Just had a call from the same group. Asked about how if got my number and was fed the same line as everyone. The line went "all funny" when I told him I was in Law Enforcement.
It's a Scam don't be fooled, contact and report this to your local Police Service of Jurisdiction and tell them you wish to report a fraud.
They will ask for details etc, so supply them the contact name and number of the person that called you. I would direct them to this site also.
Well, glad I looked in a few places.... I can see that this scam has been going for awhile. I just got a call from Unknown Name and Unknown Number at 6:31 June 21 2011. Hello Mrs. XXXX", I asked who wanted to know? He continued with a desparate tone "I am calling from Texas and we have a report that your computer is sending us error messages. We would like to help you protect your computer from a lethal virus". I said "My computer is sending you a message....who are you?" We are working with Microsoft, please open your computer and I can assist in protecting your computer". I should have asked him how many of my computers were sending messages. I told him that my IT department would take care of it but he told me that they would not know what to do in this instance. I said I would not open my computer for anyone to hack into, so I asked for him name and phone number, I would check into this and, if it was legitimate, I would call back. "yes, yes, please call me back. My name is Neil Parker (ha ha ha, noone with this accent has that name), I am with Hawk tech live and my number is 210-888-0671. Well I am glad to find that others are sharing their scam calls (I don't trust anyone when they call) but I'm sure that many fall for this..... remember the accent. Always get a call back number and name (no doubt Neil Parker will not be there if I call back...and maybe I will just to tell them that a million people know this is a scam) and check out phone scams on the internet.
Thanks everyone.....
Hope, BC
I got a call at home today here in Toronto from a guy talking in broken english with the same story as most here.claiming to be from Microsoft and needed to remove a virus in my infected computer.
I asked him"what does Microsoft have to do with my computer.First off,tell me who my Internet provider is,and tell me my IP address at this moment.(he couldn't obviously tell me anything).My Internet provider would call if they saw a major problem,not Microsoft AND THEY WOULDN'T CALL ME AT ALL BECAUSE I HAVE A MACBOOK PRO,SO BUZZ OFF,
For those not tech savy,all they have to do if they are not sure about the validity of the call,make the guy tell you your internet provider,e-mail address,and IP address if available,but don't tell him if he is right or wrong for any of those items.That should end the call from his end.
Adding one more to the blog trail. I just got the call; I worked for Microsoft and know they are very serious when working with their partners and customers. So all of you are correct this cannot be a true company and or a serious business. Be very careful with this call. Thank you all for your comments, it took me about 2 seconds to find this blog after Mr. Brown gave me his number. If you get a call like this one PLEASE END THE CALL IMMEDIATELY.
From the sound of the backgroung noise at Hawksview Live it's a fairly large scam operation. When I refused to download Teamviewer, which he wanted me to do, he gave me the 210 888-0617 number and asked me to call him back. Instead I called Teamviewer to see if they were aware of this scam. I was advised that they are and they're trying to shut it down. They have tried to block Hawktech and have reported them to the police and because the scam is originating from India Interpol has been advised. If you google hawkstech live you will see they are advertising jobs in India. Don't get tricked folks...