwr" and this site popped up.
As she was busy telling me all the red crosses were incredibly bad and meant I had a malicious virus, I was busy reading through all the scam notes.
I told her that I would take my computer to my work IT guys and they would look at it for me and she started getting upset and insisting that their tech guys should look at it and that people are hacking into my computer every time I get on the internet and stealing all my information.
So, I hung up on her.
I logged the call with the ACCC - but unfortunately without any caller ID, no names (because i couldnt understand them), and only that they were from "microsoft", I cant see that accc will be able to do anything about it.
I google everything now - whenever I get a call or an email I dont fully trust!

Same thing happened to me - just like all of the above. Kept asking them questions that they couldn't answer or would answer by repeating what they'd said in the first place. Obviously there is no deviating from the script. Played along for ages to see just what they were going to do. Very devious with strong attempts at credibility - shame about the strong, at times incomprehnsible accents - I thought they asked for Ms. Singh at first. And every step had to be repeated - even when I wasn't messing with him. Although to his credit, he didn't get as grumpy as I've read in other posts that many do.
He finally threatened me with the death of my computer when I couldn't get the code right (yeh right) to log on to their remote access.
Had never heard of a scam like this before. Good to see so many people posting about it to warn others. To be honest, I've run scans galore since their phone call and I still don't feel entirely sure they haven't managed to get in. My Internet provider said they were probably watching my Internet traffic for months. Feels rather creepy and sinister.

Look out New Zealand - there's a wave of very desperate and insistent scammers out there.

Just received this interesting call claiming to be from microsoft. Thanks to god that I got suspicious from beggining and hung up on them. When googled, I was amazed to see the numbers of people targeted with this scam.

Thanks, Anonymous, for the warning. Got the phone call in New Zealand at 9pm 6/11/10 with the predictable 4-second delay at the beginning of the phone call, and then a lady with an accent (???) said I had downloaded malicious software on my computer. Now I was angry!! Shouted back, 'I have no malicious software!!!', but she continued. I immediately demanded where she was calling from, which company she was from. The line went all faint, and then nothing. They had gone.

Had me worried for a while, I might say, until I found this thread and the same story on other PC Help forums.

Cheers.

Same deal...
Received the call in Brisbane, 12/11/2010.
Easy enough to waste their time and have a bit of fun before calling them out and hanging up.

Very persistent though.
They called back 4 times, and even left voicemails (without leaving a return number, haha)

Something similar happened to my Daughters mother-in-law, she was so concerned that she rang me, I said your not even on the Internet so how can they know anything about your computer! So they must do random phone calling hoping that someone will listen to them. SCAM, SCAM SCAM

I hope this helps

I get several of these calls. They ask for Mr. Edwards, I say "I'll just get him" and put the phone on the desk and just ignore it until they hang up. Their time has been wasted, not mine, and it's time they can't spend phoning someone else.

I got the same sort of call 15/11/10. Was just home for lunch and got very persuasive Indian on phone telling me he was from microsoft and got me to turn my pc on. He guided me into the Events Viewer site where l had a few errors. Kept insisting l count them (from something like 29,000 entries l dont think so). Was still sucked in at this point and prepared to let them into my computer. He got me to open www.winpc.net and pointed out phone number (02 80062085) if l needed to contact them. Then started explaining their techs would fix my computer. Tried to tell me it wouldn't cost anything but just $115 each year for 3 years for AVG. I said l thought AVG was free. They said no need paid AVG to fix problem. Wanted my card details. Then l started to think it a bit strange. At this point was late back to work . He was very pushy so l had to yell that l had to get back to work. He said he would ring back that night. But didnt till next night asking for wrong name. When l got to work the girls told me it was a scam. I didn't allow them to access my computer. If l wasn't going back to work l might of. Thank heavens l was only on a lunch break. Was sucked in and feel very angry. Want everyone to be made aware of these scams so they don't do what l nearly did.

Just a bump to say that this scam is still going on. Just got a call from them today, and the alarm bells went off when he said he was Microsoft calling because we've been sending error messages, but I went through to when he started on eventvwr before I got tired of his accent and asked him why he was calling us at 8:30pm and how he got our number.

His excuse was "Microsoft has a database of everyone's numbers".

Oooooh, there's a bigger privacy case for you there than Google Streetview!

I just got this scam call in Toronto, Canada. Same lies, scam and fraud as all the others describe here. I hung up while the criminal was going on with the spiel. It had an east indian accent, as well!

We just got this call in Ireland. Indian guy saying we had a virus on our pc and that we needed to update our anti-virus software to get the problem sorted. Luckily we didn't fall for it.

Canberra, Australia. Apparently 'everyone in my area is having issues with Microsoft Windows' (come again??). Lol ... it's fun to play with them ... but really shouldn't somebody be doing something about this? Global scammers are difficult to eradicate but it has been done before.

HaHa!

They've rang twice - I'm in Melbourne, Australia...
This second time I got names and a phone back number (haven't tried it yet).
I will attempt it but report to ACCC (is that the right place to go to?)

oh the names were John Wilson and his company is called Global Software. His supervisor is Dell Smith, yes he really said that!
Ph: 02 8005 1494
odd...sydney number....

I received a call tonight. I live in Queensland. I was googling what the indian male was telling me to type (eventvwr). I kept stalling him and asking lots of questions. He told me he was in Brooklyn, New York. Yea right! Anyway I got mad from reading about the scam and proceeded to yell at him. He kept telling me to trust him and he was not scamming me. I told him 3 times do not call my house again before he said Ok bye! I'm letting everyone I know not to fall for this. It sucks that there is'nt much else we can do! So frustrating!!!!!!!!

Fell 4 it
Had the call from Indian man saying hes from microsoft and a virus has been downloaded into my computer as my commy is playing up a bit i stupidly believed him, as i dont no that much about computers i did as he said and loaded
1 eventvwr
2 prefetch
3 logmein123.com (the access number they gave me was 178798)
after been told i had lots of viruses i then got told that over 400 pcs had gone down with the same virus in london and if i didnt solve the problem mine would to.
When he told me i had to pay £120 i said no he automatically dropped the price to £60 and said if i didnt pay the police and fbi could all investigate my commy. I put the phone down at this point, he had been on the phone for over a hour.
He said his name was Roy and the number he gave me is 02033183462.
Now i have to see what will happen to my computer as ive given them access, does any1 no what will happen???

Same scam - different name - IFIXO

I'm stuck trying to repair the integrity of my friend's computer after she let them have remote access, which she thought would be OK as she had no personal records stored - thank goodness! She remembers the very familiar letmein123 & fastsupport rubbish which has now left her computer in a real state. This mob have a website too (don't know if it's from a legit crowd or not), but whoever accessed her computer rendered any form of security useless when they had finished. Then immediately after she started getting scam emails saying how much someone had just made doing a bit of work on the internet - I would assume they were hoping she would check her accounts online so they could then access them! Don't do that whatever you do, much safer to call the companies and cancel anything to be safe like she did. Beware!

Yes I had three calls from the indian team talking about viruses, and was concerned until they said they could provide a free virus checker. This was followed by a request for the details of my credit card, just as if I would disclose that.

I did email Current Affair about it but have had no reply.

I wish there was something that could be done to stop this intrusion into our lives.

How I wish I'd realised earlier in the conversation with David from Microsoft that it was all a scam...I caught on just before entering the website so nothing was lost and no computer accessed but I would have loved to played with this guy a little more. After 10 minutes on the phone I twigged and said that I wouldn't allow him access - HE ABUSED ME FOR WASTING HIS TIME!!!! Ah the irony!

I just had the same phone call from someone supposed to be from Windows service centre, Manchester saying malicious junk files on my computer and my computer would crash at any time. He quoted an IP address (don't know if it's mine as I don't know mine ans my postal address in full. He wanted me to run "event viewer", as I kept saying I din't know he was who he said he was he put me onto his "supervisor" who kept just giving me same stuff and said that my virus software wouldn't stop this problem and they were just trying to help me. He got very angry & eventually gave me a tel number 0845383769 and hung up on me.
thank goodness I didn't fall for it even though really worried as not really very computer aware.

ok same thing today in Ireland

wanted me to do al ldat stuff but i just cudnt understand how he had the phone number and address so kept asking him and he says becaues i gave the information when i bought the pc, which i didnt and had moved house anyway, knew it smelt ripe, anyway he insisted i turn comp on i insisted i woudnt. Mainly cos i cudnt be arsed, I ended the convo tellin him if i find a problem i will contact windows myself. he didnt have much of an answer to that.

reported it to the gardai - who cant do anything and the phone company who also cant do anything.

just be aware, nobody offers a service for free.

Just got the phone call.

I am a Systems / Network Admin myself and saw through this immediately. Also I have used logmein services to provide technical support in a legitimate environment. I went through playing dumb and asking if I had a virus, pretended that I was getting searchassist.com as a homepage and even said I had Norton AV .. told me it was great, well if I didn't know this was a load by then....

Recorded the conversation and even got the doofus to agree to me recording it.

Spoke to the police and giving them copy of the recording.

-1 to the scammers.

Phone call available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1hR7eDXVPE

Hi all,

Yes, these are all scams. I am a sys admin (System's Administrator) and Developer of 30+ years in Australia. I happened to be at a friends house today for dinner, when she received a call from an Indian female (who said her name was Dianna) stating that her computer hard drive was infected by a dangerous virus, and if she went to their web site, it would be fixed. :) Luckily, she knows me, and knew straight away it was a scam, and put me on the phone. I pretended to be an ignorant noob and played the game to get as much info as possible. She said that she represented a company called Ring2Geeks and they were employed by Microsoft to fix these problems. (I should point out that my friend uses Linux, not Windows by the way, as do most of my friends). ;)

So, I did some checking online and discovered:

As well as a gmail account, the guy (subh10) has an account here: subh@logicocean.com

If you do a simple WhoIS domain lookup on the two domains, you will see he is the same registrant (owner) except the addresses are different (but the phone number is the same).

Logic Ocean Details:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois/?tool_id=66&token=&toolhandler_redirect=0&ip=logicocean.com

Registrant:
Logic ocean solutions (p) Ltd
Subhodip dutta (subh10@gmail.com)
22 B.T.Road, PO Suckchar
Calcutta
West Bengal,700115
INDIA
Tel. +033.25536282

Ring2Geeks details:
http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIs.aspx?domain=ring2geeks.com&prog_id=godaddy

Technical Contact:
Dutta, Subhodip subh10@gmail.com
55 Patuatala Lane ,PO Sukchar.
Kolkata, West Bengal 700115
India
03325531990

The guy is a fraud and a crook! I have sent his details to all appropriate authorities here, in India, and Microsoft, and his domain registrars. Anyone else conned by this crook should do the same (at least, send the details to your ISP and the appropriate anti-SCAM authority wherever you are (In Aus, this is SCAMwatch).

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give ANY info, or pay any money to anyone over the phone or internet!!

Be safe all, and goodby crook! :D

http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/apology-virtual-pc-doctor-3904222

Sorry but I'm going to lead with WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

Why are tvnz apologising?

I ended up abusing the Sh*t out of these guys...

Thank goodness my Son is always warning me about these scams, I am having computer issues, but was more than a little sceptical when the lady from Microsoft phoned me to tell me my computer was sending her virus messages, and it was very urgent I should get on my computer and do as she says. I said I was very busy and would like her help but would have to cal her back...could I have her number...she wanted to call me back...no I wanted to call her...so she gave me a ficticious phone number...I knew it was a scam, but they drive you crazy. Obviously some very desperate people out there!

