I got the call this morning, with the same phishing pitch that has been reported here by others. I actually enjoyed listening to him jump through hoops as I led him along and let him use his scripts, so the only loss for me was 5 minutes of my morning. He called on the land line (which we rarely use) and asked for me by name, at which point I claimed that I was the brother of that person; could I take a message?
Scam: He said he was calling on behalf of "my internet service provider."
Me: Really? Can you tell me the name of my internet service provider?
Scam: Well sir, we represent many internet service provider, like AT&T, Sprint...
Me: Oh, so you're not actually this ISP, okay.
Scam: We contract with many internet service providers, and we have been getting reports of some problems with your computer.
Me: Oh? What problems are those? How are they being reported? I'd like to give an accurate message to my brother.
Scam: Sir, if you are at your computer, I can lead you through...
Me: I'm not at the computer right now, but please, tell me the nature of the problems.
Scam: It's easiest if you just turn on your computer and...
Me: I'd rather not do that, would you like to leave a message?
Scam: When would be a good time to call back?
Me: He'll be back this afternoon, that should work fine. I see you're calling from Oregon. I'm in Washington, D.C. The internet service provider is Verizon, based here in D.C. Why did they contract with you all the way on the other side of the country?
Scam: If you go to your computer, I can show you where...
Me: Okay, sure. But first, I'd really like to know the specific nature of the problems you say are being reported.
Scam: Well sir, it's with Microsoft software, and the Windows operating system.
Me: No kidding. Because my brother has an Apple, and it runs Macintosh OS X.
Scam: Oh.
Me: So did you want to leave a message? I'll tell him you called and that you'll call back this afternoon.
Scam: No, no that's okay.
<click>
FYI
Received a call from this individual 10//26 @ 3 pm eastern. Caller id'd himself as an MSN IT specialist who wanted to check into suspicious activity that MSN was detecting from/ happening on my PC. Most likely with out my consent or knowledge. Wanted me to type in "EVENTVWR" in my run box but i didn't do it. Told him i was hanging up and calling police and local news. Most likeley a burner phone but i DO see it was reported LOST by someone. Could be the previous owner or my caller after he was worried about getting caught?
I work for an IT company and we have had customer's receive this call. Two of which allowed them to gain access to their machine. DO NOT let anyone have access to your computer. This is a scam that has been going around for sometime now. There is not central server and they can not see what is going on with your computer. They are fishing for information that you may have stored on the machine.