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Microsoft Virus Infection Phone Scam
I have had about 6 calls in the last year from an overseas call centre where more often than not a lady has identified herself as being from Microsoft and advised me that my computer is infected with a virus. This happened to a friend a while ago and she started to go down that path until they asked for a credit card number.
No Vendor will ever ring you directly like this. I doubt that even Microsoft would try to maintain a database of ipaddress to users especially when most home users are on a system where they are randomly leased an address from a pool of addresses owned by their service provider (ie their address is not static). Likewise if somebody calls and says they are from your bank and asks for login/passwords to your internet banking accounts I would be suspicious.
I told one fellow that I fix my own computer as I was an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) and he asked me for my MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) Number ….. imagine the identity theft if I told them that ! The most successful and polite way I have got rid of them was to say that I have an Apple computer (which is true as I have both) and the lady thanked me anyway and hung up !
This is what Microsoft has to say about the issue:
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