I got a call today from a man with a heavy Indian accent pertaining to be from a company called E-Pro Solution. He started off by telling me that his company works in conjunction with Microsoft and that they could somehow know that my computer was infected with all sorts of malware and viruses. I asked him how he could possibly know that and whether he could verify my IP address. He said he couldn't divulge any such information for legal reasons! He assumed that my operating system was Vista or Windows 7. I happen to run Windows XP! He asked me to open a run command and type in the command line eventvwr to open the event viewer. He then proceded to scam me with nonsense that my computer was infected, which it wasn't. After that, he asked me to open a new browser window and to go to the website domain e-pro solution, which I didn't do. Instead of that, I googled the word eventvwr and I saw various suggestions such as 'eventvwr scam' and 'eventvwr phone call'. The entire call felt so weird and untrustworthy that I knew straight away that it was a scam. BE AWARE!!!

Help!!! I was stupid enough to fall for this!!! I am normally very wary but was on another call, when I heard this call coming in - and as I was expecting another call took it. I heard the woman say they had noticed my computer had problems. The reason I listened was that I had been onto Bigpond/Telstra with a computer problem and thought it was them ringing back. Also I have ordered a computer for my daughter for Xmas and thought it was from the company. So I was very confused. She got me to type in eventvwr and got me to count up the number of error messages - and then on another page. Finally my brain got into gear that they werent even related to Telstra. I said what were they trying to sell me. She said they wanted to help me fix the problem. I said I had been on the phone long enough and if they were from a company employed by Telstra they could ring me again. I got onto my son who is a computer whiz and he told me the truth!!! Can't believe I got sucked in so easily - and it was only because I had had issues with my Bigpond emails and had been in contact with Telstra. Be very careful.

So someone tell me - by opening that eventvwr - did I give them anything????

Hi All
I got a call from ring2geeks and they have provided me sufficient information regards to my computer. I have bought my computer in 2010 January and i am completely illiterate and i dont have any idea regarding that and i was looking for a company who will provide me assistance for my computer and now i got one, they have charged me only once for the whole year and providing me support. U know guys previously i face any problem i do have to recalled my local technician who will charged me on an hourly basis and now i am very happy that i dont need to depend on any one else. So many people writing blocks but i am the happiest one.

Got the call tonight. Now they claim to be from geek2geek in new York with a Sydney office. The number they provided is 0280147284 ext 896. The woman said her name was Diane. I was very angry took the info above and said I would report it to the authorities. LOVE the earlier idea of a whistle- will bear that in mind.

I JUST received a phone call like this. From an Indian woman and I swear her name was Sam or something. I told her I was too busy to talk. She immediately wanted me to go to my computer so that she could show me a virus infection or something. I was like....umm...NO. I am glad I found this article. She said she was going to call back and I don't have caller ID. I suppose I will just have to hang up. Or tell her I don't have windows in the first place?

Wow, so many examples. I just had a similar call eventhough my number is on the DO NOT CALL Register. I guess that means nothing for these guys.

The funny thing is, my computer is actually stuffed. It crashes regularly. I have downloaded free stuff from websites but never gave my details and certainly not my last name. The guys said he got my number from my IP address which is weird.

I'm sure something is wrong on my computer but a hard reset would fix it, just gotta back up everything.

His company was onlinesupportpc. www.onlinesupportpc.com

Name Brain Jones, funny name for an Indian.

Anyway, hopefully Today Tonight or a Current Affair will bring out a store. Lucky I answered, if it was my wife she would have believed him and god knows what would have happened.

Had a call for this yesterday. I'm about as technical as it gets, and knew it was a scam right away. I actually in fact did let him access my computer - through software from a very trusted company. The connection can easily be broken in a single button, so was fine by me.

What I did was after letting him view my screen, I started Google'n reviews, did a who.is, did a traceback, and also found this news article, all while he was looking. He went dead silent for like 15 seconds - but still kept trying to convince me afterwards.

I still got to remember, lots of people are not as technically inclined and are being scammed by this.

Firstly I would like to thank the author for writing this article, and to all those who have responded with their experiences.

My mother has had a call just today that is the same as the above stories. However the person is now claiming that they are from Telstra. The Indian speaking person whose name is either Adam Jackson or Adam Johnson called from (03)90160638, which must be a number routed back overseas (I would imagine). The story is the same, computer has a virus or issues and as Teslra representative they need to check the computer. Again they asked her to run some commands and for her IP address.

Thankfully Mum felt that the whole thing was bogus and she did not run any commands and hung up of the person.

I hope that people do not fall for this scam, I am notifying as many people as I can of this scam.

I kinda got sucked in too. I have had a couple of issues recently with my computer and on occasions send error reports. An Asian guy called and knew my surname and said he was calling from Microsoft Windows. He began talking about viruses etc and got me to go to eventvwr ... ran me through it, going on about all the errors etc...I was suspicious but I have contacted Microsoft before a couple of years ago so it came across almost believable. When I dealt with the 'real' Microsoft back then (through me calling their tech support) they used remote access to help me...so stupid me let them access my computer remotely and I watched as he clicked on the errors etc on my screen. At this point a woman was speaking to me and she did the whole 'oh my god' thing about the 1500 files or whatever....then I was chatting to the so called tech who opened up a website called Qbec Technologies...and suggesting I pay up to fix the problem...at this stage I am googling Qbec Technologies + scam etc and nothing is coming up...anyway I closed the remote access which pissed the guy off and told him I wasn't interested...this was after 40 minutes. My concern though is I did tell them my email address. We have a lot of info regarding ebay purchases etc on email. I haven't opened up my email since. Would be glad if anyone who is computer savvy can give this gullable bloke some good advice. Thanks. Will report to ACCC too.

Hi Murray,

If you only gave him your email address and not your password then I think you are reasonably safe. However I would recommend changing your password if you are concerned.

The worst that could happen from giving him your email address may be that he puts you on email lists, so your spam email may increase. In that case please be careful not to open these spam emails as there are plenty of malware email scams out there.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Brisbane Guy.

My mum was 'done' by them this afternoon - in Adelaide, South Australia. Poor love, but it's nice to know she's not the only one! She was totally convinced it was legitimate. A good lesson for her, I guess. I'm hoping that losing $190 to the buggers is all that she's lost.

This is the SCAM call received by my mum yesterday, in the UK. They called back today when she told them the call was being recorded and asked for all their details, which the caller declined to give. She did allow access and I have restored her PC to a previous date in the hope that this will remove anything they got her to do!

Nasty, evil people. Only wish they would ring me, would love a good wind up.....

My elderly mum called me today to say she had received one of these calls and as she was unsure, called me to clarify. Mum managed to get a number to call back 'Nancy' on 02 80037578. After I checked the helpful advice on this site, she called ACCC - and they were very pleased to receive the information. They strongly urge anyone who receives a call to report it to them and particularly any information (names, numbers) to pass on to try and put these people out of business. The more information passed on to them the better.
Their number is: 1300 302 502

Got these turkeys call today, I played really dumb and strung everything out heaps , kept him on the line for nearly an hour asI told him my 486 running Windows 3.1 is a little slow booting up and it went straight over his head.

Scammer: press the "e" key, what is happening now?
Me: Ok, my screen is filling with "e"s
Scammer: TAKE YOUR FINGER OFF KEY, PRESS ONY ONCE!"

Me: No I can't go on the internet because I need to hang up on you to put the phone into the internet phone coupler thingy............

He was so frustrated & pissed off he put his "manager" on for me who was probably just his GF who hung up when I asked for their email address.

I just got the call too, went through the entire process until the caller at the end of the line asked me to go to a dodgy looking URL. I typed the URL into Google and wasn't surprised to see that every response was about a telephone scam from an Indian call center. I lost my cool and told the guy very harshly to never call my family again.

Just received the same scam call in Alberta Canada. Seems like the con is alive and well unfortunately. Good news for me is that I am a Mac user and when he advised he was calling about a problem with Windows on my computer, I immediately knew something was up. When I pressed him again for his name and company and advised I never called anyone regarding "my computer problems", he hung up on me! I tried to find out the last number called but it had been blocked.

Got a call from them today at 7:41PM but the phone number was 0011976000. Was an indian girl. Didnt state her name.They told me my PC was infected with a virus. I told them No its not. I asked what company she was from? All she said was she was from the IT and computing department, which sounded abit fishy. So playing along I pretended to follow her instructions but instead I searched on google when she told me to input EVENTVWR in the run command box. A whole list of sites came up saying it was a scam. So I told her directly that I aint falling for her scam and told her not to call back. I then hung up on her and a few seconds later a man called me back up with an Indian accent shouting abuse at me calling me names and saying how us rich folks should all roll up our money and shove it in our big A-holes. I was literally laughing out loud on speakerphone. LOL. All they want is money!! Don NOT fall for the SCAM..

Goodness I could be reading my own story. these guys are obviously all around the world now as we are in NZ. The issue is that they keep ringing back constantly. I have threatened them with the police, etc to no avail. They have rung a total of six times tonight even after being hung up on each time. This is the fourth day it has happened. I have decided that next time I am going to let him ramble on - while I watch my fav TV show, do my housework and go to bed. I wonder how long (or how much in toll calls) it will take to get them to hang up. We don't have caller ID but I have contacted our telecommunications provider and they will now have good cause to block their number.

I just got the call from Ray who had a strong Indian accent but said he was calling from Melbourne. He kept saying 'Oh my God' when I told him I had 50 errors. "You're PC is infected but we will see what we can do to help"
Being a holiday I strung him along for as long as I could before I asked him to give me the name of his company and after a bit of hesitation he said "World PC Tech" and upon a search I found this site quickly. Once I mentioned that there was a site that almost said word for word what he had been telling me plus they indicated that this was nothing more than a scam rather than try and talk me around my mate Ray decided to hang up on me. I hope I never hurt his feelings :)

These guys are still out there. I got a call tonight from "Lisa James" at World PC Tech - supposedly based in Melbourne. The same story - delay at the beginning of the call, strong Indian accents, people chatter in the background - and trying to convince me my computer was infected blah blah. When I asked for evidence of their authenticity - I was given a number for their "HelpLine" - 03 999 96751 - sound familiar???. I was even put onto their "Senior Registration Officer" - "Paul Lewis" - when I continued to question. They wouldnt send me any details via email about how to "fix" the issues - because they didnt think I could handle the technical info - Huh!! I was also advised against getting my own tech support advice. Funny that. Thanks everyone for continuing to report these scammers.
Good thing scepticism is alive and well !!

Called today (again after trying 3 months ago when I couldn't get them off the phone when I said i was calling the police) told me they were from "Your Online PC Doctor" and Microsoft had asked them to call. He said their address was 66 Albert Road, South Yarra (Albert Road is actually South Melbourne). I confirmed with him that he said Microsoft had asked them to call. I said, well I'll just check with Microsoft first then...

People, don't be stupid. So obviously a scam, always verify credentials.

Looks like our Indian friends have come to New Zealand. This is the second call in last 5 days. Same old story got me to run eventvwr. Played along for a while until I got bored then hung up. Last time I had a really good argument, told him he was full of s#*t. Forgot to mention I repair computers for a living. Watch out for the scammers they are everywhere.

My partner received a phone call about 10 minutes, the guy started asking about the computer and she knew it was a bit sussed so she put me on the phone. The guy had a thick Indian accent and said he was from Computer Consultants, I knew I had heard of this scam on talkback radio so I told him this was Australia and I wanted to speak to an Australian supervisor.... when he refused I racially abused him for like 5 minutes until he just hung up.

