The calls I am receiving are not saying MicroSoft, although that is what they want you to believe. They are saying I am from Windows 10 Tech Department. I have had three such calls, they are always Indian, Pakistani or that vicinity of the world. Their accents are heavy, but they give American sounding names such as Morgan, Timothy, etc. It is a scam. The first one I received, I was not thinking clearly. He directed me to download a program so he could remove the "virus, which Norton told me was safe, so I did. It took about one minute for him to take over my cursor and to start to download an unauthorized program "to clean up the virus." As soon as I realized he was not going to stop when I told him "NO!", I did a hard shut down of my computer. I unplugged everything from the computer and left it that way for two days. My computer tech then cleaned my computer of anything supicious and anything unnecessary. I have been fine since, but suspect that if he had succeeded, he would be demanding a ransom for me to access my own computer and my records. Like I said, I have had three such calls just in the last 10 days. I did cancel all my credit cards and put a watch on my bank account, as a precaution. Not a fun experience.
He kept calling me back after I did the hard shutdown. I did not answer. He showed me a file on my computer that he said was how many intrusions I had. Several looked bad. I have forgotten the word used but it was like a high level problem. My tech showed me the same file and explained that it was a cache and that in each case, Norton had already quarantined and handled the problem. So, the best thing to do if you do not recognize the phone number is simply answer and in one motion, hang up. Nothing on your answering machine and no intrusion.
That is what the one I just received said, New York. This is NOT a telemarketer, this is a scammer that will take control of your computer and then demand a ransom for you to get it back, if they give it back at all. Has already happened to at least two major corporations here in the U.S.
Thanks for your information. My caller ID said New York had called this morning, but I wasn't home to ignore the call. I still miss the old days of being able to slam the phone down, so I just don't answer unless I recognize the name or number of the caller.