Windows Security Phone Scam Now Targeting Sweden

Richard Balwin

I am based in the UK and only last week I received just such a call. A guy with an Indian accent telling me he was from 'Windows' and that he had detected threats on my computer. When I tried to sound worried and get some more information he hung up.

Hi David,

Thanks for writing this - that's really interesting to hear.

Just to make sure I understand it correctly, the guy did not (attempt to) speak Swedish? Is it common for people in Sweden to receive (legitimate) calls in English? Did he somehow refer to the fact that you're based in Sweden?

I'm just wondering if it could just be someone who entered the wrong access code (46, instead of 44 for the UK, where a lot of these scams are targeted). I'm doing some research into these kind of scams and have been wondering if they target non-English speaking countries in their native languages as well.

Thanks!

Martijn - Virus Bulletin

@Richard I'm pretty certain they've been going on in the UK for much longer.

Here's an article (requires free registration) from the beginning of 2011 that mentions such scams in Australia; I believe they were already going on in the UK back then:
http://www.virusbtn.com/virusbulletin/archive/2011/01/vb201101-hello

@David, thanks. It's interesting to learn that they're calling Sweden too.

Windows phone scam

Hi David,

They are hitting Ottawa, Canada now. Many people I know have been contacted within the last few weeks. I was targeted last week. Although I could barely cut through the accent, I understood that this was a scam. When he said that they had been trying to contact me for some time, I reminded him that Microsoft can contact me at any time they want and that this was a scam. "What a scam?" he said. I replyed that if he couldn't speak english any better than that, then Microsoft would have never hired him. He then got belligerant and I hung up after a few choice comments.

Thank you for your comment. It seems that they are hitting many countries then. I wonder how this is setup, and how many people thats behind this.

did get it too

yes as a matter of fact I did get a call like that, me too at first I started asking some simple question and that prompted them to hang up. According to this new report by Australian TV: http://www.whycall.me/info/techsupportscam.php

according to Microsoft's official warning about this an average consumer loses 850$! This is almost hard to believe considering that a brand new computer often costs less

Just received a phonecall

Hi,
I was working from home in Sweden today and just received such a phonecall on my home number. I am a curious person and fascinated by the mechanics in scams and frauds like this. So i just played along when he called and said i was so glad that he called. Just after he introduced himself with one of those corny names like "Mikael Smith", i said "my computer is full of viruses, thanks for the service of calling me" He got a bit shocked and said "hold on for a second" and went back and their was discussions in the background. Then he asked if i was close to my computer and advised me to press "start and R" buttons to open the run-window. There he told me to write something that i cant remember at the moment. I obviously didnt type anything but i constantly pretended not to hear the letters he told me. Thought somehow i could make his phonebill increase at least.. ;=) After a couple of more discussions on what letters i should type and just before pressing "enter" i asked him if i need an internet connection to solve the issues. I said I canceled my subscription for internet a couple of days ago because of to many viruses on my computer. Then he said " be right back" and went for another lively discussion in the background. When he came back he said there was nothing he could do if i dont have internet. And i thanked him immensely for helping me out and assisting me. Before i hung up i asked him if he wanted to buy something from me. I asked if he needed cheap Viagra. And that i could give him a very good price. Then he actually started laughing and we wished each other a nice weekend before hanging up.