Call about 10 mins ago

After not being able to understand the guy, he put me onto a woman who gave me the story.
She told me she was from 300 something Flinders St in Melbourne. Can't remember which conmpany name they gave....

They gave me the number of 03 99996751 and said to call them back if I did not believe them. They also said they would call back in 10 mins, but I just said "don't bother".

@ sereneva

There's no risk when you look at the lists in the Event Viewer. I usually use it when I have a crash with a game or a software so I know what the problem is. If the guy did not access your computer remotely and you did not access the website nor download some suspicious software, you are fine :) Like I said, the Event Viewer is a tool provided with Windows that help to figure out the cause of certain issues with your computer.

I've had the same calls over the last 3 days. The ring both of my land lines. I knew it was a scam having worked for IBM for a long time and having my own firewall setup at home with a router that I configured and definitely doesn't send out logs.
I just told them to tell me the IP address that was sending them this information and that I worked for IBM and they were lying. The Indian lady hung up once she worked out that I was onto her.
They are persistent though.

I just had the same call as Comment No. 161. I am from Sydney and I got the call today 11/1/11 at 3.25pm. They gave me the same phone number. Lady claimed to be from World PC Tech and she had Technicians standing buy to fix my computer... She said her name was Christine Davis and she was in melbourne call centre... YEAH RIGHT..! What is the point of this call?? I know this is a total scam but what do they stand to achieve if some innocent person believes them and goes ahead with their request?? When she was telling me what to do, I was actually googling as it sounded like a scam and I got this site... I read a few lines of it to her and she got defensive. She told me to ring her back and hung up. AS IF! How dumb do they think we are... I said to her, Why are you calling me to fix my computer for free when it has nothing to do with you... she could not answer that!

My Mum got a call there last friday, from someone claiming to be from windows, they said she had corrupt files on the computer and then listed some of the items or sites which were the problem. The items mentioned would be sites that are visited, how would they know that? The person claimed they(windows) had been receiving error messages. Unfortunately i was only told about this later that night by which time my Mum had allowed remote access to the computer which went on for about 4 and a half hours with the message are you still appearing and she also paid 200euro to get a security thing installed. I'm just wondering what the reprecussions of this are going to be? Is the laptop compromised? What info would they have gained access to? What should we do?

I had a phone call today too, I live in Darwin. I'm fairly savvy when it comes to computers so I knew straight away that it was a scam, plus I'd heard about it previously.

Comment 165 - I'm not sure exactly what they access but I'd suggest changing any passwords your Mum might have had for internet banking, email etc.

I had two phone calls today. I live in Toronto, Canada. Both were trying to say that there were errors on my computer's operating system and when I asked how they know, they said I have to fix them otherwise my computer's operating system will crash. They said they know the ID of my computer and will read it back to me to verify it. When I said I don't want to talk, they were irate and threatening. The caller Id was blocked, and it said long distance, and sounded like India.

167 Anonymous,

After I recieved 2 phone calls I went to Bell and traced the number to: 1-877-788-7474

When I called the number I heard: This number is not in use, And it sounded like someone from India.

Another call from India. Played along for a while then told him I could see a "error " on my PC called "West Bengal Indian Criminal Man Virus" to give him a chance to quit. No way - just ignored me and went on with reading a screed. So after transferring me to his superviser and having a long chat they finally gave up after about 30 minutes. At least I wasted their time and maybe saved someone else...

I just got a similar call yesterday from someone with very heavy Indian accent. I even struggled just to understand him. It took me a while to figure out that he meant 'malicious' files instead of 'malaysian' files....LOL. He claimed he was based in Sydney and from some computer tech support company and wanting me to check my PC with 3 simple steps to show me that my PC is infected. I know it's a scam right away. I have a number of software that I use to scan my PC regularly. After a few minutes, I just hung up on him. One thing though, I was curious how he knew my name.

Just received a phone call from an Indian woman claiming to be calling me from the 'Technical Department for Windows' and saying that my PC was sending their department a virus with Red and Yellow images. To protect myself I would have to follow the directions that her supervisor would give and protect my computer and other computers from getting infected.
When I asked her for her company's website for contact number, I was told to follow the directions first and only her supervisor could give the contact details.
I had no patience to play along more and told her stop scamming people and I'll be reporting her to the police, she hung up immediately!

I pity the innocent who are being fooled by such malicious viruses.

Similar one today here in NZ - guy rang claiming to be from "Pack Buy Support" in London and saying our computer was sending messages to his system, then offering to fix them if we would follow a few steps on-line. He said he'd ring back tomorrow. I have a loud whistle sitting by the receiver, ready and waiting.

I just got a call today in very similar terms to everyone else (Indian accented woman at a call centre, said she was in Australia yaddah yaddah). I did get sucked in at first as we have been having problems with our computer and sending off those error reports to Microsoft. I let the woman remotely access my computer, which I'm a little worried about. I did virus check the remote access program.

However, I must have been a little difficult because after about 20 minutes, I got passed on to the supervisor "Jennifer", and when I questioned her about her bona fides she got very defensive and said they were authorised representatives of Windows Regional Repair Services. She said she was going to fix this for me. At that point I got really suspicious, and said, "I don't trust you, I'm getting off the phone right now", and hung up on her.

My only concern is whether they could get anything through the remote access? I really hope not. I'm usually pretty good at picking scams.

Believe me, if they call back, they're going to get a piece of my mind.

Jan 22/1/2011

I don't use the computer much. Had the same call as everyone else above. I found it odd how he knew my name and phone number. He was pushy. DON"T give your personal details over the phone EVER.

I have had endless calls from these people but my sister who does have a computer but not the internet got a call a couple weeks ago from these people teeling her she had problems with her internet service. She just laughed as she does not have access to the internet. They are a curse on our enjoyment.

Just had the 2nd call in ~ 3 weeks. Luckily, my kids always let me handle telemarketers. I just told them straight off that it was 'Rubbish! You are phishing for something. Go away!' and hang up.

I work in IT and am always cautious. Unfortunately, a lot of people will get sucked in. I am posting this to let people know that as of 25 Jan 2011 - the scam is still alive.

Hi just got a call last night, got to the events viewer stage and just had a gut feeling. Said because I did not actually have proof of who he was could he call back tomorrow after checking with may dad. He just kept repeating his name and he was from 'computer services' or whatever the office was. In the end I almost had to shout over him RING ME BACK TOMORROW and hung up, 30 sec later the phone rang again which I ignored. My dad linked me to this site. I can see how for computer novices their scam works and if my dad wasn't around for my weekly complaints of 'my computers playing up- what do I do- emails', I would have been sucked in!

Had the call twice today - first 2 seconds silence and then "James Ireland" from Computer Support Center (Indian Accent) tells me that he represents Microsoft and that I have downloaded junk files with my browser and am I sitting in front of my computer. First time I told him it sounded odd and hung up, second time I told him he was speaking rubbish to which he replied that I was rubbish! Very professional! He knew my surname but the caller ID was blocked. Beware, they are still out there!

thursday 27th adelaide
just had a call myself same crap as all the rest but as soon as they mentioned "australian dollars " i said don't worry about it i'll take it to my local technician the number they gave me was.... 03 90084298 wow they've got a few numbers!!!
then i called them back read the opening article "phishing scam and asked where abouts in melbourne they were , i'm sorry i can't give you that information.....
so i replied so you can have all my information but you can't even tell me where you are???
she hung up on me!!!!

Just had the same call from an Indian woman who gave the spiel and asked me to run "inf" causing a folder with several hundred files to open. She said not to touch them myself and switched me to an Indian guy called Victor who had me run "www.logmein123.com". A log-in page requiring a 6-digit number appeared. He said he would supply me with the number to allow a 'technician' remote access to 'fix things'.
Smelling a rat (or a nest of them), as I had all along, I declined and said I might ring back after checking it out. He gave me the number 0390160638, calling themselves Your Online PC Doctor and part of the spiel mentioned AVG anti-virus.

Didn't take long to find this forum altho' I gave up trying to read all the replies. Only replying myself in case some of the details are a bit different (e.g. it wasn't the Windows Event Viewer involved) although most of the 'features' sound the same. I think (hope) I escaped the 'infection' and if they ring again, I'll tell them where they can stick their 'service'!

I got this call today at 6pm. They are still out there trying to scam people. Said he was from Microsoft call centre in Adelaide caller ID said Overseas Private so was immediately suspicious. Told him my computer had not problem and to stop calling me (thay have rang previously but I usually hang up) will be interesting to see if they keep trying me!

Same again, in Ireland.

Got a call from an Indian woman who said she was based in Manchester with a company called white something. I knew from the get go this was a scam and when I asked her if she was selling something she said no and go a little irate (why would I be selling something). She told me they received lots of errors and even one could damage the computer. I asked her for her number (which she gave me) and told her I would call her back (to see if she would even attempt to give me a fake number). I hung up and left it there.

I got the call today here in London. And indian guy said he was calling from a Microsoft service support partner. I was really caught off guard because I had recently purchased a new computer and just registered my Windows 7 copy. The guy said my computer was infected by a bot network and that he wanted to show me how to remove it. I was then transferred to his supervisor who asked me to run "eventvwr". He then wanted me to count the number of warnings and errors in the log. I estimated them being in their hundreds. He said "Oh my god, oh my god" and then asked me to give him the exact number of errors. By this time I had become suspicious because I thought it was completely pointless to count the errors. While I was pretending to count errors I went onto Google and searched for "eventvwr scam" and eventually found this page. I politely told the idiot that he was a scammer and I then hung up. F-ing b~stards!

Hi, I live in Perth and I just received a phone call (Tuesday 5pm) from a lady from "technical support" regarding my "windows operating system". She also had an indian accent. She straight away asked me to look for the windows key next to the control key on my keyboard. Thank god I dont have a keyboard like that, because I had no idea what she was talking about, but obviously couldn't follow her instructions. She was very pushy and talking with a sense of urgency. When I kept asking her where she was from and how she got my number she kept trying to distract me with her fear tactics, such as "your computer is about to shut down" due to viruses etc etc. Eventually she got sick of me interrupting her due to my skepticism. She hung up. Thanks for putting this link online, it reassured me straight away that I made the right decision.

Just got a call 6.15pm 3 feb 2011) from indian accented person claiming to be from 66 St Kilda Road Melobourne. Same threat etc, a problem with my windows etc., they have received a report via microsoft etc. They are very convincing, however, there was a delay on the phone when they spoke, & when i demanded to know which operating system i had the problem with (as we run 2) the person hesitated and lost his cool, i hung up on them. Be wary....

It's not just Australia, that's for sure. I live in Western Canada, and my wife (who often "telecommutes" for her work) got this call twice this A.M. She basically told the twerp on the other end to get lost.

In general, we don't answer calls from either 123-456-7890 (a Skype gateway) or that show as "unknown caller/number," so this was a bit of serendipity on her part.

I must admit, using MS's Event Viewer to freak out the unwary is quite the piece of social engineering. Just say "no."

Just had a very persistent man from what sounded like an Indian call centre regarding malicious software on my computer. Same as above, he did give me a return phone number and address for himself - 03 90084298 - 31 Queen street, Melbourne, sounded very authentic but I'm still suss.

Had a Woman ring up by the name of FIONA and was saying that I had a virus, and to call 0390084298. She said she was from overseas, when asked where she said overseas, which knew that it was a hoax. Be Careful.

