If You Receive A Phone Call About Your Computer Running Slow – Hang Up
If you receive a telephone call out of the blue about your computer running slow, hang up. It is a scam.
A relative of mine received a call yesterday from an Asian gentleman claiming to be calling from Microsoft about a computer running slow.
Now, there isn’t a PC on earth that doesn’t run slower than it did when you first got it out of the box simply because of the programs, software and other debris that get added over time. There isn’t a PC on Earth that doesn’t run slow.
The scam centres around trying to get control of the computer and getting your credit card details.
After asking you to go to Go to START then RUN, you will be asked to type in PREFETCH – and the result will be a list of pages that that should be loaded by Windows when a program starts. It is not a list of error messages that is causing your computer to run slow as the caller will suggest. Even if you delete them, Windows will simply replace them.
If you fall for this and tell them that there is indeed a list of error messages, the caller will tell you that you need to remedy this “problem” immediately and direct you to a website – in this case www.logmein123.com.
Logmein123 is a genuine company – it allows individuals and companies to gain access to remote PCs to help with tech support and so on. However, it can obviously be used just as easily by scam artists to trick people into handing over control of their PC. And that’s what’s happening here.
Anyone who has remote access to your PC will be able to access EVERYTHING on your PC whenever it is on and connected to the internet.
The caller will also offer to fix your computer for you or will ask you to buy software to prevent problems happening again. If you agree, the scam artist gets your credit card details too.
No reputable company will call you out of the blue offering to fix your computer. Nobody from Microsoft or Windows will ever call you.
If you get such a call, hang up.
my book, Get Out While You Can, is available now from Amazon.
If you would like to be added to the mailing list for my forthcoming book, Why Do Only Fools And Horses Work?, send me an email (info@entrepreneur.co.uk) with Fools And Horses in the subject line. I won’t pester you with lots of messages, but I will let you know as soon as it becomes available.
42 Comments
Leave a Comment
Yep – I’ve had one, and one of my clients has too. I wrote a full synopsis of ‘FixOnClick – or should that be ScamOnClick’ at http://www.prolateral.com/news-section/news-news/129-fixonclick-or-is-that-scamonclick.html
The more we can let people know about these seriously arrogant scammes the better!
Cheers,
-Craig
Have had 5 calls, all from the same guy! I have told him i dont have a PC but still getting calls. He adresses me by name (not mine, but the person named on the landline contract). Last call i kept him on the line for almost an hour by ‘playing stupid’ . He told me that he was monitoring me and that i had a virus, so i then went down the line of E.T.s and asked if he was monitoring me from space and that i had been waiting for a contact for years! and that it was amazing that an ET had contacted me to warn me that i had this terrible virus and could he monitor my husband as well because i was worried about his health and wondered if he (the ET) could confirm my fears that my husband had diabetes!!!! basically i went from daft to downright stupid, and still he was trying to get me to connect to his site.
After we cleared up the fact that he wasn’t an ET (and me complaining that he had lied to me about it) I then asked him if he was a sexual pervert and did he indulge in illegal acts with ……….. At this he became upset for some reason, and wanted to know why I would ask this. I explained that I was interested in illegal sex acts as I was a senior police officer and wondered if he was involved in illegal activities other than Scam calls. For some reason he hung up at this point!!!!
Five calls! It must be love, Sue!
As a huge fan of Fonejacker, I would have paid good money to have listened in on your ET call. Priceless!
[...] [...]
Just had a call from “John” – clearly not British judging by his accent! When I asked which company he represented, apparently it’s “Microworld PC Solutions” – a quick lookup on google showed nothing. He told me apparently my computer has error messages on it, when I kept pressing him for his company name he got agitated and started to shout at me about my error messages – funny as I have none, apparently my Windows from my pc gave him my phone number!!! Clearly some sort of scam!
Have just had this phone call from ‘Gareth’ from ?India? Realised straight away that it was a scam and told him what I thought, but still asked if I had a problem with the internet!!! I clicked straight away because my neighbour had the same call about a month ago and asked me if Microsoft ring to correct calls. This person wanted her IP address, and I said that I’d never know Microsoft to ring anyone (I work with computers) so she took it as a scam – thank God!
Someone should have this site closed down !
