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Call From "Microsoft"

11 years ago

Understand I'm working long distance with my mom whose computer literacy is rather limited. She got a call from someone claiming to represent Microsoft. Fortunately she had the good sense to recognize a scam and asked the guy if she could have a phone number to call him at. He gave her an eleven digit phone number. ;-)

What's interesting is that she was having problems with her computer immediately before the phone call. Could it just be a coincidence or is something more sinister afoot.

She had a virus a while back that I cleaned up. If I recall correctly, I installed Microsoft Security Essentials as part of the process.

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Comments (6)

mikie_gw
11 years ago
I had one of those calls, it was fun for me. Told him I didn't have a computer, how could it be sending out virus's. He insisted somebody in the house was using a computer that was sending out virus's. I said maybe it was my refrigerator, maybe it has a computer in it. It cost so much it should have one. on and on.... he finally understood what I was saying and laughed and went away.
sushipup1
11 years ago
"What's interesting is that she was having problems with her computer immediately before the phone call. Could it just be a coincidence or is something more sinister afoot. "

Your mother probably has problems with her computer all the time. Timing is coincidental, I think.
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Just a question... (1) Are your and your husband's account on the same computer, or separate computers? (2) If so, the computer is back to 8.1 now? (3) Your husbands mail opens and works fine? (4) You have the mail shortcut to click, but clicking it results in the app not coming up? ------------------------------------------------------------ Just thoughts, I'm not a tech... Maybe instead of doing get-appxpackage -AllUsers *microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps* | remove-appxpackage and possibly removing your husband's working mail, you could do get-appxpackage *microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps* | remove-appxpackage to remove only your own? (notice the lack of the AllUsers switch) Don't take my word on that, I may be wrong, wait for someone else, I don't run Windows enough to know my way around. ------------------------------------------------------------- My thought on removing your account, rebooting and adding it again... Might work but I'd probably not be in a hurry to delete my account. Instead, I'd add a second account, switch to it and see if I could get mail working in it. Then I'd make a decision whether to delete the first account or not. That's just me though, and remember, I'm really a Windows user. Just giving you something to consider until someone more qualified comes along. :)
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Elmer J Fudd
11 years ago
I've gotten similar calls. Both times it was a voice with a very heavy Indian accent and with boiler room sounds in the background. He said that he was calling from Microsoft's Security Department. I said both times that they were wasting their time trying to scam me and they hung up. It's obviously an internet call, but they use a falsified caller ID (the number was non-existent when I tried to call back).

I don't think you need to worry about anything sinister going on.

Many phone numbers, when calling internationally, have 11 digits. US numbers have 11,
genes
11 years ago
I tell them that their call is kind of weird as I dont have any Microsoft products in the house..all are Apple computers, which throws them for a loop..doesnt know what to say then..although the whole thing is a lie, dont have any Apple products
jean_mi_z5
11 years ago
I also received one of those calls some time back. I kept telling him that I knew it was a scam and the funny part was, he chuckled and admitted that it was a scam.
Cricketm
11 years ago
Mikie....I love the way you handled that phone call.....I use to say "Listen we have a dinner party going here please give me your phone number and I will call you back"...now all I do is hang up the phone....I don't even bother to talk to them or my other option is I don't answer the phone after I check the i.d.

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