Just got a random call from someone in a call centre telling me they’d received a report there was a problem with Windows that they needed to fix and he wanted me to go into my PC to fix it.
I smelt a rat and refused. My PC is working fine, it hasn’t told me it’s sending any fault reports and I’ve not contacted anyone to say I had a problem.
Is this a genuine setup or someone trying to get access to my PC?

LOL… seriously…

He’d have asked you to go to a web address and download something which in turn would have released the monkeys of doom!!!!

It’s a scam.

No it’s a scam. Phone straight down.

But can I have some monkeys of doom? They sound perfect for livening up this drowsy afternoon

Good lord, you need to ask?

monkeys of doom?

I thought they were already in power?

I clicked the link and only got Babboons of Mischeif

I’ve been had!

I do think it is very considerate of the people at Microsoft to take such a proactive stance on computer fault diagnosis and subsequent repair.

Damn. I’ve always wanted some monkeys of doom. Now I’ve missed my chance.
and to be fair, the phone went down pretty quickly once I understood what he was trying to do. I knew the STW monkeys of IT would provide the answer 🙂

Oooo, purlease!

“Is this a genuine setup or someone trying to get access to my PC?”

Is that a serious question?

It’s a scam – but I have invented a whole new game of how long can you keep them talking. Current record is 46 minutes during a bored lunch break. They were not chuffed when after 46 minutes I told them I knew it was a scam.

Funny they have never rung back since.

So the challenge is on, who can keep them talking for longer than 46 minutes……

I actually know someone who gave them access 🙄

A well-known scam: Clicky for Computeractive goodness.

Yes – it’s a lot of fun to keep them talking and wasting their time, especially when you make them think that they going to get some info out of you and then you pull away just as they were about to get you. It keeps them on edge and they don’t hang up quickly.

I did just over an hour of playing the concrened end user before exploding in to a tirade of abuse at the guy. Common tricks are to say its on your main computer running windows 7. The other way they like to prove you have problems is going into the windows event viewer and showing you all the red and yellow messages.

it’s a scam where they claim to find a vrius and they then charge you something like £50 to remove it, I tell them I have a mac and I don’t catch a chill from the common people 😆

Same happened to me- though I got Gibbons of Götterdämmerung………quite pleased about it, actually……..

Yup, had the same call a few months ago, a few of our customers have had it as well. I only managed to keep them on for about 10 minutes before I got bored and started asking silly questions then they hung up.

Very, very common at the moment.

They show you the ‘errors’ in event viewer (there’s always some), use logmein (otherwise legit program) to gain access to your PC, where they can then install whatever malware they like, then ask for your credit card details so they can charge you for the ‘repair’ and sell your card details.

Fubar PC, out of pocket, and card-scammed all in one go.

Now if only there was an exploit you could use on them once they had connected via logmein? Any 16 yr olds here?

I keep a whistle by the phone – it buggers them up good and proper for a while with just one good long blast 😀