Mr KillKill
Active member
Had a very strange phone call today and was wondering if anyone had a similar experience.
A guy rang up from what sounded like some sort of Bombay call centre claiming that he was from Microsoft Windows and that a computer on my phone line had been found to have downloaded a “malicious virus” (his words).
Because of the accent and the noise in the background, I thought he was telling me about a PC of mine they were repairing. As I didn’t have a PC being repaired I told him he probably had the wrong number but he rattled off my phone number so I knew that wasn’t the case.
He kept on going on about a virus and asked if I used anti-virus software, I do but I have several removable drives and two don’t run any anti-virus software at all. These are what I refer to as dirty drives which I use as test drives I therefore don’t use them for banking or anything else that might compromise my details so its possible one of these drives might have picked something up.
I told him that I would just reformat the infected drives, like I said they are only test drives and the reformat would only take about an hour, but he told me that the virus still stays on the drive after a reformat which sounded like a crock. I still couldn’t work out what he wanted so thanked him for his time and hung up.
I was telling a friend at work about the conversation and he asked;
1) How did they get my number as, like him, I always give a false number when registering products (sometimes I just get tired of the whole “give us all your details” routine)
2) I should have asked him to give me the name of the person he wanted, in case it was someone who was calling after simply generating the phone number for a scam and not knowing who they were calling
3) I should have asked for the name of the virus
4) I should have asked him to send me an e-mail regarding the virus, after all, if he had my phone number he should have my e-mail address…right?
5) Since when does Microsoft give a courtesy call telling people they had downloaded a virus
All in all it was a VERY strange call and I’d be interested in knowing if anyone else had had a similar experience
A guy rang up from what sounded like some sort of Bombay call centre claiming that he was from Microsoft Windows and that a computer on my phone line had been found to have downloaded a “malicious virus” (his words).
Because of the accent and the noise in the background, I thought he was telling me about a PC of mine they were repairing. As I didn’t have a PC being repaired I told him he probably had the wrong number but he rattled off my phone number so I knew that wasn’t the case.
He kept on going on about a virus and asked if I used anti-virus software, I do but I have several removable drives and two don’t run any anti-virus software at all. These are what I refer to as dirty drives which I use as test drives I therefore don’t use them for banking or anything else that might compromise my details so its possible one of these drives might have picked something up.
I told him that I would just reformat the infected drives, like I said they are only test drives and the reformat would only take about an hour, but he told me that the virus still stays on the drive after a reformat which sounded like a crock. I still couldn’t work out what he wanted so thanked him for his time and hung up.
I was telling a friend at work about the conversation and he asked;
1) How did they get my number as, like him, I always give a false number when registering products (sometimes I just get tired of the whole “give us all your details” routine)
2) I should have asked him to give me the name of the person he wanted, in case it was someone who was calling after simply generating the phone number for a scam and not knowing who they were calling
3) I should have asked for the name of the virus
4) I should have asked him to send me an e-mail regarding the virus, after all, if he had my phone number he should have my e-mail address…right?
5) Since when does Microsoft give a courtesy call telling people they had downloaded a virus
All in all it was a VERY strange call and I’d be interested in knowing if anyone else had had a similar experience
