Scam alert!

[Spudman***]

I just had a call from a non native English speaker saying that their company servers have detected a "virus" or something being sent from my computer to their servers. They asked me to type some instructions into my windows "run" line (event***). When I said I would not do that the man called me a "bloody mother f*****" and then promptly hung up.

The noise in the background sounded like a call center, plenty of activity.

Do not follow these instructions or fall for this ploy. I tried calling the number back that was on my caller id and it was disconnected.

It's a SCAM.

[Tig***]

Wow, that's a technique we haven't seen much of. I guess the thousands of bankers/princes of Nigeria are getting desperate!

I'm glad your Spidey sense alerted you.

[Katastrophe]

Thanks for the alert!

[marnold***]

Thanks for the alert!

Yeah, there was an article on Ars Technica all about this and what they do. The Feds had gone after them. They called me too. Imagine their surprise because I have no Windows boxes.

[Ch0jin]

They were doing that in Australia for a while too, I've had maybe half a dozen of those calls over the last 4-5 years. I believe at one point they discovered many of these scams were being run out of a Microsoft contracted call center (that lost it's contract after of course.

I used to just say "I don't have a computer though" in a confused voice. That worked every time.