Had a strange call from "Microsoft"

MNtundraRet wrote:
I have been programing computers since 1979.

Newbie ;)

I got that call one day... I asked how they would be fixing my computer, and they responded that they would connect to my computer remotely. I then informed them that I had dial-up internet (which I do not) and he said "what's dial-up?" I filled him in, then he just said "Oh my God!" and hung up.
Only time a tele-solicitor ever hung up on me!

redavis wrote:
Got that same call more than a dozen times. I think he got a kick out of seeing how many new names I could think up to call him. Finally bought one of these and after blasting it into the phone twice, no more phone calls. I now keep it setting right next to the phone just in case.

Randy

:B I have always wanted to do that!!

2oldman wrote:

sh410 wrote:
This morning I received a call...

I assume this is a land line...?

Mine was on a cell line.....

sh410 wrote:
This morning I received a call...

I assume this is a land line...?

Got that same call more than a dozen times. I think he got a kick out of seeing how many new names I could think up to call him. Finally bought one of these and after blasting it into the phone twice, no more phone calls. I now keep it setting right next to the phone just in case.

Randy

Every call I've had like this has had the phone number blocked.

Doug

I found a similar scam reported at http://www.callercenter.com along with the caller's phone number. Maybe you guys can check if you have the same scammer's phone number.

Good thing you did. It was a definitely a scam call. Did you take note of the caller's information?

There are a lot of non tech-savvy people out there who can easily fall for a "your computer has a virus", or "your computer is running ILLEGAL software, better do our stuff or else go to jail" items.

I've had a robocall from someone pretending to be from Microsoft stating my computer was running pirated software, and to download some "scanner" from an IP address. I politely reminded them that the box in question is running Linux.

On Android, I recommend everyone who is using Android download the app Mr. Number, which blocks immediately spammers/robocallers. iOS actually has roadblocks to prevent people from explicitly blocking numbers (best one can do is jailbreak a device and use iBlacklist.)