Dodgy as!
I had a woman start the call, typical tele marketer but saying that this was a service for microsoft users and that there was issues coming from my downloads of pictures or maybe movies etc and every time i accessed the internet or did downloads it would leave files and folders of some description and this would be harmful to my computer (this little bit was very vague - the amount of information being downloaded would not suggest pictures) so they went through and asked me to open the INF folder which apparently had a scary number of files in it.. I was hassling her as to what it was all actually about, she seemed to get cold feet and passed me to "her supervisor" who basically said the same thing then lead me to the website www.logmein123.com with the impression this was all microsoft approved, and told me how i needed to have a technician do his thing to my computer - i told them this whole thing sounded dodgy, and this was the que to put me onto their technician, so he insisted i take their number ( 03 90160638 ) and call them back, which i found out that they were essentially a call centre and had nothing to do with microsoft, finding loopholes in their story is always fun, told them still thought it was dodgy and they then put me to another website again which "had the number advertised so it was all legit" (for those who know how to make up a website is easy and doesnt cost much and easily duplicated) http://www.youronlinepcdoctor.com/ still sounded a bit suss when i came across this website and simply told him i didnt trust him and wasnt interested etc..
but calling people up and scamming on the phone?! taking evil to another level.. someone please stop these guys

lol...i trolled them back....and i kept hanging up in the middle of the sentence..and then they called me back one last time and hes like...-thcik indian accent- hello? dis is james. you cood tell us if you are not interested in dis program....and im like..-bogan accent- -insert swearing here-

todays call again claimed acting on info from microsoft.after pushing a little claimed to be from (new name or are they multiplying) Virtual PC Doctor based in Melbourne ph 03 9018 7738(another number). how do these guys get new telstra numbers and avoid "do not ring" provisions.Rang my provider and Microsoft but it seems that its all beyond them.

Got this call yesterday afternoon. Someone claiming to be Alex and wanted to talk to me about my microsoft operating system. Had a feeling from the getgo that it was some sort of scam so had alot of fun with him. Asked him a bunch of silly questions and even took the time to boot up my pc, never entered the information that he requested though. The call ended when i told the guy that I worked for a cyber crime unit and that had obtained all the information that i needed to forward it along to his local athorities to shut them down. He did not attempt to call back.

Tuesday 8 feb 2011, new company name ifixo pc tech support , beware same scam , asking for payment to fix errors etc $149.00, i gave them remote access(so stupid me) ,proceded to show me log error etc , then proceded to do something with gpedit.msc , not sure what he did , but at this stage i was freaked out and asked him to end the session , he politely agread then gave me the speel about my comp being still corrupt and unstable.....hope they havent put keystroker s/w on my machine! is there some way to check??

GOT ME!
Same scenario, Secureallpc, Indians, my computer was full of "internet infections" over 34,000 of them. Got done for $249, stupid me. Can they really take over remotely? What to do now. Cancelled the Visa card, but they had already taken the charge.
Fraud protection from my bank suggested getting the hard drive professionally cleaned.
Is this necessary?

They rang here, persistent buggers, mid December 3 times, now twice the last 2 days, told them i would have to ring them back. phone number 61 280147284 - 896. Is there anything we can do?

Had a call yesterday,number unavailable, Indian accent, he said he was from my PC provider "Who?" I said, "From the company who supplied your computer" he replied. "Thats funny" I said "I built my computer myself".
He hung up, never did find out what he wanted.

There seems to be a lot more of these lovely chaps coming out of the wordwork. Cousin in Sydney has had 2 callers this week, Cure Your Pc and World PC Check.

I just had a call from someone claiming to be from Windows support. My computer had been sending them so many errors they had to call before it destroyed itself. I insisted I have antivirus and antimalware but apparantly thats not good enough.
We went through everything, spoke to his supervisor who funnily enough sounded just like the first guy, Same Indian accent although they insisted they were in Sydney.
Eventually I unplugged my internet and opened the event viewer as they requested (not a big deal itself ) but as soon as they wanted me to open Crossloop that wasn't happening. I told him I will not give anyone access to my computer, he said "then I will have to end this phonecall because I can't help you" fine by me. Got a number to call them back. 280037457. Not that I will be using it.

11/2/11
Just had one of these calls from overseas, the caller said for the past 3 weeks they had had messages saying i had problems with my windows operating system, and because i read about this scam in the newspaper i challenged the man with the Indian sounding voice, also telling him i did not have a computer and i knew he was calling from overseas, which he said how could i know this as he was calling over the internet..good old call ID i told him, but that did not stop him. He read me my phone number which was incorrect but he had my name. I called him a scammer and said we Australian knew all about this scam and hung up.The cheeky sod rang me back to tell me off for calling him a scammer, and still persisted that my computer had a problem, again i challenged him..was really rather funny at this point and he told me i could hang up on him now, so i told him he could hang up first..so we did the old no you hang, no you hang up..he said he could not hang up first, so i told him he could sit on the phone all night as i was putting my phone still connected on the bench and didn't care if he sat there all night..went back to check about 20 moinutes later and he was gone...bloody scammer but it was rather funny.

Same for me on Friday night @ 8pm. They are still about and claiming I had errors on my hard drive. Hung up on her.

Total scam!
Just like everyone I also recieved a call from an Indian man with a strong accent asking whether my computer was 'running slow'. He seemed really persistent and kept on mentioning how Windows had recieved a report claiming my computer was 'infected'.

I played along and became even more suspicious after he was asking me to open files and type code names in Run. At this point I started throwing questons at him like ' Look, I have Norton installed and my computer is very much secured' and 'which company is calling from??' His lack of information and dodgy sentences was enough to see this was a scam.

He then started saying how Norton was 'very bad and doesn't protect files' (pft yeah it does!!) After he 'learnt' my computer was 'infected' by saying 'Oh my god Mam! Your computer can crash any moment now you need to fix this now' He then tells you to go on a website....but I didn't get to that stage since I made it clear I wasn't interested and my internet wasn't working at the moment. He then demands 'Why Mam isn't your computer working??' (Seriously why so demanding??) and then i made up some lame excuse and just hung up on him. Jerks.
So be careful guys.

Same here. Some Indian guy called who claimed he was a representative from the Windows team and immediatly started the conversation by saying how 'urgent' it was to get my computer fixed due to 'infected files'.

It was at the stage when he told me to count 'how many errors to do see'. I roughly said 50 and then I hesistated and lowered it 35 after he told to count EXACTLY how many errors there were. It was so pointless that my mum was urging me to hang up, yet I decided to play along until he started linking to me to website. I was so sus at this point and told him I wasn't interested but he was so pushy. I was giving him excuses and then he was like 'Then Mam I can't help you fix the computer' but still tried to keep me hooked up. I hung up and then he called back. Dad answered instead and lashed out on him with questions like where you calling from???..etc. The caller obviously knew his malicious scheme was over so he gave up.

Recieved 3 calls from the same indian guy about my computer being infected with files and it needed to be fix right away. When I told him my computer took roughly 1-2min (although later I timed it and took way less than that) the guy went mental. He was like 'Oh my God Mam are you serious? You see now why we have to fix your computer??'
I only got up to the eventmngr stage since I got really sus and just hung up. Thanks for this website, really made things alot clearer.

i have had 4 of these calls in the last 2 months
with the first 3 the minute you start questioning them about what company they are from and how they know that you have downloaded a whole heap of viruses they hang up! and the 4th call tried telling me that she was calling from Adelaide when my caller id said the call was from overseas she continued to say that it was a satellite problem with my phone! after her trying to convince me to do as she said i just told her that i don't trust what she is saying and to go and bother someone else! probably not the right thing to say but she would have called someone else straight after me anyway!

I really believed this guy. It all sounded plausible. He gave me a Sydney phone number and invited me to look at their website log4help.com. I did that and it looks a very smart site - very professional. Didn't have the time to pursue the problem at the time and he said he would ring back. He did but I still didn't have the time so he's ringing back tomorrow. (but not if he reads this i guess) Said his name was Damien. Why shouldn't an Indian be called Damien anyway. It's a nice enough name! His attendance on the phone was preceeded by an Indian woman with an almost unintelligible voice. Anyway, same same as the rest. So, I guess he'll ring back tomorrow and I'll tell him to b off. Thanks to the site for the heads up.

I just received one of these calls as well. It sounded like knowone was on the line, but then a lady with a thick indian accent came one and proceeded to tell me she was from a firm in Melbourne and that they had been notified that I had downloaded an extermely dangerous virus a few days ago. I am lucky I know something about computers..I asked her how she was able to view what I had on my computer. She could not answer this and just tried to speak over me. I had the pleasure of telling her I thought the call was a scam and that what she was saying was utter 'bu****it'. For once the voice at the other end was speachless, I then proceeded to tell her that she was one of those people who preyed on old people and those with little computer knowledge. I then hung up. I have never felt so good!

just happened to me too, im in Perth. They hung up on me when I questioned him

Adelaide here, 3 days ago they rang but I was at work, the wife said call back later (she was suspicious as she should be ) They did ring back about 730pm, can't remember what name he said, but he was Indian and the phone showed it was from overseas. I had some fun with him, let my daughter sing nursery rhymes while I had to run to the toilet ... faked rebooting the PC 3 times. After about 20 minutes I got bored and abused the hell outta him. He hung up. Now, 3 days later ...the phone just rang again, showing overseas ... but I couldn't be bothered answering it. Oh yeah, and it was the same story as everyone else, from WIndows Technical Group, trying to fix my corrupted junk files and wanting me to open the usual stuff.

Next time, tell them you use Ubuntu, and it's impossible for them to get an error log. See what they do then hahaha

Had this call at about 7pm tonight!! I did the event vwr thing, but she kept telling me to count all the errors but not to click on them, lol, but being a rebel (hehe) I had to click, and saw that it was mainly just printer communication errors, At that point I demanded to know which company she was calling from and how she got my details, she said it was when i registered my computer when it was purchased, I told here that was crap, because my boyfriend bought the computer and we dont even live together, and we dont have the same names, I told her I wasnt comfortable with this call and would be contacting Telstra, Norton and HP, not to mention a few other govt agencies,

19/2/2011 Sydney Australia
The scam continues. Tell all your friends as these turkeys are very good at it.
Fortunately they did not get my money and I my neighbour (an IT security specialist) has looked at my computer and believe nothing was installed.

I just had a call from an Indian lady who said she was from Melbourne - Same story she said I had a worm on my computer and would loose everything sometime in the next seven days.
I was very suspicious and asked her how she got my number she then proceeded to get a bit annoyed (usually if people are trying to help you they don't get annoyed) I said can you phone my son he's very computer savvy and then we can verify who you are. Needless to say she never called my son and I haven't heard from her since. How do these people get the telephone number I am going to report this to the ACCC. and so should everyone else who gets a call like this.

Hi, i had the same phone call a few days ago, and fell victim!my dad passed me the phone, the indian sounding guy said i had reported problems--- which i had and then proceeded to do what he said, however i tried googling but no such evidence came up. I was hesistant at first and asked his name, i stupidly then went on to allow him to access my computer whilst i watched, he then 'scanned' my pc. At this point i realised something was horribly wrong and switched it of before he got any further and took down his details later realising how stupid i was when i tried ringing back. I informed the police, cancelled all cards, changed passwords and restored my pc to an earlier point. Now please, somebody let me now if this person has access to my information or pc as i now can't sleep at night!!! Please help.

Still going!. As I had some time on my hands I kept him (Indian Gentleman) going for around 20 minutes saying that I could not make out what he was saying and playing dumb. He said my computer was damaged and I asked him which one ? Because I know my way around I allowed him to persuade me to run Event Viewer and then disagreed that the red errors were important. After a while I said that I would need to call him back and he said he was from Windows Total Care in Melbourne and his number was 03 9016 0321. I tried this number from my Skype account but there was no answer.

