Cold Calls - Microsoft
247 PC Care is a scam that seems to have been running for some time after have a quick look around. They prey on the innocent people that don’t have the IT skills necessary to know what a virus actually is. Another firm using this scam is click2support.
Looking in Google brings up a LOT of reports on the internet about this firm under various alias as well a few other firms who seem to run the same sort of scam. This scam seems to start off with a cold call, usually with an Indian accented person calling to claim that your computer has a virus as as a "Microsoft Technical Support" operative, this person will lead you though getting rid of the virus.
Microsoft do not offer such a service, once they have your money for your operating system you're on your own!
And a question I myself wonder about is just how do they get your name and phone number?
I found a response on a Microsoft Answers forum, it's quite a way down the page, so here is a relevant extract:
| Obtaining your name and telephone number is simple and does not require access to your computer. You are correct that they possess this information prior to calling. If they had all your personal information prior to accessing your computer there would be no need for them to request access. The purpose for them requesting access to your computer is to install software which will allow them to later access your computer without you knowing it and/or obtain your credit card numbers, pin numbers, passwords and any other information which can be used for scamming through the use of a keylogger. |
This scam is still ongoing as it proved such a profitable scam! If you get caught with this scam, please feel free to get in touch, I'd need your computer overnight so as to run a number of various scanners, but will only charge for the time actually spent working. You've already been ripped off, I'm not going to add to your costs that much.