<p>Phone rings. “Hello? This is Oscar from [unintelligible]. I’m calling about your personal computer. It’s been sending messages to Microsoft that it’s been infected by viruses and…” I hung up on Oscar before he got any further. I’ve gotten get spam of this nature, but never a phone call. Now I kind of wish I’d let him go on to see what the scam was all about. Selling something worthless? Gaining access to personal info? I’m sure they’re preying on the elderly. Can you imagine some kid getting a call from Grandma–“Sweetheart, that computer you set up for me got a virus, but a nice man named Oscar fixed it for me right over the phone. All I had to do was give him my social security number and credit card.” Yikes. Remember the good old days when people called just to sell you a new roof?</p>
<p>This has been going on for a while. If anyone falls for it and grants access they install real malware on your machine and then ask for a credit card to remove it :-)</p>
<p>Is Oscar married to Rachel?</p>
<p>I got one of these calls just recently. The guy sounded like he was making a (really bad) attempt at an Indian accent. Maybe thought that would be more convincing.</p>
<p>Rachel can’t be married as she spends all her time on the phone calling me!!</p>
<p>I got one of those calls a few months ago. The person sounded Indian but it could have been a fake accent. I happen to know a lot about computers so I had a little fun with the guy before they hung up on me. </p>
<p>What it sounded to me that they were trying to do was to get me to make a connection from my computer to them and give them control of my computer ‘to check for the virus’ but of course once that’s done they can access everything on your computer. It sounded like a phishing attempt to me.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I can see a lot of people falling for this one.</p>
<p>Yup, my elderly dad fell for this sort of thing. They charged him $400 to fix a 10 year old laptop. :eek:</p>
<p>I got hte call a few weeks ago and asked for his number so I could ‘have H call him back’. It was a London number. Weird!
Also an Indian guy… named Phil.</p>
<p>My mother fell for it, too, but luckily her credit card company declined the charge. “He said he was from Microsoft.” </p>
<p>LOL about Rachel and Oscar.</p>
<p>Our corporate tech support help desk is in Mexico and they all somehow have names like Omar, Ivan, and so on off-the-wall Western names…</p>
<p>Are these on landlines? I never get calls like these with a cell phone.</p>
<p>^I get them incessantly on my cell phone.</p>
<p>Mr B got a call on his personal cell phone - from an Oscar with a fakeish Indian accent. Mr B had a lot of fun with the dude. The funny part is that he was driving from a meeting with a bunch of MSFT dudes in one of MSFT buildings :)</p>
<p>“Our corporate tech support help desk is in Mexico and they all somehow have names like Omar, Ivan, and so on off-the-wall Western names.”</p>
<p>We have friends back in Caracas named Omar and Ivan, so that wouldn’t surprise me at all.</p>
<p>I got them to give me their 800 number… and was able to get google hits with that and “scam”.</p>
<p>I never answer my landline if the call number is blocked and for any 10 digit number. I always google the number and they are usually scam or telemarketers.
If they leave a message, fineif not, so much better!</p>
<p>My son has an Omar and an Ivan at his high school, but no Oscars.</p>
<p>We’ve been getting these calls all summer. Sometimes it’s a guy, sometimes a girl, but always the Indian accent, and always calling about our computer that needs service, and something about Microsoft.</p>
<p>Last week the phone rang at 5AM (didn’t answer it), then again at 7:15 AM, which I answered, only because I worried that it might be my son who is 2 time zones away, and was really annoyed to have it be the Indian guy. So I started saying “What?” over and over to everything he said. After he figured out that I was messing with him, he said, in perfectly unaccented English, “How about if I say I’m going to #@$% you, do you understand me now?” LOL!! I answered “What?” a few more times, and then hung up. </p>
<p>I really need to get caller ID.</p>
<p>I got that call and said “I don’t have a computer” - that left him confused, and he said “you don’t have a computer??? are you sure???” like I was from Mars.</p>
<p>Good one, amanda, I’ll have to remember that if I get that call! I do hear from Rachel at cardmember services about every day. (no caller ID here)</p>