For those of you who have been scanned, it would be agood idea to change your passwords, clear all of your temporary files (Disk clean up) and make sure your firewall/Internet Security is up to date. If you have on-line banking then keep a very close eye in your accounts (daily at least). If you don't do internet banking, then you should be secure although there could be a vulnerability (not for sure) around any Internet credit card transactions you may have made.

My sense is that these guys are after the easy wins which is to get money for their dodgy services. I am not sure whether there are more sinister motives around password and credit card number etc . . . good luck to all and if you have been "duped" then the Office of Fair Trading could be an avenue as well as informing the Police.

Sydney Australia

Had an Indian lady give me the same speech as I have read above but when i didn't enter her commands into 'run' she got her supervisor. I proceeded to ask him how he could possibly know that there's bad files on my computer. So after some umming and arrring I said 'Well if you have this information you must know what operating system I am currently running." He replied " Yes of course your running Vista." After being told Im actually running 7 he promptly bailed and hung up.
Funniest thing thats happened all day.

just got the same call, caller said the company name was "Computer Maintenance" a global company that is trying to alert computer customers that there is a serious and emerging problem which will cause havoc with computers around the world and it was urgent that I fix the problem. I dont know anything about computers but my scamdar went off!! I asked if they were in Melbourne or OS and although it sounded like OS the lady said she was in Melb, and when I pushed her for more info said she was at 24 Russell St and what other information did I need to trust her. She asked me to run the eventvwr and again said it was urgent. I searched for the company on the internet and of course got nothing. when I asked for the company website ABN or ACN she hung up!!

I just had a call from an indian gent similar to above. I played with his head for a while then I simply asked him to tell me my name. He first said his supposed name and when I repeated the question he hung up.

Just had a call in Melbourne. Indian lady said she was calling from Secure All Pc with similar story to previous. When I said I was not prepared to access my pc as she was instructing she told me I could check their website (which does exist).

I pretended to do what she asked all the while googling and finding this forum. She kept asking me if the page had opened yet and I kept telling her not yet.. She got really cranky!

At this point I hung up. Hope not too many people get conned by this...

My mother had previously got this phone call and I informed her it was a scam. She got the call last night again and I happened to be there, she passed the phone off to me and the indian scammer on the other end copped 5min of abuse. Got to give the guy credit he didn't hang up on me. When I asked what my external IP address was he replied 90.62. Oh you got told that from my ISP, so whats my ISP?

Scam is pretty easy to pick holes in but also I could understand why it's very easy for older or non tech people to fall for this.

Had a call tonight. The usual indian on the end, overseas call and yes, apparently based in Melboure.. He said he was from World PC Tech and had reports that my pc was in danger of crashing. Luckily only went through the first 2 steps and checked eventvwr & prefetch whcih showed errors in red and yellow. Too busy with dinner and told him I couldnt proceed any further. Said he will call back and also gave me his name and number, Sean Davis on 03 9008 4298. As a test rang this number of a silent mobile later tonight and got some poor person who did not sound indian at all. Hopefully going through the 2 steps above my computer will be fine, but I will be checking with my computer fellow tomorrow, even though they told me they would call back tomorrow and fix over phone. NOT HAPPENING JAN. TAKE A HIKE

BEWARE EVERYONE ..THEY CAN SOUND QUITE CONVINCING

I have receive more than 3 times either an Indian Man or Lady saying that my computer has slowed down etc. I have asked for their name and tel numbers but when I called back, there is no such number. I have reported to the police and the policeman told me there is nothing much he can help unless things happen. I think we should at least notify people around us so that they are aware so such terrible scam.

yea, just happened to me about 3 minutes ago (23/2/2011) 6:30pm
He sounded Indian and he had a lot of background chatter
I'm in western Australia, Perth and it was very similar, although he didn't even get past the "type in eventvwr"
i had him sussed out, i then started asking questions after playing around with him for 30 minutes XD
i then started asking things like:
1)What service do you provide if you are a "service provider"?
2)Whats this for?
i then stated that im a technician and that i don't use windows and that i use Linux (Woot go linux) XD
And exactly what i expected to come from,
him he simply "hung up"
DON'T get scammed!
Serves them right so Take as much time as you want and most of all.....Have Fun With them XD

It happened to me too, I’m on the gold coast in Queensland.
Received a call from these guys this afternoon. They called me on my personal mobile claiming to be windows system support or something along those lines. They knew my name. I was getting ready for work so I was a bit distracted at the time and believed it was legit to begin with. He told me that my computer had downloaded junk files because I had accessed unsafe websites. He asked me what I use my computer for, to which I answered everything. He told me he would tell me how to locate these junk files and help me fix my computer.
I’m pretty good with the computer and have taken care of some pretty nasty virus's myself in the past and was shocked that this could have happened and that my pc could have contacted windows without me even knowing. I told him I did not have time because I was going to work (thank goodness). He asked me how long I had before I had to work and I said I was walking out the door as we spoke (which was true). So he told me he would ring back tomorrow and I said ok and hung up. While driving to work I realised it must be some sort of scam. I asked a few people at work and they all agreed that windows would not waste time calling me for any reason. If I had gotten to the eventvwr part I would have realised it was fake because I know all about that from ridding my pc of issues before. So I’ve come home searched 'windows system support called me' and found this site. Finally breathing easy knowing my pc most certainly is fine thank god for sites like this one.
Anyway using some of the tips from people who have posted their stories I am planning to answer there call tomorrow, purely so I can try to get as much info out of them as possible AND RECORD THE WHOLE CONVERSATION HAHAHA. I will most certainly be calling the accc and be forwarding the recording to today tonight, hopefully enough people can find out about this scam before falling for it. Wish me luck XD

They have now rung 5 times in the past week. They can't take a hint. Told them I run Linux two days ago and asked how they intended to fix it, had silence for about 5 minutes before they hung up. Anyways, i'm bored with them now and the calls are just annoying so i've rung Telstra and blocked all overseas calls. I never ring overseas anyway, and now those morons can't interupt my dinner anymore.

Anybody got a call from VNS Solutions? It seems legit with an ABN number and an address in Sydney. My neighbour did and I told her it sounds strange that Microsoft would call and that they were able to intercept error logs coming from her computer. She got their phone number. I called them back, very back line quality, asked to speak with the representant. The indian lady told me that they call people from the white pages, but how they could link the person's phone number and supposedly error logs on the web, she couldn't answer. I gathered all possible info on their "business", and sent a complaint to scamwatch: www.scamwatch.gov.au/
Pls do so as well.
In any case, there are plenty of good softwares available to clean up problems and enhance pc's performance, I would definitely go for that instead of taking the risk of having people remotely access my pc.

They called me yesterday and I totally fell for it, even though I was suspicious. I called my brother who is thank god techno minded after I got off the phone with them and explained to him and he said it was a scam so I instantly disconnected my internet lines and turned off my comp... now I have to dump my comp and reload everything again

Hi, sorry to even suggest this but how do you people writing into this site even know that this site is for real !! YES, I get the occasional phone call from these low life dick heads about my computer being infected but I just place the phone down beside me and continue to watch tv ......... after all it's costing them to stay online not me :)

If TechWorld even post this then I apologise here to them for not trusting this site but I am anal when it comes to my privacy and the more people with computers become the same way then scams like this will fade away :)

Cork, Ireland - Four phone calls in three months to my home and one to my fathers home. I took the first two and twigged it was a scam and hund up. My wife took the third and also disconnected them. They called backtwo days later and she wound them up for a while before dropping the line...

Who do you reports scams of this nature to? The cops?

We've been having calls from phony men and women, all which sound like they are Indians (not to sound racist) for WEEKS now. First it started off with a man, now a woman. They say they are from " The Microsoft Computer maintainers department". This women has called two days in a row now, and each time we tell her to go away. First her name was "Angeline" now it's "Caroline". What next? I finally got their details after a 10 minute struggle today and their phone number is 0390160638 and they claim to be based in Melbourne. Right away i googled the number i was lead straight to this site. If they call again, i will definitely be giving them a good scare!

I had a phone call this morning same old spiel. Unfortunately I went along with him for a while as I have had lots of problems with my PC lately. I was passed to another 'technician' who then went through loads more spiel. He told me my 'fireall had expired, which seemed a bit strange to me. He then started saying about the protection I could get for 2 years or 3 years that I started getting nervous. I don't buy anything from people I don't know or sites I know. I said I was going to contact a friend who is a computer expert, and I was not going to give him any more information. He said he would send me a 'form' that I could complete. Haven't received it yet. Apparently he's going to call me in 3 days - I know what I will be telling him................

We've been getting the calls for weeks. I always hang up on telemarketers but lately I've decided to give them a piece of my mind. The most recent one was from "Jimmy" from some department of computer protection. I kept asking him how he knew malicious files were downloaded onto my computer and he kept saying that they had "technology" to know how. I said that I had been told that this wasn't possible by an IT friend and he immediately said "OK well if you're not interested then goodbye" and hung up.

Got the call on Thursday (claimed to be Mike Cubbins from Microsoft Support Services.. said my comp sending error messages and may be infected with a "GRANDADDY" of a virus, one that attacked hardware and crashed comps) , and was unlucky enough to have been ALL DAY dealing with a virus and massive amounts of errors anyway so in my tech-tired state it made sense to me they'd be calling...

I was pretty sick at my temporary lack of judgement, usually I'd be more onto it.

Didn't of course hand over credit card details but was even stupider and allowed remote access.. It was when they directed me to PCKARIGER.com I knew for sure it was a Hoax - Microsoft support would never do that.

I then asked too many questions they couldn't answer... the "technician" started replying to me in Hebrew - and I asked them to immediately disconnect from my computer. He replied - "fine if you want your computer to crash" repeatedly and hung up.

I immediately disconnected my computer from the internet, uninstalled the software, scanned the computer with Norton and did some maintenence to see if I could see anything different in the system... nope, to my relatively untrained eye, all good.

Then, without any warnings, the computer beeped three times and crashed.

Waited a day, started up the computer, and mega fan noise and motherboard failure.

I've read a lot of people who've either avoided the scam or fell victim, but is there anyone who has stories of any negative consequences of this scam?

I guess my hardware failure mightn't be related to the scam, but it's a crazy coincidence if not.

Thanks for this information. I had this type of phonecall from a woman named Linda Watson today around 1pm. She identified herself as working for World PC Tech and to be calling out of Perth on behalf of Windows Security Team. She told me that my computer had been identified as having had significant harmful security breaches downloaded from the internet. She wanted me to go to my Run program and enter "eventvwr" into the window. I told her I was very skeptical about following instructions from a strange caller asking me to enter commands on my computer. To reassure me of the company's authenticity she transfered me to her supervisor, Lisa James who also assured me they were legit. She told of her phone number being 03 9008 4298 and that she was a senior certified technician and to prove she was legit asked me to allow her to show me she had my computer's authentic identity number. She got me to enter "cmd" in Run and when the command prompt came up had me type in "assoc". When the list of information showed she read out the third last line identifying my CSLID and all the numbers that followed were acurrate. Having supposedly gaining my trust she had me bring up the event viewer through Linda's original run comand and then had me look at all the errors in the system log. She seemed to be surprised at the large number of them I said I had and proceeded to explain about polymorphic viruses which my Norton's Antivirus won't detect. She then had me go to the website of logmein123(dot)com at which there is nothing but a small box titled support connection and field for entering a six digit code. Still skeptical, upon seeing this and not willing to allow her to have access to any information from my computer I said I had had enough, had to go and explained that I will investigate the errors and get back to them if I need to. She politely thanked me and told me she works Mon to Sat from 11-5 and the call was ended politely.
I've read other responses here and just wanted to add my experience in case it helps anyone else. All along I was waiting for the sales pitch of some product that could fix my errors but never got to it thankfully. At least I hope that my keeping them on the phone for 40 minutes prevented them scamming someone else in that time.

