My father received a phone call yesterday, from someone claiming to work for Microsoft, and that there was a problem with his computer that needed to be fixed. He apparently sounded fairly convincing, but thankfully my Dad has a health dose of skepticism, and didn’t bite.
Probably the trickiest thing they do in these calls is have you run a command that is built into windows which will display your system event log. In this log, you’ll see a bunch of error messages marked by scary danger and warning symbols that, to the non-technical folks, would probably scare the bejeebus out of most. And that’s the hook they use to try to get your personal information, including a credit card number. Most of these messages are completely normal.
Here’s the most important take-away: Microsoft (nor HP, IBM, or just about any big company like that) will not call you without you first calling them. If someone does so, and claims to be from such a company, they’re either simply trying to sell you something at best, or trying to scam you and/or steal your identity at worst. If someone does, politely decline their services and seek out help from a local company, or call the purported company directly, finding their public phone numbers on the Internet first (don’t use a number that they provide.)
Dave