Scam Warning

This may have been posted before, but is now archived...but anyway:

Bottom line: people with a Middle Eastern accent calling you up with a "dire warning" about viruses on your computer, and wanting you to go through some steps to give them remote access to your computer.

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Story:
Been receiving phone calls. Caller ID shows up as (0), with nothing else; which tells me they're spoofing some phone number somewhere.

I've been called by these folks 7 or 8 times. Both men and women. The pitch is usually something along the lines of "We're calling from Windows Security Center." Ask them if they're talking about Microsoft, and they usually say yes, Microsoft Windows, but they're not a part of Microsoft. One woman actually told me they were the company that "owned" Windows throughout the entire world.

Freaky thing is, they've got your name. So they're either using a telephone directory listing, or some other listing that identifies your name with your phone number. (Once upon a time, I tried telephone sales; we would get a page from the phone book and just go down the list of names. It was a craptacular job, and I lasted about 3 hours)

So then they talk about how your computer has been sending them reports that your computer is infected with hundreds or even thousands of viruses. They'll talk you through a few steps to bring up a window that confirms a certain number on your computer, thereby "proving" that they're talking about your computer (reality is, this number is the same for all versions of Windows). After that, they'll ask you for some more information so they can go in and clean your computer of all the viruses and malware.

What they're doing is getting you to allow them remote access to your computer; after which, they can pull all kinds of sensitive information from your computer.

First time they called, I let them talk for a few minutes, then hung up. One call, I played dumb and let them talk me all the way to the point where they could remotely access my computer, and then I hung up. Another call, I told them I had a college degree in computers, and that they were scamming me; they hung up before I finished talking.

Last night was the kicker, though. Guy called me up, started giving me the spiel about receiving messages from my computer, and I interrupted him and said, "but I use Linux; how is it possible you're receiving Windows messages from my computer?" He was utterly confused, didn't know how to respond; verified that he had my first and last name correct; then said something about removing my number from his list, and we hung up. 10 minutes later, I get another call; guy identifies himself as the same exact guy who called me previously, and again calls me by my last name. I then ask him, "didn't you call me about 10 minutes ago?" And he says, "No." I say, "I think you did"; and then he asks if my first name is ___; to which I reply, no (but it was my little brother's name, which is kinda freaky, too). So then he mutters some kind of apology and hangs up before I can say anything else.

Feel free to pass the warning around. I'm sure I'm not the only one they're calling.