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1. #I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE SOFTWARE#
2. #I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE CODE#
3. #I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE PC#
4. #I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE DOWNLOAD#

Josh Loe, Hostgator's co-founder, said that following the initial complaint, "we asked for more information regarding this to confirm. In March, site hosting company Hostgator shut down one of the longest-running sites used for the alleged scam,, after complaints.Īfter confirming with Microsoft that the site was not acting for it, Hostgator immediately shut it down. PayPal, the eBay-owned credit transfer company, and AlertPay have both taken rapid action against scam sites which used them. A number of payment organisations used by the scammers have shut down their accounts. If the payment has been made on a debit card ‑ as many are ‑ there is no hope of reversing the payment. In the same way, it costs them virtually nothing to make the calls because the international part of the call goes via the internet. That means that the calls connect internationally, but cost the scammers almost nothing when anyone calls them. UK telephone numbers for contacting the company on the sites are not "geographical" ‑ tied to a location ‑ but instead allocated to voice-over-internet providers. Though people on dozens of web forums have recorded their experiences with the scammers, police and trading standards officers in the UK are powerless to stop them. He has provided fake documentation to a number of payment companies including PayPal and Alertpay, a Montreal-based online payment company, to set up accounts which route money to a bank account in Kota with Axis Bank. Investigators who have spoken to the Guardian on condition of anonymity say that one man, based in the city of Kota in Rajasthan, is behind the centres running the scams. In fact, such "errors" are not indicative of any problems. Often, the victims are inexperienced or elderly, convinced by the apparent authority of the callers and the worrying contents of the Event Viewer. Patrick McCarthy, who lives in Dublin, received a call from one of the companies – but they addressed him by the name of the apartment block where he lives instead of his own name, a longstanding error in the Irish phone book. This suggests that the caller was using the phonebook to find names.

#I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE PC#

The caller could not have obtained Matt's name via HP or PC World, where he bought the machine, because he gave his business address, not his home address, during the purchase. "I could see them moving the cursor about. "I thought it was a new service from Windows," he said.

#I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE CODE#

He went along with the caller's demands to log into a website and enter a six-digit code into his computer. There have been downloads of malware and spyware, and they're slowing down your computer." "We have reason to believe that there's a problem with your computer. "It's Windows tech support here," said the caller. Matt, a Londoner who has recently set up his own company, had just arrived home at 7pm when the phone rang and someone with an Indian accent asked for him by name, quoting his address.

#I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE SOFTWARE#

The only catch: there was never anything wrong with the computer, the caller is not working for Microsoft or the internet service provider, and the owner has given a complete stranger access to every piece of data on their machine.Īn investigation by the Guardian has established that this scam, which has been going on quietly since 2008 but has abruptly grown in scale this year, is being run from call centres based in Kolkata, by teams believed to have access to sales databases from computer and software companies. And then it's time to pay a fee: £185 for a "subscription" to the "preventative service".

#I GOT A CALL REGARDING MY MICROSOFT WINDOWS LICENSE DOWNLOAD#

The computer owner is directed to a website and told to download a program that hands over remote control of the computer, and the caller "installs" various "fixes" for the problem. "Now let me guide you through the steps to fixing it." Its contents are, to the average user, worrying: they look like a long list of errors, some labelled "critical". The puzzled owner is then directed to their computer, and asked to open a program called "Windows Event Viewer".