Microsoft will never contact customers by telephone. Only fraudsters who appropriate the Microsoft name do that.
They may say you have a virus and offer to help you. They tell you to pay for it by giving them your credit card details. Or they will ask you to give them remote access to your entire computer.
Offering to help
Microsoft tech support fraudsters want to appear credible to gain your trust. They do this by for instance asking you to enter a code in the command prompt on your computer. The person calling tells you that only you and Microsoft can see the text that appears, and reads it out loud to you. This is a lie. The text generated is easily accessible to anyone who enters the code.
Next, you might be told that your computer is full of viruses, and it is urgent for you to remove them. The fraudsters tell you that they can help you to get rid of them. After a longer conversation, in which they run through your computer with you, the fraudsters request compensation for their services.
Requests for remote access
Other callers may ask you to give them remote access to your computer. By doing this, you give fraudsters complete access to your computer, and the sky’s the limit as far as what the scammers can do then. It is well known that consumers who fall for this scam have had both their credit cards and bank accounts emptied.
Consumers can also be tricked into participating in money laundering. The Microsoft scammers will tell you that you have paid too much to remove the alleged virus on your computer, and ask for an account number to pay back a given amount. The consumer will then receive a much larger sum than agreed, and the scammers claim that they made a mistake. They then ask that you repay the excess amount, thus making you into their “mule” for money laundering.
Calls from Norwegian numbers
Consumers that have contacted us have said that the phone call from these scammers came from a regular Norwegian number. This is possible through falsification of the number (“spoofing”), so it looks like a domestic phone call. Many consumers will thus be less hesitant to pick up the phone.
Requests for pictures of ID
Some consumers have also been asked to take pictures or make copies of their ID. This can help fraudsters produce false identity papers used in connection with other criminal activities.
If you believe you have a Microsoft tech support scammer on the phone, we recommend that you hang up. If they continue to call, block the number on your phone, or contact your phone company and ask them to help you block the number.
If you have been ripped off, you should immediately contact your bank.