Courtesy: Guardian.com
“If you receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft Tech Support, hang up. We do not make these kinds of calls.”
Every scam begins the same way – a phone call rings. The caller (with an Indian accent) asks for the owner of the house, confirms address and phone number again, and then quotes “I’m calling from Microsoft. We’ve had a report from your internet service provider of serious virus problems from your computer.” When traced these callers were actually based in India.”
The person goes on and on and explains that the owner’s personal computer has major issues; if they remain unsolved then the computer will become unusable. With complete loss of data and memory.
Then the baffled owner is then directed by the caller to their computer where they are given certain instructions, these are as follows.
Open > Windows Event Viewer
For average user the contents displayed are highly worrisome. A long list of errors appear, some of which are labeled “critical”.“Yes, that’s it,” says the caller with an Indian accent. “Now let me guide you through the steps to fixing it.”Open this link and follow the instructions.
After this the owner is taken to a website and instructed to download a particular program that gives them access over remote control of that computer. The caller (with the Indian accent) fixes various problems. After which its time to pay, £185 for a “subscription” to the “preventative service”.
The catch: there was absolutely nothing wrong with the computer. The caller was not a Microsoft employee or any internet service provider, the various “fixes” for the problems gave direct and complete access in the hands of a complete stranger.
This investigation was done by Guardian.com where they established that this scam had been running very quietly under the folds since 2008, but had suddenly grown to the point of complete nuisance. These call centers are based in Kolkata, India.
Many Londoners have reported such incidents quoting, a few days back when I arrived home (at my house in London), I received a call from a guy who said he was a Microsoft employee “It’s Windows tech support here,” he said. He told me that there were malware and spyware downloads on my computer which had slowed the system down completely. The guy had an Indian accent and he knew my name and address. And he told me that in order to fix the problem I had to log on to a website. And enter a six-digit code into the computer “I thought it was a new service from [Microsoft] Windows,” he said. “I could see them moving the cursor about. It took about half an hour.”
This has happened with many in the same fashion. But mostly the victims are the inexperienced or the elderly. After investigation, guardian discovered that there was one man who was entirely responsible behind these scam call centers and they are based in city of Kota in Rajasthan, India. In order to save himself from being discovered he has made fake accounts with fake documentation to many payment companies including PayPal and Alertpay. These accounts route money to a bank account in Kota with Axis Bank. The payment organizations have taken rapid actions by shutting down such accounts.
Those who have been affected by the scam have completely failed to stop it despite the fact that people have been warned and rapidly spread the word around. Even police and trading standards officers in the UK are powerless to stop them. The telephone numbers from which the calls are made are allocated to voice-over-internet providers. Which means that the scammers can catch anyone, anywhere in the world without getting caught just by making free calls.
These scammers have made desperate attempts to maintain their reputation on the internet by flooding forums with fake queries and replies. But these queries left with poor spelling and grammar of the posted comments -allied to internet addresses which show that the commenters are based in India. Investigations have showed that the language used contrasted sharply with that of people belonging to UK, US and Australia. And these calls have been coming from the same organization.
“I don’t think that this could really have spread that far. Even if they can see that some of their friends are making money from this, the calls are too similar every time,” said one. “It’s got to be the same organization each time.”
On the other hand, Microsoft completely denied any connection with these callers. Microsoft said it was “currently investigating a series of instances in which the business practices of an organization within the Microsoft Partner Network [that] have given rise to significant concerns from a number of sources. We take matters such as these extremely seriously and will take any action that is appropriate once our investigation is complete.”
The company has noticed the problem. “Microsoft does not make unsolicited phone calls to help you fix your computer,” it says on its website.
“If you receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft Tech Support, hang up. We do not make these kinds of calls.”