I have just had a call from ‘Nathan Gibbs’ , Asian, claiming to be from Windows Service Centre. He gave me a number to ring to confirm that this wasn’t a scam – 020 331 86362 which is always engaged. He didn’t seem perturbed at all when challenged. Who can we notify about this to protect others?
Had one of these from an Asian bloke a couple of days ago. I asked him if he thought I’d come down in the last shower. He seemed to struggle with the concept. I then asked him if he thought I was a bloody idiot (I am an Aussie after all) and he said he didn’t understand the question. At that time I used a good old Aussie expletive and hung up.
I have just had this happen this morning. Asked for me by name and said ‘I beleive your computer is running slow?’ I said – ‘Do you honestly think I’m stupid? Do you really think I’m about to allow you acces to my PC??’ – He replied ‘Oh, so you are a computer genius?’ I just put the phone down – what a irritating little man.
Love the ET thing – great idea, will do that if they ring again
I just had the same thing yesterday evening. I have been bombarded by the same phone call for weeks, saying ‘This is the Windows Security Centre in London. Your computer is infected, it is affecting our operations!’ I always tell them I run two A/V scans and Malware scans every week, but nothing is found! and normally hang up. This time I played along. They said, ‘see for yourself’ and directed me into My Computer>Event Manager which displayed loads of activity and some items were listed as errors. These they clain are the infected files, which they will remove. I was asked how old the PC is and they stated the Windows Security it came with it has expired and therefore Norton A/V is not working, even though it looks like it, because this part of Windows is no longer working… Then comes the catch, …this can be restored by making a payment of £109 through a secure page. Ha!
We’re in Australia. We’ve had two calls, I received the first asking to speak to Mr ….. He explained my PC was running slow because of viruses and he knew this due to the downloads I was making. I asked him what operating system he thought these were and of course the response was PC. I told him I had Linux, at which point the Indian gentleman immediately hung up.
My wife took the next call, and they asked for her by name (Mrs …). Same scam, but she said she doesn’t have an internet connexion, at which point they hung up.
I think next time they call I might keep them on the line for as long as it suits me with a nice little story such as Sue above used in April.
I’m in Australia and just received a call from someone claiming to be from ‘Microsoft protection’, i said i’m busy and couldn’t do anything now, so they argued and said if you don’t do this you’ll have a broken computer and corrupted files. So i went through all the way until they asked to download a software called ‘Ammyy’ which gave the person full control of my computer.
I said i have no proof that you are really from Microsoft, they threatened my computer again. I went through, connected all fine, they went in and started looking at my applications.
I pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL and turned the computer off with some applications running, she asked why i turned it off and said that you’re evading my privacy. I said ‘I don’t give a shit where you’re from, this is all my stuff and you just had quick look at it all. She then said ‘You go to hell, mother f***** asshole’ and hung up.
I’ve just received the second call from an Indian lady claiming to be from ‘Microsoft Protection’, or something like that (I’m in Australia). She said that my computer was corrupted, and that it would crash if she didn’t help me. She also claimed that my computer was sending error message reports to her company. I informed her that my computer was not corrupted, that it did not crash, and nor was it going to. She became agitated, and asked me if I knew why she was calling me. I told her that I had no idea why she was calling, wished her a nice afternoon, and hung up. The things people do for money.
Just received one of these calls, lady sounded like she had an electronic voice (stephen Hawkins on speed) and was apparently from microsoft contact services regarding viruses on my pc that I could not see and was slowing down my service!!!! I said I don’t have any problem and she became very pushy. Asked me to turn on my pc etc and when I said I’m not turning my pc on for her or anyone….she shouted my service will be cut off and slammed down the phone. Really scary phone call would not want anybody to received a call like that.
On going through the same procedure as everyone else, going to the start button etc & having kept him on the line for a considerable time, I found a special button on my start menu saying “TimeWaster”. Adam then asked if I was being sarcastic
Me? You cannot be serious I replied! He didn`t seem to be amused!
Ive just had the same kind of phone call from an asian guy. I said no thanks and put the phone down!!
California here. They are casting about.
Yesterday and today this man rang from calling center, voice would indicate Indian subcontinent. Yesterday asked for me by name, but not today. Says he’s from “somethingsomething computer maintenance” and I must have noticed that my computer is slower. Yesterday I promptly asked what he wanted to sell me, which knocked him off his script and I hung up after a longish (more than 4 seconds) silence. Today again he (sounds like same voice) referred to my slow computer and said (obvious script) it was because I downloaded bad files and emails. Then asked if I have a computer, and whether I am sitting in front of it. I said yes and no and what exactly did he want to sell me? He said I have to be in front of my computer to run these tests. I said I am not interested and he was still talking as I hung up.