Same phone call far north queensland australia. Indian woman saying the same virus story. asking me to put in event etc.. Gave the name Jazz and the phone number 0280061421 gave the number to the police. The police warned me not to use my computer until it had been checked by service professional in case keystrokes had been placed.. Did anyone find this to be the case or is their computer fine? are they just fishing for money or are they accessing my computer? i cant afford to take my computer to somewhere at the moment grrrrr

forgot to say she told me the name of the business was 24/7 something i couldnt understand resolutions..

Scam still current as of 12/03/2011, Newcastle Australia. I have received 2 calls from company called Desksense, allegedly affiliated with Microsoft. Callers had Indian accent. Same Modus Operandi, instructing me to open Event Viewer and pointing out all the crosses and exclamation marks telling me they were viruses and malware. Callers attempt remote access to your computer and want credit card details. Callers were very professional and sophisticated and have a website. Could easily fool someone with only basic knowledge of computers. A friend of mine also received a call yesterday from another alleged tech support company with same M.O but different company name.

Hervey Bay Queensland Monday 14th March 2011 12.50pm.
Scam still very busy happening, strange for me nearly caught but
common sense kicked in just in time. As most of Sunday my computer was so slow not turning over at all, so it was such a coincidence to get this call today after that. They rang and asked twice for a Mrs Bradshaw (I did laugh to myself as being a Sex in the City fan) then on the second call gave me the spiel that they were from Computer Services Centre for Microsoft I asked where were they in a strong Indian accent told me South Melbourne. They asked me to get in front of my computer and they would talk me through how to rid my windows of this very serious virus that it had been effected with. Suddenly for me having not long had my new computer I realised I now have an Apple Mac, ah stupid so how can my microsoft windows have an awful virus problem. Anyway I thought quickly which is pretty hard for me these days being on the wrong side of 60 plus lol I then did not say anything thankfully not even my name when they asked for the wrong person even (must be getting a bit more savvy wise) I said I would call him back asked his number and name, without missing a beat he came across so believable never even faulted he said Ben Watson 03 90163432, I thought my what a good old english sounding name belonging to such a strong Indian accent. Very professional sounding the whole time what sort of world are we living in now, when people everywhere are facing such devastation.

Just got off the phone for the 2nd time in as many weeks. Said he was form Microsoft and i had a serious virus on my computer, asked me to press flag key and letter R. I told him i had googled this after last time he called and found outit was a scam....he was very persistant but i hung up...i expect another call soon

This scam is still active.

Worthing, West Sussex, England.

I've just had a call direct to my desk phone at work! A delay in them speaking and in a very heavy indian accent...very difficult to understand. Said they were from the help desk at Microsoft and that my PC was infected with a very serious virus.

Asked me to log on...but when I advised him my laptop was at home he didn't understand and asked me again to log on because he had an engineer waiting to assist me in removing this very serious virus.

I had real trouble understanding him and vice versa...I advised him i would like a call back later and gave him another number (probably foolish now I've read about this scam), but he didn't even recognise I was trying to give him a mobile number...he will now be calling back this evening at which point i shall be asking some probing questions and see where we go.

Outrageous that this sort of thing goes on...

Same scam. World PC Tech. Even the same consultant as an earlier post - Linda Watson. But she is now based in Melbourne not Perth. I knew it was a scam but she spoke so condescendingly, and had me really questioning my judgement. When I told her I didn't believe her, she laughed and told me I was smart to be suspicious but she was only concerned about the serious problems in my computer and would not waste her time calling otherwise. I told her I would do some research first and call them back if the info she gave me checked out. She gave me a phone number 0390084298 and asked me to mention her name when I called back.

I am sure they catch alot of people out. How can they get away with it for so long?

Sydney, Australia 5.59pm 17/03/11.

Same scam, different day. Ask her what make my computer was and she hung up.

Scum of the earth.

scam scam scam scam

Just got the same Indian Call centre scammers saying they were from "international Routing Services" and I had become the target of a Chinese Hacker (ooooooh! Scary!!!).

They began to ask if I'd open up event viewer and run some tests and I told them I wasn't going to proceed as I didn't think they were a real company. He said "Good bye Sir, God Bless you!" and went off looking for other bunnies.

Never EVER let anyone into your computer, even if you are following their instructions; Microsoft are too big a company to worry about poor lil me and call me up to fix things.

Nice try, scammers!

DAS

Just had the call. Not a heavy accent. Hung up as soon as I said I didn't use windows. Good old Linux has looked after me again. =)

Just had same happen just a few minutes ago. Some unAustralian gentleman tried to tell me that my computer was infected etc etc.
Asked me to do the event view as well fortunately I stopped short of actually doing anything, being a senior cit I am a bit slow on the uptake and could not quite work out how he came by my phone number. Gave his name as Harry DeCosta and aphone number to call to check his legitimacy. (08 72000365) which I did. It was answered by another ethnic gentleman and I hung up immediately. A few moments later I received a call from the number asking why I phone the number to which I replied it was an accidental dial. He then asked my name which I gave him. (I have a hyphenated surname and I gave the shortened version of my surname) and he did not recognise and hung up on me.
BE WARNED- WORK TOO HARD FOR MY LIVING FOR THESE SCUMBAGS TO UPSET MY DAY!!!!!!!!

Virtual Pc Doctor 03 88070958

Rang Today 24 March 2011 In Tasmania

similar story to others she showed me errors in computer manager then directed me to there website tryed to access my computer but i didnt feel right about letting her so i wouldnt type in the box. she tryed to sell me a pacage deal to fix my computer but
my Computer is less than a week old and has a paid virus protector on it. so i dout i had any "infections" so i hung up then googled them.... GOOD OLD GOOGLE ......

I have their phone number 03 9008 4298 . Call them and annoy them, I have been! Then report their phone number and company name.

I got the call last night claiming to be from Windows Security. Same deal as above. However I knew it wasn't legit after a couple minutes. I'm from Melbourne Australia and they claimed to be from Sydney. I didn't ask for their phone number though, so I guess I can't report them to Scamwatch/ACCC?

I guess the most important thing we can do is TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW about them as this has been alive since 09. No one has been able to shut them down. The more people that know about them, the less people they can scam.

I think they got my number from the whitepages, as the only people who have my home number is telstra, my doctor and my internet provider. I am on the do not call list. I've also received the lottery scam in the postal mail about 2 months ago. I think it's time to go to a silent number :/

The funniest part is when she asked me to go to Run.. I go "So I suppose I should just speed things up for you and just give you my IP address?" (trying to hint to her that I knew this wasn't a legitimate call and I was wasting their time now).. She responded with "No I don't want your IP address. I need you to enter INF"... They wanted to know how many files were in that folder. I acted all shocked and was like "OMG THERE'S SO MANY!!!".. She said it was a HUGE problem and that I MUST speak to her supervisor then.. That's when he took the phone call and he realized I was taking the previous girl for a ride. She was pretty dumb to notice. I then really stated the obvious and told them I knew they were trying to hack my computer. At least I wasted 20 mins of their time and probably spared someone else.

I just had the same scam phone call and I live in Sydney. I knew it was a scam when she called me by my husbands surname. It was a woman with a heavy indian accent called Sharon from the Global Maintenance Department of Windows. I said that my husband would call her back - the number she gave me to call her back was 03 60180257. I've been told that calling the number is even a scam at $10 a minute!! Beware!! I can't believe how many people they've tried this on with!

Hi My partner has recieved one of these calls.He is not good with computers and let these mongrels into our computer.Is the computer still safe to use and do they have all our personal information etc.What do i do now?Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks

Scam alive and well in Geelong Victoria Australia.
Indian girl eang my friend who doesn't know the workings of her computer. Told her she was from MS and noticed her computer wasn't working very fast.

Unfortunately, she did what they said and they then told her she had 500 errors and if she paid with her credit card online, they would fix it for $ 300.00. When said advised that she doesn't do online banking they advised that they could help her set it up and because she was so helpful they would reduce the cost to $ 275.00. Now her computer has a virus of some sort that has wiped all security settings plus windows. They also told her firmly that they would ring back a couple of days later to make sure she paid and then they would fix her computer. When they rang back I advised her to say that she had rung MS and it's a scam. Hung up straight away. Everyone beware!

Just had a lovely call from an Indian man from TechGenie. Funny how he couldn't tell me what operating system I'm running when he is from the tech support company of my operating system! I lol'd, he hung up!

I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Indian man called three times - we hung up each time. Today he called again and I asked him to stop calling as it was a scam. He then said he would hack my computer and steal all my money. I asked him if he was threatening me .... he then started to deliver vulgar profanity – regarding what he was going to do to me. I stayed on the line until he was finished and then said “You must be proud working for the company that you do”. That started a second round of profanity this time directed at my husband. I’m an IT professional – so knew right away it was a scam …. But I still feel violated that I have to take calls like these in my own home!

Similar call from a very pushy Indian woman last Sunday claiming to be from virtualpc.com.au. Said I'd never heard of them and asked who asked her to call me? She said they were in Brisbane. She couldn't answer. Kept saying that the company had lots of people to call and made it sound like an urgent situation. She said I needed to give them access. After 5 minutes of my questions to her with no logical answers and a scripted reply I said no and hung up. As a non- techno savvy person I was glad to see my instincts were correct, but I'm sure there are many innocent victims out there.

Still going strong back in Blighty.
I run Linux, not Windows, don't have one single piece of Microsoft software on the PC, so I usally just tell them that and they go away.

Unfortunately for the Indian lady concerned, I have a stinking cold at the moment, which has put me in an evil mood, so I strung her along for a bit, pretending to be a sucker, until we came to a gap in the processes that she thought I was following.
Me: "So, you work for World PC Tech, yes?"
She replied in the affirmative.
Me: "Well, OK then, you sound like a sporty lass, and if you work for them you're obviously not fussy how you earn your money, so instead of us messing around with this computer nonsense, why don't I just give you my address, you can pop round and drop your knickers and I'll give you a pound."
The reply was not entirely intelligible, but included the comment that she was trying to help me, and there was no need to be insulting.
Me: "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to be insulting, I'm just not familiar with the going rate in your part of the world - two pounds, maybe?"
Click.

i am so dumb! i am very wary and even challenge everthing they said they had an answer for everything.
i let them do everything to the computers i fell hard, i even questioned the guy in my computer who then had a represenative ring me and ramble on more. we didnt ask you your name or passwords if we were a scam why are we still fixing your computer, why did i call you back if it was a scam they wouldnt ring back.

please someone has my computer been compromised?
worried sick what have i done! should i reboot my system or reload from the start?
will they steal information i have no idea and no one on here is giving answers

I recieved a phone call on April 1st 2011 from an Indian guy who told me i had malicious and virus infected files onmy computer.He said he was an agency working alongside Microsft and they had called them to ask them to remove the files. At this point i wasn`t` fooled I know Microsoft don`t` work like this but I went along just to learn. He said he could show me the files he went on go to start menu click run type in the command Prefetch then oK I did it he said how many files are there I said 59 he said OMG we better act quick before it goes through your computer. I said OK what do I do next he said i will send you a link click on it which was www.teamviewer and When it prompts you click OK .I said look how can I be sure you are from agency for Microsoft he said heres a phone number call us back you will see so I took down the number which was 02033183594 I said that dont proove anything.He said MAM i really need to woork fast to get this malware off your pc now before it wrecks your drives. I said Thank You for your offer but I think I will call Microsoft myself first. He said I can do it now free of charge I said you could but your not going to LOL Im not that stupid, he grunted something like be it on your own head and slammed the phone down on me.

