<p>My poor mom got scammed by this one. I’ve since warned her to be very sceptical is anyone calls her “out of the blue.” And that none of the grandkids will ever call her if they are in jail! (anyway, I think she would recognize their voices first!)</p>
<p>artloversplus, to answer your poll, we have all Apple computers and I got this call last week. I could not understand the caller, he said something about getting error messages but I did not hear him say what company he was calling from. I kept telling him I did not understand what he was saying - at one point he said ‘is your computer on now?’ Finally I just said ‘sorry I can’t understand you and this sounds like a scam’ and hung up.</p>
<p>@artloversplus, I wonder why this is not illegal, if you had given this person your credit card, you still be able to cancel the payment afterwards. Best yet, you get the name and you can report to US authority, no?</p>
<p>My mother (has windows 7) got one of these phone call a few months ago. She knew about it from her senior center and from my kids. She told the scammer that if she needed help she would contact her grandsons and she hung up on him! We also got a phone call and we have windows 8. I knew immediately what was going on but played dumb for a couple of seconds and then told him I knew the scam and he hung up.</p>
<p>I just got off the phone with the “Windows technician.” He, of course, wanted to let me know that my computer was 80% infected with a malicious virus, yada-yada-yada. I kept him on the phone for a while … had him repeat himself a few times … told him our “computer guy” would look into it, thank you. He eventually hung up on me.</p>
<p>I thought it was funny that we got the (another) call today.</p>
<p>A neighbor has a set response for many scam callers (yes, she answers phone instead of ignoring):<br>
“I’m expecting a call on this line–can you call me right back on my cell?” and gives a number–that of the Police Department…</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of this scam. We don’t use Microsoft products, but we certainly get our share of telemarketers.
I usually let the land line go to the answering machine unless I’m expecting a call-back from a home maintenance service, as I give that number out to anyone who isn’t a friend. We sort of need the land line because we live around hills, and the cell isn’t always that reliable indoors. When I do answer the land line, if the caller doesn’t identify himself/herself in the first salutation, I hang up. Even if they do identify themselves, if I don’t know them, I hang up. I don’t really care if it’s rude or not, and I’ve noticed that if I hang up without engaging at all, they seem to stop calling.</p>
<p>@artloversplus
</p>
<p>Are you absolutely certain they were providing the windows serial number?</p>
<p>Here is how the serial number part of the scam typically works:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>See: <a href=“Securelist | Kaspersky’s threat research and reports”>Securelist | Kaspersky’s threat research and reports;
<p>Your Windows serial number is something different - it is a different format and it is encrypted your registry- so it is unlikely that you would have it unless it was written down somewhere else. Also it is 5 sets of 5 numbers: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX - which you can see is a different pattern the sequence above. </p>
<p>See <a href=“http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/findxpkey.htm”>http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/findxpkey.htm</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is the part that would have concerned me too, artloversplus. I can see how it would have given you more pause than the usual nuisance call.</p>
<p>DrG</p>
<p>I did not pay the guy so he locked my computer(at the time, he had remote control of my computer). I had to re-format and re-install.</p>
<p>calmom,</p>
<p>I had the windows serial number (it was at least 30 digits long displayed on my screen and he just read the serial number off to me and they match to the letter.</p>
<p>How did you get the windows serial number to display?</p>
<p>art, I think calmom is up to something. The fact that you display the serial number on your screen might be a problem.</p>
<p>Well, as far as I can tell, it isn’t possible to display the windows serial number on screen without first downloading specific software to enable that. </p>
<p>So either the OP is sophisticated enough with computers to have already downloaded that software and to remember how to use it when he got the scammer call – or else I am thinking he followed the scammer’s instructions as to how to find the information. </p>
<p>Or else every web site on the internet that comes up under a google search for how to find a windows serial number for XP is wrong…(unfortunately I don’t think I have a functional XP machine handy to try on my own)</p>
<p>Here’s what Microsoft says:
<a href=“http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/wpa_overview.mspx?mfr=true”>http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/wpa_overview.mspx?mfr=true</a></p>
<p>Note that neither the product key or product ID is “at least 30 digits long” so either the OP is mistaken in his recollection or he was looking at something other than a unique software identifier.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as a “serial number” for the windows program software. For the hardware (computer) - yes, there would be - but one would typically find that on a sticker affixed to the computer, not on screen. </p>
<p>Calmom, I agree. This is I have never heard about - Windows serial number flashing on the screen?</p>
<p>Some of these are hilarious!</p>
<p>To my knowledge, no one in my house has gotten one of these. My grandmother once got the “grandma, I’m in jail” call. She asked the guy pretending to be my older brother when his birthday was and he hung up. </p>
<p>My parents both work from home, so we almost always answer the land line. When it’s a telemarketer or a spam call, they get to have a talk either with the Labrador or the African Gray Parrot, who usually just says “BYE” and then makes a loud beeping noise like when you turn off the phone. Once we left the phone (on speaker) on top of his cage and just let them go around in circles; the whole family was in tears by the end of it.</p>
<p>I once got a pop-up saying the FBI had found child pornography on my computer and was being locked down unless I paid a $200 fine. I was able to use the task manager to get out of it but OMG!! It had “official” seals on it and everything.To some it would have been very convincing.</p>
<p>I actually have gotten the computer virus scam call multiple times. I’ve always known it’s a scam, but a few times I played along for awhile-- I’ve said things like I’ll have to boot up my computer and ask the guy to wait for several minute … when actually I’m not even in the same room as my computer.</p>
<p>I have stopped answering my land line completely – it will take a message, but I only actually answer my cell phone – so obviously no more computer repair scammer. I do get the ATT scammer - they claim they are calling from ATT with an offer of specific money (such as $150) off of your bill if you go to a specific site and register --they do leave a message on the machine, as they are trying to get people to go to the phishing web site. </p>
<p>It’s a scary world out there. </p>
<p>Well, when it comes down to it, I won’t do anything based on an unsolicited phone call. Before I simply quit answering the land line, I could get pretty rude with some of the callers. I’d try to be polite – but I would often get calls from people soliciting money for charities or various causes, and I’d always tell them that I don’t give over the phone—but then some would try to argue with me after I had said no. So it just ended up being easier to be rude and hang up right way than have someone who wouldn’t accept a polite no. Anyway, that’s why I don’t answer the landline any more. I’d get rid of the landline entirely, but then I need to have it so I can call myself when I lose track of the cell phone. </p>
<p>And now that I think of it, those ATT scam robo-calls are coming in on the cell phone, not the landline. I’m thinking they are just randomly dialing numbers that they know are in the ATT network. </p>
<p>I’ve had the windows calls several times and used a variety of different things to mess with him including hanging up, yelling, keeping them talking, I didn’t have windows in my apple computer. </p>
<p>But the one that actually stopped the calls was telling him that I didn’t have a computer. The man kept arguing with me that I had to have a computer, everyone has a computer. I told him I was an old lady that never had one, and he finally hung up on me.</p>
<p>As I’m typing this, I just got a new e-mail scam from the “USPS” that my parcel arrived and the courier could not deliver it. I was to click on the link to print a shipping label and take it to the post office to pick up my parcel. The best part: the bottom of the e-mail had BBC news about Bosnia, Mexico and Turkey, just what the USPS includes on their e-mails!</p>