Good to read all these, though I wouldn’t have the energy to string him along, not even for fun.
Just had a phonecall from a lovely Asian man called Peter who doesnt even give me his company name but proceeds to tell me that my internet connection is running slow, i reply “no”, he asks if i have been getting lots of error messages, “no”, he asks if I get an error report and need to click send, “no”, he asks of my computer is switched on, “no”. You get the jist, I answered no to every question and he got seriously irritated and then the funniest part was he thanked me for my patience! no mate, thank YOU for entertaining me for 5 minutes
Yes, Kito-mom, they are casting about. I have received a couple of calls from these jokers in the last few days at my father’s place in Canada. The first time, very early into the call, I told them that I was an IT professional (I am) and that I knew exactly what kind of scam they were running and that we had nothing to talk about. They politely (?) hung up. Oddly enough, they didn’t remove my father’s phone number from their database as I got called again today. I decided to have some fun and managed to keep them on the line for about 20 minutes by answering their questions inanely:
“Are you in front of your computer?” ==> “No, I am standing beside it.”
“What is the biggest problem you have with your computer?” ==> “The person sitting in the chair in front of it.”
“Are you having any other problems with yur computer?” ==> “Well, yes. Every once in a while I visit a web site and a window pops up telling me my computer is full of viruses. It is obviously phony and is just trying to scam me into buying a fake virus scanner so they can get my credit card numbers. Would you please clean up the Internet to get rid of stuff like this!”
Amazingly enough, he never seemed to catch on that I was playing games with him. I never thought to ask him to engage in illegal sexual acts. Nice one Sue!! – Maybe next time!
In any event, after about 20 minutes he told me I had very serious computer problems and that he was going to get a senior technician to help me. (Escalation to a more professional scammer???) He hung up and sure enough, a few seconds later, the phone rang again. (similar blocked / unavailable number). I said “Hello” strongly and when I caught the Indian accent held the phone near the spout on the kitchen sink and let her rip to simulate a lot of static on the phone line and then hit “hang up” after a few seconds. They haven’t called back to keep “helping” me. I wonder why??
I’ll tell you – it was really hard to keep a straight face and appear to be serious with the first guy. Most fun I have had in a long time. (Yeah, I know – I should get a life!)
V.
I just had “Mike” (with the obligatory Indian accent) try to tell me the same thing. Eventually I told him I had a computer running windows 3.1 and had never been on the internet. I had him on the phone for around 20 minutes. The worst part is I got a feeling this guy really didn’t know he was scamming people, seemed like he was a pawn, Could just be me imagining it however.
I just had a call, my word, I lost it. I did verbally abuse him quite a bit. I said ‘Do you think I am stupid?’ He said ‘YES!’ I said ‘EXCUSE ME?!’ He said ‘What is this stupids?’ Honestly, how dare he. He has got our details from Sky, my partner gets calls on his mobile usually, this is first home one. Stared happening as soon as we signed up for Sky, sometimes they even say they are Sky and there is a problem with our Sky box! Even though brand new. My phone call today was about my slow pc connection. Since my abuse my partner has received NUMEROUS calls to his mobile.. the Sky scam thing again, same people. How dare Sky hand out our details to third parties like these.
I am a bit worried now since I have given them (www.24sevenpccare.com I think) remote access which they used to take away event entries from the event viewer.I looked them up and Norton says they are ok.I did a full system scan but am still a little worried that they could have left a key logger behind.They called again today and I went nuts at them.If they phone again I will say
“why do you phone all the way to the UK? I”m sure somebody else will have a computer in India. Why don’t you try that little slum dog fella,I hear he’s come into a bit of cash!” I might even say it in my best Abu from the Simsons voice. (ooh,’my baaad?)
had 3 of these phone calls in 2 days & getting really fed up!! .. .my husband spoke to a man earlier today & kept him on the phone for a long while, he refused to give a company name, refused to give any details, except our isp had said our computer was running slow, my husband asked who our isp was & was told BT .. .wrong!!! my husband eventually told him to p@@s off!! then just now had another one this time a women, who strangely couldnt name my isp, tell me the company name or give me any details of what was wrong with my computer.. i told her if she carried on the call i would call the police, she hunb up! this last time a number came up, when i did redial, it was unavailable!!!! …..