***TO Tania***
I think you maybe should cancel your cards with your bank and tell them whats happend these CONMERCHANTS will fleece your bank accounts. Call your bank immediately if you have ever used your credit card online or pay bills online.
If you do it today they can STOP any Transactions from your bank account and will send you new cards BUT YOU MUST ACT QUICKLY IN CALLING YOUR BANK.
Best Wishes
Sharon

I also have received calls from this people. Be very careful you don't let them gain access to you computer via remote. I did but only for a short time. I disconnected when they wanted money from me before fixing my computer. If there is anyone who may know of any ways to find out if they did access my computer of to stop them from gaining more access please let me know.

thank you

I just got a call this morning,here in the Southern U.S. she had an Indian accent and there was a delay..she claimed to be from Nashville Internet Services (never heard of them,but okay there could be a big company out there monitoring all of our computers and activities,I don't trust the government...luckily I don't trust anyone)..she ran all the same about malware and my computer is gonna crash...I asked her which computer as we all have our own,and I know it isn't mine..most likely it's my daughter's..she kept offering to "fix it" when I asked her if she could tell me what internet provider I use..she couldn't and I told her "we will run our own scans Thanks very much" and hung up..
had to Google cause I was mind-boggled as to what the heck kind of scam this could be...

be safe everyone and don't be so trusting...it's a greedy world out there...

Ring2Geeks is active again in Australia, claiming to represent Microsoft and offering to "help" with my Windows files (I don't evcen use Windows) so who knows how they got my name and number. The registered address is in NY, so little chance of being able to ake any action here in Australia regarding invasion of provacy....

http://www.logicocean.com/43/TStesti.htm

yea pcdoctor rang me today :) they recited some info about me, in an indian accent of course. i was actually quite surprised to find out that i lived on burkay d r- i've always thought it was burke drive... and also surprised that my mom shared the same first and middle name as my dad, wish i knew that beore- but i still gave them the benefit of a doubt. i went as far as typing inf into run (and as far as about the 11th time they said "unwanted files and folders"), but i knew i should never trust myself with technology, so i insisted i wasnt authorised to do anything to my comp. they told me they would call back another time when an authorised person is available (dont know how theyd know when). now that i know forsure its a scam, i cant wait for charlotte mcdermott the technician to call me back, that is if she keeps her promise :) but just wondering if i did go too far... and for those who get this call and are as bad with computers as i am, i hope u are just as bad at trusting people like these, because many of the things they said did sound very plausible to me.

I just got this call and they claimed to be "JK Infotech Inc". They were very persistent but as I continued to be very savvy on the computer and challenged them at every step of their process, eventually I was told that I seemed to know what I was doing and told to have a nice day. I'm in Saskatchewan Canada. They purported to be calling me from Detroit, MI, USA. Initially my "information" was gathered by one woman and then I was transferred to a "Senior Technical Representative" who was going to remove my critical errors that were going to "crash all my computers within the next 24 hours if they weren't taken care of immediately".

NEVER allow anyone to access your computer if you don't know them personally!!! Microsoft will not phone you out of the blue unless you have contacted them first or granted them SPECIFIC permission.

same thing live in qld just let it be knowen to the low life frekes that keep caling and protending to be microsft we are on to you to the rest of you start bloging about this we need more to know about them i a contacting a local tv station about this now that i know that tere is more of us out there and that some got taken

An Indian called my home phone on Mar 29th, 2011 (~2:15pm). I tend to reject services from advertisements and scams, but the fact that he knew my name and address (probably from phone book) eliminated suspicions, and eventually I let me guard down. He claimed to be from the Windows Technical Support, stating that many of their clients' computer systems (over 2000) have been recently attacked, so it was urgent for them to check and help. He claimed many error messages from my computer to their centre, then asked me to turn on my computer, and followed his instructions (through "Computer Management", "Event Viewer", "Windows Logs" and "Application" typed in "978585",.. etc). He could then remote control my computer, used "LogMeIn123" to check my computer and claimed my computer had thousands of problems/viruses (guess he had installed fake programs as I could see scanning in my computer with thousands of bugs). He then passed the phone to his "senior", another Indian (both claimed to be from Windows Technical Support Centre in Sydney) who said Mircosoft could help by providing some services to solve the problems with further 5 years of technical support in the expense of A$299. He then used the PayPal web-page with my username in and the amount of $299 in a matter of seconds, then asked me to key in my Password. Being requested to disclose my PIN number was the point when I realised it was a scam. His role suddenly changed from Technical Support to Sales. I insisted no further work but waited for the invoice to me by post or by email and that ended the conversation. I was suspicious and called Windows. They immediately told me it was a scam. I found new programs ("10bit Freeware" and "Advanced System Care 3") in my computer which I deleted straightaway. Guess there might be hidden programs to steal my identities and so per friend's advice (computer expert), I backup important files in external harddrive (scan for viruses too), got the computer reformated (erased everything and reinstalled) plus informed every institiuton (eg banks, university) to change my passwords and changed passwords in ebay, PayPal, ... by myself. So be alert at all time and share the story with your friends !

Same same. Aus. marketing "guru" @seamus's listed telephone number 0280034343 in directory here bit.ly/h11PuT, linked to @seamus's blog thelancer.com.au, & the Indian "TechSupp" scam "Co." lists the same ph# on their site here bit.ly/ev6ATr.

Same happened this evening, Perth Australia 13/4/2011.

Said something like from the Windows company. Then asked to run "inf" followed by asked to run "eventvwr".

Realised this was just EventViewer and they were pulling my leg, I insisted they tell me the name of the Coompany, Address in Australia and phone number.

They then said something about Adelaide, and mentioned something like A-Logix.

Didn't get much sense from them after that, and they eventually hung up.

I will try to call ACCC tomorrow.

This morning 14 04 11 similar call.accent so bad had to get wife to handle.Not a virus but too many reported errors damaging motherboard. Well sure have complained to HP & MSFT about persistent bluescreens & error reporting not ever working (W7 86bit) .Woke up when she types www.logmein123.com in the run box. SCAM!! DONT DO IT! So she gets the Co name and yes first claim was MSFT but really Virtual PC Solutions Ph No 18663832762 and name amuses me J No C Chester Stunt. Guess he twigged he was sprung but did manage to stress us out for half an hour.Forgot the warning if phone rings pick it up 2 seconds silence hang up.

14/4/11 - brisbane qld - had call about 6pm from mr "victor Johnson" an indian man with terrible accent... same old story but from "Global it soultions service" and gave 02)90370152.

Got a call from these chumps today. Guy had a heavy Indian accent and said the research team from his company had identified my computer to be infected. I asked him how they could possibly link my computer to a phone number on which he is calling me know, the guy replied that they got this through my ip adress (i was about to laugh). I then replied that an ip adress cannot identify an indiividual's details unless a court order is issued to an isp, and then i proceeded to ask him if he was really from microsoft (i knew he wasnt'). "No, I am from the windows company" (WTF!!!).

Anyways, i thought it would be amusing to waster another 5mins of this guys time. He got me to go to event viewer and surely enough there are all these errors. I knew that these errors are just a common byproduct of normal windows function, but I just wanted to see what this guy could do. I asked him if what he was about to do would cost me anything. he replied it would be free if my windows was in warranty (WTF again). After this point i thought that i should start telling this fool off so i could get on with whatever i was doing before. I told him, politely that i did not require his services and when viruses become a problem, ill do a clean install of windows. He said "do u want ur computer to be hacked", to this i replied with a logical argument of why that wont happen, but of course this guy had no idea about logic or reason and he asked again "do you want your computer to be infected and crash?". With this i reply that i have 3 computer and multiple hard drives and that i couldn't care less. To this he replied "you are a good man sir", and then hung up.

Brisbane 15/4/2011 2.15 pm. Call from an Indian lady telling me she was from Microsoft and that she was ringing me because the International Routing Centre was receiving a lot of virus traffic from my computer and because my computer was having problems.

I knew it was a scam because what she was saying just isn't possible. I immediately started barraging her with questions: What's my name? What's my IP address? What operating system am I using? Where are you from? What problems is my computer having (none in fact).

She said she was from India. She then said she wasn't from Microsoft. She kept telling me I didn't know anything.

She finally told me if I didn't believe her I could hang up. I didn't. I just put the phone on the desk. Seven minutes later she was still talking to dead air. She eventually hung up. Better to waste her time and money than mine.

Just got one today. Checked out this website, thanks for the heads up!! The guy was telling me he was from a company called Tech for PC, he told me he knew my computer had virus's downloaded onto it. Smelt a rat, so I told him I didn't have a PC and had a Mac he hung up straight away!! Couldn't stop laughing.

This scam happened to some friends of mine earlier this week. Again these people sound indian and were named Jason and Sean. They let them remote into their PC and were told to leave the computer in their charge for ten minutes and they would ring back when it was sorted. On ringing back they were asked for more than £70. At this point they became suspicious and said no, the chap then became very annoyed. They ended the call. Their operating system has been corrupted, privileges changed and they cannot access the internet.

Just got a call from ring2geeks.com . Same story , turn on computer, events viewer etc. Challenged him about,who from Microsoft asked you to call me... put his supervisor on, same spiel.Just put the phone down on them.
I'm in UK by the way.
Spread the words about these *ricks!

* does not = T Ha

Scammed!
Writing from Ontario Canada. My mother-in-law received a call today from a man with an Indian accent who claimed he was affiliated with Microsoft and her computer was infected with viruses. He asked if he could access her computer remotely - and she let him! She spent 3 hours on the phone with him while he poked around her computer. I have no idea what he did, but thankfully she called me when I got home from work and told me about this - usually I'm her computer support! LOL.

Anyway, he had left a contact number and name (510-374-4990 James Burke) so I called. He did not identify himself and although I didn't identify myself he claimed to know why I was calling and for what customer! He got pretty upset when I asked some simple questions, wouldn't identify who he worked for or how he knew about my MIL's computer. Although apparently whoever he works for has access to every computer in the world - according to him - give me a break!

I asked to cancel the 2-year support option she paid $250 for and was told they would have to call me back as there was no manager available to authorize the cancellation & refund. He also told me that her info wasn't in their database yet - weird considering it was prior to him calling her! I had to ask him about a half dozen times if he had the call back number so his manager could get back to me, which he never answered and he eventually hung up on me! Fantastic!

So, lesson learned for my MIL. The most we can do is cancel her credit card and keep monitoring her account activity. She doesn't do any online banking so hopefully there are no other issues. I am just concerned/unsure if these people would be able to access her computer again without her knowledge. And what exactly did they get after 3 hours?? Hopefully there is no other unwanted outcome with this situation.

The websites that were included on the email confirmation she received after she paid are:

http://www.virtualitsupports.com/

https://support.ecsuite.com/

ITS A SCAM
first they will ask you to switch your computer on and then i said WHY just jumping straight into and claimed to work for microsoft :') which was a lie just another call centre he said i had viruses but i replied i have not i just got my laptop checked yesterday and it was fine so he quickly said i mean MALWARE :') so i just hung up

Tues April 26, 2011

Scam is alive and well in rural Victoria, using the Active X method. Asked the lady for her supervisors name and number to authenticate her call and she hung up on me lol...................what an idiot!!!

