Beware of fake Microsoft Techs calling your house

A few weeks ago I got a call from a fairly convincing scammer pretending to be a technician from Microsoft claiming that my computer was infected with many viruses and needed to be cleaned (with their help) right away.  The fact that they called my at 10:30 pm on a Tuesday evening was my first clue that it was bogus.  My second clue is that I know that Microsoft does not have my information to be calling me at home.

I decided to have some fun and play along with them for a bit to see what they were up to.  I figured that the longer I kept them on the phone the less time they would have to be taking advantage of others who may not have recognized as quickly what they were up to.  Ultimately their goal is to get you to buy "Virus Software" (fake) to fix your computer for a few hundred dollars while they also end up with access to your computer.

I let it go on for about 15 - 20 minutes until they were clearly getting frustrated with me and my inability to follow their instructions (on purpose of course).  I then decided to see if I could scare them and told them that I had intentionally kept them on the phone long enough to use the special phone tracing software (not true) I had and that I would be contacting the police as soon as we hung up.  They hung up very quickly.

Microsoft will never call you to tell you about a virus on your computer. So, if you get the same call you can either have some fun with them like I did - or hang up.

Please make sure you share this with others to prevent them from getting tricked.  I was surprised about the call but found out the next day they had also tried it on my sister and mother.  Clearly they are focusing on the Waterloo Region.  

Have you had the same call?