3 calls from the same people today. I asked them lots of awkward questions and they rabbited on about servers and windows. After asking them a) who gave them permission to monitor my internet usage. b) how they could know there was a problem as I never send error reports and the classic c) how did they know windows wasn’t responding as I use a mac THEY hung up on me ….cheek of it
Seriously though something needs to be done about these people.
Getting the same calls. Been happening since I had a problem with my ISP (which we sorted with them).
Not sure if my ISP gave them my number but it all seems very strange to me. Anyway I just finished a 14min call with an arrogant twat (again with an indian accent). I have no issues with any one of Indian descent but these scam call centres are starting to really do my head in.
I had a right go at him saying I’ve been getting these calls and I am not interested as I do not have problems with my PC etc and he has the nerve to say “Shut up and listen to me”.
Anyway he proceeded to ask how old my machine was and I replied by asking why. He said “We are responsible for manufacturing your computer” I said… “who manufactured it?” he didnt respond. I asked again “Who manufactured it?” .. (I had him in a hole because I built my computer from the ground up and was about to hit him with that bomb shell, but I figured he knew this or had an incline it was a trap and hung up).
I wish we could all come together to rid this nasty scam that seems to rear its most UGLY head every other day or week.
Something definetly needs to be done,
I think the next time someone calls I will say I dont have a computer. Then see what they say. What do you think folks? :0)
Our sub-continental freinds have just got round to me. Three times in the last four days.” I don’t have a computor “stated at the first call didn’t put them off at all.
Suggesting that the were asking me to open my pc to them resulted in a very rapid hang up of the last cal.
Received a call from an Indian speaking chap, says he was receiving messages from my computer, something to do with Microsoft. I told him “I know this is a scam, and that the call was being traced”, he hung up. That was easy.
They will try anything to get people’s info. Oh, by the way, the caller ID was “Unavailable”.
I have just had a call from an Indian operator claiming he has called because my pc was sending error messages to them, when i asked what company he was from he said Computer Maintanence for Vista and XP, and that he was licenced to monitor home pc’s. I have told him that i have given no auth for him to monitor my pc and thinks that i dont need to give auth.
I told him he is talking crap and the answer i got was YES
I told him that he was talking rubbish and the answer i got was YES
so i said i am glad we agree and told him to stop talking bollacks and he hung up
Caller ID was unavailable. If you have the time and you want a bit of a laugh i suggest winding these people up its good fun. LOL
Great detailed posts. I had never heard of this scam until I was called tonight in Nova Scotia; very agressive Indian accent, asking me to turn on my computer as it was sending too many error messages to Microsoft (can you hear me, Bill Gates?). I got mad and said repeatedly I would not turn on my computer… These people are very persistent. He finally went away when I gave him my junk email address. I now regret doing even that. I am wondering how they got my phone number.
Just had a call from an Indian lady saying she works for ‘Online PC Genius’- same story as all the above. I am in New Zealand so I asked for her company address to which she replied Auckland!?
Had a few of these before with various company names- so annoying how aggressive they get with us!
I had two of these calls in one week, I knew it was a scam as soon as I heard the thick Indian accent. Told them to hold while I ‘use the toilet’ so I left him waiting while I watched a bit of TV, fast forward about 30minutes, went back to the phone and found that the guy was still there. I started going into great details about my trip to the toilet, I even asked him for tips on dealing with constipation, I though we had become great friends until he hung up on me.
Very rude.
The second call was easier, I went along with the man’s game, answering all his questions with a ‘no’ and right until the end I told him that I didn’t actually have a computer before saying ‘the joke is on you’, he hung up.
I just had two calls in a row from these clowns and they were rude so I used a few Hindi swear words which I dug out from the internet and used those on them. Worked a treat!
Got the same call today. Told him I don’t run windows, I have a mac and he hung up on me!!! Shame
Dave has the answer – this is THE way to get rid of them ASAP. Windows? Microsoft? I’ve got an Apple Mac!
i am an idiot i fell for this, A@$hole got 443$ from my credit card that he western unioned to himself from my computer. I fell for this so completely I even gave him my mothers maiden name, as proof of ID for a refund I only fingured it out when he asked me if i was going to bed and ended his message with ‘dear’
My question is how do i stop him from getting anything more? I’ve cancelled credit card and put hold on bank account, changed email and network passwords Anybody have any advice?