Yep just got off the same call. The 'supervisor' came on to offer me a special warranty, which when i ask if i could call back she said the offer is only available from her. When i press the point that if this is a legitimate call she wouldn't need to hesitate to offer me that number. She promptly hung up. haha

Thank God web sites like this exist to check your facts on. I have just had the same calls from a Diana claiming to be from ring2geeks.com . Her supervisor had be check event viewer. I asked them to call back later when I had checked them out. When they did, I told them where to go....

And they keep calling...even got a call back after hanging up
lol

Sheffield England,just had the same call 5 mins ago indian man claiming his name was martin yea right lol!and he worked for sumet tech cant quite remember due to humouring him!tried getting me to enter evntvwr so they could access my files and clear it of all my bugs ha they are very stupid i let him ramble on for 5 mins then he put his supervisor on trying to talk me round i just told him i was on to them and told them never to ring this number again he even had the cheek to say sorry goodbye!lol its a disgrace can nothing be done about these scamming ba#tar#s!!!be carefull guys coz its happening!

Lancashire, England. Just had same call but guy was american and number came up as UK Uxbridge dial code, I had a feeling it was a scam so told him I did not have access to computer at moment, he said he will call back another time, I immediately googled this and tons of forums have come up with same calls, quite like the I work for Microsoft line, think I will try this and see what happens.

I'm from British Columbia Canada. Had the same Indian man all last night. He knew my name etc. Wanted me to turn computer off line, then enter "event v w r" into the run prograM.
I asked too many questions as he eventually hung up
BEWARE ... they are still out there. Now in Canada

Just got it in Silicon Valley. Interestingly enough, I just got the Windows XP Home Security virus last week. This is a virus that looks like Windows and tells you that you have viruses and tries to sell you software to clean it up. My IT group re-imaged my hard drive and gave me a new one last week. So, the timing of this call was quite alarming. It made me wonder if they had gotten my information off my computer. After researching, it doesn't seem to be related. But, I'm just curious if anyone else experienced these two things within a short time period.

Just got a call in Qld Aust. Guess what? They are calling from their office in New Zealand now. I went throught their little steps and procedures jus to waste their time. When I told her there is nothing wrong with m computer she said "You are not a technician" and I replied, "Guess what I do for a living??? I fix computers." I told her to get off this scamming and calling on people that have little or no knowledge of computers, to go home and wash her elephants. She hung up on me. Damn it, just starting to have some fun.

Scam alive & well in Townsville QLD. Just got off the phone from an indian accented man calling from Windows Help Line Phone number 0399883950. So i rang the number on my mobile and got Roger from the Tech Support Centre. Initially he just said his name, after i enquired who i was talking to he told me it was the Tech Support Centre. During my first conversation with him he told me my computer had been downloading dangerous info everytime i went online or retrieved Emails etc, my computer was in danger of infection from viruses. I challenged him on his information and told him i regularly ran several antivirus systems to protect my pc, he wanted to know which systems i ran. I told him i was not stupid enough to give that info and if Microsoft wanted to contact me they could email and mail me. needless to say he tried very hard to convince me otherwise. Dont , Dont , Dont even give these SCUMBAGS thh time of day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just had the same phone call--about how my PC had viruses and would crash. I asked 'Ryan' why would Virtual PC Doctor be concerned and do this public service and he mentioned that they had been getting a lot of calls abou the trouble that my computer was causing others because of the virus (nice change of reasoning there). I asked him where he was calling from and he said London (obviously not as registerd as unknown caller). Sat in front of my PC and googled Virtual PC Doctor and came up here.

What I find is that they are so persistent that even those who are computer literature are likely to be taken in... So was thinking what can one do to collectively turn the tables on them? Just letting them know that we recognize this is a scam is not enough...

Any ideas folks?

got called in melbourne, they were going by the name of Virtual IT Support, claimed to have a website at www.virtualitsupport.com. Terrible customer service!

Just got off the phone from Indian accented gentleman claiming he was from Global Computer Solutions, the only Microsoft representative in Australia!! Yeah, right. Said he was calling from Sydney. I asked him what name he had, and it wasn't mine and it wasn't my address. He promplty said goodbye and hung up. I'm in Melbourne.

These scammers are still at it. I managed to string them along for a fair while before I could no longer resist the urge to give them a mouthfull and hang up. The old event viewer trick, which only records software errors,was used. I strung them along and said there were no errors on it.....long silence followed (she must have been new at this) then she tried to get me to run it again. I then said it was a freshly loaded computer and that they were just scammers as microsoft will never ring us.Hope they rot in hell.

I've had this scam call a few times but this time was different. I decided not to string 'Max' along and told him straight out that I wouldn't do what he asked because it was a scam. He threatened to kill my Wife or Girlfriend (his wording) and he ranted on with swear words that I would never recommend using and then followed on with ' we could never catch them ', this went on for about 5 minutes. How do we stop these &^&#*(('s.

I'm up North in BC, Canada, and they've been calling my house relentlessly for the past couple of months. I have yet to figure out how to get them to stop. It's just kind of turned into a game of who can harass them more before we hang up and await the next call.

I was suspicious immediately and googled it after hanging up and not following their instructions. The 3rd time we got a call from them, I started worrying about my in-laws and less computer savvy friends. I sent a short email to my local paper citing what the scammers had said, the unknown caller ID and some websites to confirm the information. They did a nice big write up about these people. I had never heard of it until this year, and from the looks of it, it's been going on for quite some time.

I would encourage all of you to try to get a write up in your local paper to help spread the word.

they just rang for the 100th time and stayed on the line for agers and after 15 minutes they said hang up and we will call back i thought he thought we were trying to trace the fone call so when he rang back i played an asian soundboard funny sh*t out it shut him up and he hang up. The sound board can be found here : http://buklau.com/

they have just called me tonight and have blogged about it here…

http://keepitasecret.co.uk/virtual-pc-doctor-cold-caller…/

I'm in Sydney, Australia and just got a call from Max at Technical Maintenance Dept, Live PC Solutions. Not understanding what he wanted, or why, I was put through to the Senior Supervisor. He identified himself as James Ponting. Both men had very heavy Indian accents, but James insisted he was calling from Melbourne and even gave me a phone number there.Fortunately my mother in law had mentioned some of the details of the same scam she'd encountered about a week ago, and so danger bells rang. They're obviously maintaining their programme.

Sydney Australia ,just had same call on Wednesday 11th May .

Said no way was i going to give some one remote access to my home pc . Hung up on the nobb

On Friday 13th May, Sydney, I had a call from Daniel, a friendly Indian-sounding man representing 'World PC Tech', located in Melbourne. He claimed that his company was the "official service provider or all Windows user". "What Service?" I asked, to which he just repeated himself. He kept trying to to get me to log onto my computer but I had determined this to be a scam within the first microsecond of the call and just decided to screw him around as much as he was trying to screw me around by giving vague answers and asking him more questions. He eventually passed me on to his supervisor, Annie (also with a heavy Indian accent) who just said exactly the same things as Daniel before eventually deciding I was just so stupid, I couldn't even fall for a scam.

I am amazed that so many people here have fallen for this, but then again, 80% of people in the world believe that their lives are governed by a supernatural being and if you can believe that you can pretty much believe anything. Use common sense people, and turn the tables on them if you can!

Sunshine Coast, just had similar call, so I played along while I Googled the website he told me to check (ring2geeks) to confirm he was legitimate and I quote "because the internet always has the truth". Isn't that the funniest thing you've ever heard?

Anyway, instead of going to that website I google it first and found this site which confirmed my suspicions. As soon as I found this I told him I thought he was scamming me, he promptly hung up.

I've had similar calls several times before, but I hung up on them straight away. Today I felt like playing, so I let him spin me his story, all the while wondering just how far he would take me. I can't believe there are people out there stupid enough to fall for this stuff.

well they are getting our number from the whitepages.co.au (australlia), bt.com (UK), whitepages.co.uk (UK), and eircom.com (IRELAND). I don't know how to stop them. But they have stolen money from many people and in return they sold Microsoft security essentials, atf cleaner, malware protector and mozila firefox (LOL). We every one knows these things are for free. But there are many who doesn't know this so please inform every one inform man to man, women to women even child to child to save our countrymen from them.

I know all these because I gave 199.99 USD to a company ring2geeks recently and after their service i got the clear picture of their cheating. so don't be a fool and ask microsoft to take action to save their customer.

digged google 30 mins, finally i get what i need.Thanks!

eventsvwr !! I really would have fell for this, got a call last week (the day before I had downloaded something by accident which then showed up as a virus) so when i received this call
(at first I told him " aw im sorry we have just had new windows fitted, thanks anyway") our little friend said he was calling from windows and my computer had flagged up as needing immidiate attention I then started to believe him, even though he couldnt tell me which computer it was, so he asked me to press & hold the windows key & 'R' then type eventsvwr in & run this. again, showed up a list with more than 30 error marks next to it. so i was shocked & i genuinely wanted him to help me!! so i was willing & ready to take the next step...but i could not understand what he was saying. so i kept asking him to repeat & event said to him "LOOK.. im really sorry and im not being rude as i know your only doing your job (pah!) but PLEASE can you either talk slower or spell it out or something"" he then passed me onto him manager who asked the similar questions and again I couldnt understand him so i said again " I CAN NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING PLEASE TALK SLOWER" & he hung up on me so thanks so their accent I am safe ((Although people I have spoken to say mixed things & mixed advice about if they can access info /log what you type into your keyboard etc. & unless by typing in the events vwr could trigger something fingers crossed im ok this time but i have just cancelled all my bank cards, internet banking, any passwords etc. just to be safe as I wouldnt want to risk it. They had caught a prize fish with me though because I believed them & would have gone through with it if only they could speak better English!

Hey you believe all the above is bad, yes well I fell for it , did bank transfer of $250.00 and they spent hours going thru my computer and computer remained the same as before. Now here is the real sting, I receive a phone call from my Credit Card Company shortly after advising me of suspicious overseas originated charges to my CC and could I verify them. Of course they were not valid, all I can say is that " WORLDPCTECH" accessed my CC fraudulently, this has never happened to me before. Thank God my CC Company was on the ball and dishonoured the payments. I then had to have a new CC and pin supplied after cancelling the original. It now look's like WORLDPCTECH have disappeared off the face of the earth ( must have made their bundle from suckers like me) as neither do they reply to emails and their phone number is disconnected. Anyone with advice on any ways of recompense from these fraudsters would be appreciated.

Same happened to me here in Sweden!

alive and well in Victoria, BC Canada....
told him i would call him back, he said he was in Floriday,
gave me a 237 (Cameroon) area code.

Vitual PC World still around and cold calling - call back number 03 88070958 was actually answered by a lady with an accent who when pressured, said she was in New York! Told them that as they had my info they could send me a hard copy of their offer and I would review the offer - then they hung up.
NSW, Australia

This happened to me today, unfortunately I was stupid enough to allow them access to my computer. After a 40 minute conversation (yes i know I'm dumb -__- ) he finally offered me his deal which was $365 for a six year antivirus warranty, i told him i couldn't pay online and that i'll just but an antivirus CD myself from a store, thats when he practically hung up in my face. :/ lol i feel so dumb for actually talking to him for 40 minutes -____-

well its still alive, ontario canada
the guy was so pathetic, it was an indian guy, he even asked for my name thats as far as we got, i asked him why would i give u my name let alone any information, i do not know you. i was barely listening to him i was just super pissed off that he had the nerve, so i hung up on him. he called from skype so it shows up as an unknown caller, they arent even good scammers i could do a better job lmao u would think if they were calling a number they would know the name of the person on that phone number...... stupid people, going as far as to call cellphones now.