Today I received a call from 813 430 0912, a guy named Michael Smith told me that his company (...Tec  could not understand quite well the company's name because Mr. Smith had a strong accent) had called them to inform that I had been downloading ilegal items. He asked me to turn on my computer and follow his instructions to clear these ilegal items. I told him I'll call later.  

Excellent advice!

More information on that scam (#3) is at
http://phonehelp.2truth.com/facts.html

That site also shows how other 800notes visitors have reduced the number of telephone scams and telemarketing calls they receive.  (Links to Amazon's phone blocker devices and apps, as well as government reporting sites are also provided).

I got a call on the 16th of January with an "out of area" (ie: overseas, not "us withheld") caller ID.

He had a thick strong indian accent and started off by saying:
"Hello My Name is James Marshall, i am calling you from windows tech support team(GENEX PC SECURITY) Contact No. - 855-263-2733 (Toll free) / 813-430-0912 we have had a report from your computer that it is infected".

At this point, I started recording the call - the only problem is that the recording is illegible! I'm trying to clean it up so will post as soon as I do -

I was also noting it down, and here's what he told me to do:

Go to the start>run menu and type in

"p as in peter, r as in romeo, e as in echo, f as in foxtrot" - etc etc, to cut a long story short, he wanted me to type in

"prefetch virus" in the run prompt. As it happens, I know exactly what that would do - it simply opens the windows prefetch folder. The word "virus" is ignored

(For a bit more info on what this normal windows folder is, click here. As a rule, however, unless you know exactly what the result is going to be do not start following instructions random strangers tell you to do!).



Please be aware of such scams........!!!!!!

Pretty much the same (as above) for me.  Asked to speak with me by name.  My wife asked WHY she would need to speak to me specifically and said it was about my computer.  It was a poor connection (kept breaking up) and she had quite an accent. It was 'Delna' calling about my windows operating system being infected because there had been some "unauthorized downloads" detected on my computer.  I asked which computer and she said the one registered at my address (and she told me my address).  I told her she must have the wrong number (even though she had my address) because the only computer at my address was an Apple computer.  I asked what company she worked for and she gave me GenEx PC.  But by that time, I was pretty much convinced this was a scam.

A woman named Delna has called me twice, claiming to be from tech support/Windows.  I asked pointed questions about who owns the computer that is supposedly having problems with downloading malware.  In the first call, she was evasive.  Then she called again, 2 weeks later, asking why we hadn't called them back at the number they gave us at the time (I had thrown it away).  This second time, yesterday, she specifically named our daughter, who hasn't lived at home for 12 years, has been married for 10 years and doesn't even own the computer that she had 12 years ago.  I accused her of being a scammer??she was very defensive.

My mother-in-law received a call this morning, the male that she initially talked with she could not understand and told him so, she was transfered to a "Zelda" who stated they were from 'Tech Support Team Windows' and her computer was infected with a virus. She told them that was very unlikely as she does not own a computer.  Zelda then switched to it was her laptop again my mother-in-law informed them she did not own such. Zelda left the noted number, "ClearTeleBusiness" (http://www.cleartelebusiness.com/813-430) located the number in Hillsborough, Florida.
A recent article in the local our local paper and an article posted to Daly Kos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/20/1279 ... am?detail=email) identifies this as a scam in order to get access to a person's computer. A article at Dell (http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/u ... ew?docid=628372) also discusses this scam and provides a link to Microsft.