Iv’e just got a phone call from gavin basically saying he could see i was getting error messages , slow running comp, web page errors corrupted files and viruses etc . To be honest he did sound rather convincing but suspicious me came out questioning his intentions . He asked me to take a seat by my comp then he would proceed to repair my comp even though i had told him we had not experienced any problems other then isp problems . I asked him what company he was from and lamely he said ” internet maintainence office ” ! I then told him that i had high security on my comp his reply was ” ok i will update our records ” . i then rang our telephone / broadband provider and just to confirm they told me it was a scam but were limited to what they could do about it . scary stuff if your one to be fooled easily !
@ Vicki Really sorry to hear this. Those who find this website must be the tip of a gigantic iceberg of people being caught out every day.
If you gave him remote access to your computer, you need to prevent him from continuing to have access to it. If you were directed to a site like Logmein123, contact them and explain what has happened and ask them to delete your account. If you can access it, change the password too until the account is deleted.
Just had a phone call similar to all of the above.The Asian sounding woman was adamant that my PC had been sending error messages to Microsoft and I needed to ‘fix’ the problem by downloading software from Micropcsolutions.com, which looks to be a genuine website but who knows?? She told me to open internet explorer and delete a field or something (I didn’t do it) and type in TEAMVIEWER in the field instead. I kept asking her for her phone number and eventually after about 10minutes she gave me 02081445402. She kept saying my PC had a trojan virus on it and I needed to get the ‘free’programmes to fix it. She then said I would have to pay £79.95 for the licences for them!! I kept asking her to phone me back later when my son would be home, as he knows a lot more about computers than I do. After finally hanging up I typed that phone number in google and it doesn’t come up with any company name – it just links it to previous scam victims that have also searched the same number. Needless to say, she hasn’t phoned me back (shame as my son would have loved to have wound her up) I have reported it on Action Fraud (03001232040)
I keep getting the call’s! and I start changing programs on the TV because the box has a computer chip.
Asian Man says ” press start” I say “yes” he will ask me to click on my computer yes he says what can you see I say Discovery he says WHAT!
All this goes on till I get to History after about 20 Min’s,by this time you can hear his hair being pulled out,then another chap will take over so I go back to the ‘Start’
After half an hour I tell them everything looks to be working very well,then I am asked are you pressing on ‘my computer’ I say yes but its not turned on? I hear a loud scream then the phone goes dead??
Did I do something wrong?????
just had a call,asian man said he would fix my computer if i gave him control i hung up on him
I have just spent an enjoyable 15 minutes chatting to Micro PC Solutions about my computer running slow. She had my name wrong (I played along) and couldn’t tell me what OS I was even running! When pressed on where she was calling from apparently it was a hotel in London. I enquired as to why Microsoft (who she initially claimed she was from) didn’t have their own offices? I was then transferred to the technician, “Kevin Rai” who admitted to being in a call centre in Luton. I told him about recent media coverage of this scam and that Microsoft have said they will never ever contact anyone, when he admitted to be working for Micro PC Solutions. They have their own website, looks convincing. Boy was he persistent! He kept trying to get me to switch on the PC and I kept saying “no”. In the end we agreed he’d call back next Friday, which I doubt. Anyone got any questions they want me to ask him?
We’ve had several of these calls over time. My husband, who has never used a computer, normally says he doesn’t have a computer and they hang up, they usually say “Goodbye”. But this morning, as I was at home, he suggested handing over to me (I’m the one who uses our computer). So I listened to this Indian-sounding lady who gave her name as Lisa Janes (very Indian-sounding, I must say!). I knew about these scams but thought I’d listen to all her bumph – it took forever. I said I had to leave for work and asked her telephone number, which she gave without hesitation. She then gave her address (NW9 5RH – Hendon/Brent area in London) and that their UK base was in Bradford, Ohio – hah!! She asked when would be a convenient time for her to call again; I said I’d get in touch if necessary. Are these people being used as pawns in some big boss’s scam, or do they know what they’re doing? And are they all calling from the subcontinent? I’d love to know. My worry is that when my husband does eventually learn to use the computer (which I’m encouraging) will he fall for one of these scams? I just print out all the news of them and show it to him so he’s aware.