Am I being scammed?

[abl37]

so today i got a call from a cypriot number(thats where i live) and an indian lady picked up telling me that she is calling from microsoft and that they are gonna have to shut my computer down forever bc they are getting a lot of notifications that i get junk files

can they get such information and can they really shut my pc down or is someone trying to scam me?

[da na]

Nah that is a scam. Microsoft will never call you out of the blue and threaten you. They also don't get notifications on what you're downloading. Don't worry.

[abl37]

alright thanks...should i be worried that they have my number? btw i changed my password

[BondiBlue]

That is a complete scam. Just ignore it. Microsoft will not call you like that, and the person who called you just wants your money. 

[Zingiber]

12 minutes ago, abl37 said:

alright thanks...should i be worried that they have my number? btw i changed my password

No you shouldn't worry, you would've just been one of the hundreds of numbers they called that day.

[LogicalDrm]

20 hours ago, abl37 said:

alright thanks...should i be worried that they have my number? btw i changed my password

There's nothing you can do, really. You answering at all is the issue. Now they know number works. But changing number won't help in the long run.

[GalacticRuler]

It's a scam. The best advice I've heard on how to stop scam calls is to pick up, then start yelling in a foreign language like Chinese or French. Not only will they hang up, but they will mark your number as unscammable as well.

[GoodBytes]

On 7/13/2021 at 4:52 PM, abl37 said:

so today i got a call from a cypriot number(thats where i live) and an indian lady picked up telling me that she is calling from microsoft and that they are gonna have to shut my computer down forever bc they are getting a lot of notifications that i get junk files

can they get such information and can they really shut my pc down or is someone trying to scam me?

Typically, they claim that they are "Windows Technical support", as if their crimes would be reduced because of this. This has always made me laugh.

They are interested in people who are easily fooled like the elderly.

 

They are 3 ways that they execute their attack:

• Compromise websites to show a BSOD image with a poor PhotoShop job (more like MS Paint) text added to call some 1-800 number, play loud sound through the speakers and/or talk via Windows text-to-speech, and add JavaScript to make it difficult to quickly close the page
• Call by fooling the phone number (Phone numbers are easily fooled. When the phone standard was made ages ago, this not something that that was though above, and today most phone companies don't care.
• A fake "technical support" phone repair service for those who look for issues and come across them site.

They pretend that they are there to "repair" your computer. The common script is as follows (the order can vary between calls, but this is the essentials):

1. Tell you that you have many viruses, that somehow, they can detect.
2. Convince you to install some remote software, which often times plays in the game of the scammers by featuring the ability to hide your screen (but they can see) and lock your keyboard and mouse from working (but they have full control). These kind of programs are always free for them and you.
3. Show you the "many viruses" that you have by opening Event Viewer and telling you that all these items are "viruses", and quickly close it so that you don't have to read.
4. Then distract you from "removing" these "viruses" by opening the command prompt go to the C:\ drive, and execute the command: tree, which just makes a list of the entire drive folder structure. At the same time, they'll distract you by talking and install a software that blocks from loading the OS from loading your account as you login and asks you password. It is, of course, a malware. 
5. Then asks you for a random amount of money based on what he feels that you can afford, typically $300-700, and act as that he offers multi-year service, and for allll your computers.
6. Also, adds a text file on the desktop with "contact" information to call back, this is for other scammers in reality. If they you are scammed again, notices your file via remote desktop, they'll back-off and end the call, unless the scammer is desperate and sees that you are an easy target to fool again with the same script (elderly person).
7. They go to some website for you to enter your credit card information which will not only charge your credit card, but the website is, of course theirs, and they'll steel all your personal information. The page might even ask you for your government issues social security number, which will permit them to do identity theft.
8. If you resist, or don't go along smoothly, they'll blank your screen, start the Windows camera app (or some other app that they have deployed) take a look at you to see if you are fooling them and lock your system.
9. Alternatively, instead of credit card payment, they'll they do this complex work of convince you in buying gift cards and delivering it to some address (which is typically someone else, non-involved, person, who someone in a car waits for you to drop off the envelopes with all the gift cards, and pick it up the envelop the moment you leave). The person taking the mail is not directly involved in the scam, they are being hired to pick up envelopes here and there in the city and gets 50$ or something for each

Another popular variation is act as if they are Amazon, and you have this big charge of like thousands of dollars. Then guides you to download a remote desktop software (which like above, does the same things as mentioned), and ten connects to your system, and tells you to go to your bank account to "confirm the return". As you go in, they'll guide you to open one of your accounts, they'll see how much money you have. Then open your command prompt and type text: "Amount to return:", and ask you to put the amount, as if, he can't do the return of fund on his side (don't ask... all these scammers don't make any sense), and then hit a 0 as you enter, say $1500, so it will show 15000, and go "OH NO, YOU HAVE RUINED MY LIFE!!!!", then pushes you go on your bank account to see if the funds were really transfer. You login to your bank account, click on your account (not credit card), and then rapidly (they are quite fast) hit F12 to get dev mode of your web browser, and change the figures, and item description as they distract you by talking to you, and go "Oh nooo!!! you have $15,000!!!', and then ask you to go to the bank, and aggressively tell you to not mention about the call, or anything, and ask to do a transfer or pull out money from your account. And sadly, people are fooled by this and do this, and while bank tellers are now trained to really ask questions and banks asks them to fill up complete forms and records on this, some manages to convince the teller that it is not a fraud, and it is for "repairs" or whatever... and they get the money transfer or cash (which they put an in envelop and deliver to a home address which someone is waiting for to pick up).

 

Other variations:

• Family or extended family member in jail in some country. They'll make up a common name in your region, and go "Don't you remember me?!" This one works with elders, who might get fooled by the actual name, or might be afraid that they forgot, and don't want to act that they forgot, when in reality there is no one with such name.
• "FBI of <insert your country>" (yes, they actually say this), to say you are found guilty and be arrested or have tax issues (typically they'll call after your country tax period is due)
• Government federal police agency of your region (like above, but this time spent 2sec to check online the name)
• You won a price!!!! Congratulations! How lucky you are!

The truth:

• In most countries in this world, you are innocent until proven guilty in court. Did you go to court? Were you summoned to court about a crime? No? So, you are innocent.
• If your government has something to say to you, you'll get a letter by the mail. If it is of critical level of importance, it will be a signed at delivery letter (typically, for going to court or fines that were unpaid and multiple letters were sent out already, just to confirm that you got it).
• Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, HP, etc company or government, doesn't call you, unless you specifically requested a call back. The only one that calls you are car dealerships to annoy you with one of their """"incredible offers!"""""
• If Amazon (or whatever retail store) makes an error and send you "too much money", in most regions in the world, that is their loss, and you owe them nothing. This is like a billing error. If you are at the store and buy a TV and they scan the box and shows 1$ instead of 1000$, and the cashier doesn't care and you end up paying, then they can't call you back and ask for the $999 missing or return. It is the store mistake. Ther store will get the hit and they'll may pass it into their insurance as their mistake. (Typically, it will hurt the store bonuses if the issue is with the specific store).

 

[LloydLynx]

Yea it's totally a scam.

 

Spin up a Linux Mint virtual machine and play dumb. Act like you got the PC refurbished from your brother who's out of state and out of contact, and pretend like you don't even know what an operating system is. It's so much fun to screw with them. Just don't give them personal details under any circumstance.

[Just that Mario]

This is hilarious, though I am worried over the fact that OP even considered this being real.

[Slayerking92]