Earlier this week my wife got a phone call from someone with an Indian accent saying he was calling from ‘Windows Service Station’. At first my she thought it was about our car, but he went on to tell her that her computer was sending out a lot of errors and hacking into other computers. He wanted to repair it. She was immediately suspicious as it seemed to her to be a bit far fetched, so after he began putting on the pressure she said she would have to speak to me when I got home for lunch. He immediately put the phone down. She tried to get as much info out of him before saying he would have to wait to speak to me first.
She looked up WSS on the Internet and discovered the scam by people who get you to go into your computer then take over control of it. After half an hour they say they fixed it, then try and charge a couple of hundred pounds for doing it.
In the afternoon I had a female phone caller, again with an Indian accent, claiming she was from the ‘Windows Technical Department’. As soon as she got to her point about my computer I just said, ‘you are one of these scams aren’t you?’ The phone went dead. Looking up some of the websites and blogs on this scam it seems it goes back to at least 2008.
The first of the Guardian articles didn’t seem to see it doing anything illegal or damaging. Subsequent Guardian articles do but it is worth reading through the comments of readers’ who have had these calls, one has had ten and don’t seem to get rid of them. (Are our two calls the first of more to come?) Comments vary from being scared by them to having fun with them - that is, keeping them going for as long as they can on the phone without giving out details of their PC, which is what they are after. I found the blogs and Forums helpful in reading what others are experiencing and to recognise the scam ‘patter’ and what to do. Some seem to have allowed their PCs to be accessed thinking that the caller is legit, with serious consequences.
Back in March ‘Money Watch’ reported that the scam has become more sinister by possibly installing software on vulnerable computers.
It can be quite disturbing to read such comments that follow these articles such as:
“I think the important piece here is not what computer system you run, but about the easy accessibility to personal data, and the lack of control or interest by those who run remote call centres, which by their nature use personal information.”
From my reading, including forums dealing with the scam and the comments following articles on the scam the perpetrators, ‘Kolkata’ (Calcutta) seems a commonly named location for these cold callers. While some people seem to have ‘fun’ ‘winding up’ these cold callers by wasting their time others seemed to have had intimidating experiences.
One of our friends my wife informed, a widow who lives on her own, emailed back to say, she was almost caught by the same scam. She said, “An Indian guy gave me the same spiel. As I am not very clued up on computers I was on for nearly 1/2 hour going through various checks. I sounded a bit dim to him,( and I suppose I was) He knew everything about me, and my computer.
“Lastly, because of the ‘fault’ he wanted me to get a screw driver and take off the cover of the socket to see if there was a small component in there. Because I didn’t think it safe, I said I would have to consult my son about it. He got a bit shirty. In the end it seemed he wanted to renew my insurance cover. He could do it for me, just get your card and quote me the number! So I hung up. I think it is frightening that he knew my address and what computer I have.”
From what my wife has said and what I have read on the Internet they can be quite convincing. But everyone should know that ‘Windows’ will never phone any individual who owns a computer.
A few informative links on these phone scams:
“Phone Call From The ‘Technical Department Of Windows” posted by Kim Harding
A Forum on ‘Windows Technical Dept. Scam - How To Recover’
