Event and AMMYY Scare

[Guest Norm Mandy]

Microsoft does not randomly call people to "fix" their "Errors", and errors on your computer have nothing to do with Microsoft's servers.

 

I almost fell for this scam because (like everyone, I suppose) I had some error messages and some script problems with Flash off and on. I had gone to Microsoft to find help on Flash issues and had even used FIXIT; but the result was a message that it couldn't fix it.

 

 

Voila! A couple of days later I get a call from someone at Microsoft calling to "fix" my errors! How cool is that! He had me check and type in the START search box and brought up an EVENT screen and WOW! --- there were tons of error messages! The technician (in an extraordinarily heavy accent) said we were going to fix these to help me and clear their servers.

 

 

HUH? Clear their servers? What did that mean? I was a bit suspicious, now.

 

Then he told me to type in Ammyy.com from the START search box.

 

NOPE. This just didn't feel right. I made an excuse and did a Google search on Ammyy and then told the technician I was getting reports this was a scam.

 

 

Cool as a cucumber he said the reports were wrong, he was with Microsoft, I could call the BBB (? seriously ?) and gave me a phone number to call him back after I checked it out.

 

 

I had a wonderful visit following that with good people at Microsoft support and reported the scam. Yes, a total scam. Yes, they knew about it but very difficult to stop because the people were using phones, not the internet, to gain access initially. Basically, I nearly the door for them and invited them in to harm me! Oh, and of course the phone number they gave me was unassigned.

 

Mantra: Microsoft does not randomly or specifically call people to "fix" problems unless those customers have directly contacted Microsoft (not the other way around). Microsoft does not call people who complete comments boxes or "submit" error reports.

 

Close call.

 

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