Phone Scam Artists Pretend to be Microsoft
A friend texted and then called me the other day saying he had received a phone call from Microsoft. He then began to describe the situation and I knew there was a problem. FIRST - Microsoft will NOT call you to complain about any possible virus/malware you may have exposed them to because they just don't do that. This scam will attempt to get you to give the scam artist control of your computer explaining that they can resolve the problem (which does not exist at all). While advising my friend to disconnect his ethernet cable immediately I called Microsoft at their normal phone contact #:
1-800-Microsoft (642-7676)
Weekdays5 A.M. - 9 P.M. (Pacific Time)
Weekends6 A.M. - 3 P.M. (Pacific Time) TTY: 1-800-892-5234
I must say the response time was extremely fast because I got a person on the line in less than 15 seconds (which is amazing to me) and I explained the situation to her. She then verified what I said (that Microsoft does not make calls of that sort) and informed me that this has been happening for a few months in a sporadic fashion. She also gave me a phone # to help with this issue: 1-888-382-1222 (this is the National Do Not Call Registry) and might be helpful. THIS SCAM IS VERY DANGEROUS. Do NOT under any circumstance allow any person who has called you "out of the blue" to connect to your computer remotely. Once initiated, that connection can result in complete takeover of the target machine.