Five minutes ago, I received a phone call from a man who claims to be “David Johnson” who said he’s working from Microsoft. He had an accent that I was unable to identify, but I assumed he was from India. His phone number showed up on my cell phone as “212-414-155” (that’s right – — it’s missing a digit). He told me that MY computer has been throwing out error messages that are being received by the Microsoft Server, and that we need to fix the problem. I led him on a bit. He said to hit the control key plus r, and that this is the beginning of the fix.
I asked for his phone number. He wouldn’t give it. He repeatedly said that he’s working with Microsoft, not FOR Microsoft. He wouldn’t give me his supervisor’s name. I repeatedly asked for his PHONE NUMBER so I could call him back (I wanted it to report him to Microsoft). He wouldn’t give it. I offered to add Microsoft to the call, and he got evasive.
My assumption is that he was trying to have me give him access to my computer by installing monitoring software. I eventually called him a “criminal,” and told him he was despicable, then ended the call. I recorded most of the conversation. Beware . . . . I’m including a link from Microsoft regarding phone scams.
Got a call like that but the phone number was weird. It was 1234567890. Is it valid? I Googled it and several complaints came up at http://www.callercenter.com/123-456-7890.html/2 and I’m wondering if there really is such a phone number. Is it possible that the caller sort of faked the number?
I you can modify the number that is displayed when you call someone. For instance, see here. http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB107460&cv=820#fbid=0K6QoPNl-Lu Therefore, a business can fake a number that shows up on caller ID.
Just got a call from the same number. I didn’t answer as I usually don’t when I don’t recognize the number. They didn’t leave a message. Next time I’ll answer to mess with the guy. Can’t stand scammers.
Had the same thing happen yesterday. I told them I was taking it to a computer tech and she said “ok” and hung up. I found out about this website by plugging in the phone number that was missing the last number. Thanks for posting this!
Just got a call from a man with an Indian accent claiming the same affiliation with Microsoft and giving the same story as above. The call id showed 212-555-9874 Dir Asst NY. I did not give him any information and hung up. He called back two times and left a message.