Fake tech support call scam – supportonclick, systemrecure and logmein123.com

Rabbids Go Home (wii) - over 50% off at Amazon

Are you on a call with “tech support” from supportonclick, systemrecure and logmein123.com while reading this?

PLEASE TRY AND RECORD THE CALL, then contact me. Tell them you need to go to another phone if you need a moment to set up a mic.

DO NOT let them take control of your computer, but please try and get as much info as you can.

HUGE thanks and respec to youtube user striderzer0 for his great work in recording the call. See the four youtube videos below.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=ACD9A8922BBBFE4C

UPDATE: 13/01/2009 – Donal Macintyre covered this on ITV’s This Morning show. Watch it here.

Update: 04/12/2009 Made it into the news! Thanks to Malc for this one: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of_man/8392303.stm and via Google News Alerts: http://www.buteman.co.uk/news/Rothesay-businessman-warns-of-computer.5883193.jp

Update: 26/11/2009

Since I first reported on this on Jan 18th 2009, this one page has had over 24,000 views and 261 comments, and recently there’s been a huge surge in the amount of calls received. I’m getting two or 3 people leaving comments every day now, and over the last week, the page views have surged to close to 400 PER DAY and easily accounts for the most viewed page on my blog by far.
Which suggests that Comantra or Supportonclick or Logmein123 or whoever they are calling themselves this week, are increasing their activity.

YOU CAN HELP!

Please, contact the media and/or help spread the word. It’ll only take 5 minutes.

If you are in the UK:

Tell a consumer programme about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/liz_barclay_consumer_series.shtml
or perhaps your local or national paper. Oddly, in the April the BBC said there “wasn’t any interest” in this story. Take a moment to prove there is!

Also, report it to: https://secure.consumerdirect.gov.uk/reportascam.aspx

There are also threads on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1613667 and
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/502631/call-from-microsoft-maintenance-dep

The Register have an article about it:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/10/supportonclick_scareware_scam/

Note: The Staffordshire Police have also issued a warning about this:
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/3ECA6489-52AC-4A64-A48E-4E44743CB9CB/90090/TelephoneComputerSupportWarning.pdf

In the US:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22222049-Scam-Supportonclickcom-scareware-scam

In Australia:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1057308.html

Worldwide

Anywhere in the world:
You can help people find news about the scam by stumbling or digging:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.digitaltoast.co.uk/fake-tech-support-call-scam-prefetch-virus-logmein123com
http://digg.com/security/Fake_tech_support_call_scam_prefetch_virus_logmein123_com
Or log the info at http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01274900834

Even if you just post a link to my site on your blog, or in your favourite forum, it will help ensure that people looking for help, find it.

Other blogs referencing this:

http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2009/12/techonsupportcom-click4rescuecom.html – has some more info, as well as other ways of reporting the scam.

http://ctaspley.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/update-on-support-on-click-police-alert-to-scam/

From the comments below, it appears that logmein123.com is not the scam itself, but is being used by the scammers. Thanks to Michael in the comments section below for that info. If you have found this post useful, please use the “share this” link below if you have a social networking account such as digg, delicious, facebook, stumbleupon etc. It will help others to find this.

Update: We have a new caller! Many many thanks to Sherri for sending in a recording from her answering machine. I think this is a difference outfit, but it sounds scammy:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And McCaffee Siteadvisor has many aggrieved reviewers of the Support OnClick scammers too!

So, possibly post there too – anything to warn people.

See also threads here and here on MoneySavingExpert and a post on the JamiesRants blog

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

He had a thick strong accent and started off by saying:
“Hello Mr Marshall, this is the Windows XP service provider – we have had a report from your computer that it is infected”. Well, that’s not my name, but one I use on forms where I think spam might result.

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 – check back later!

HELP! Does anyone know how to “clean up” bad recordings? Here’s a snippet of what I recorded – I still have the “original” file in audacity, and have tried changing sample rates. Is this recording lost forever?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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!)

“OK sir, can you please tell me how many files there are?”
I told him 30.
“Oh my gosh, this is a sign of very heavy infection. You must not touch these files. [about the only truthful part of the call]. Please now clear this box and type ‘temp’ and press enter”.

Again, “your computer has very heavy infection with so many files”. He then babbled some crap about how these file were your f-a-t32 system files and that “at any time these files could scratch your hard drive”. Riiiighhhht…..

Then came the money shot. “We will connect you now with an agent, please go to www.logmein123.com”
As I had full armoury on (google toolbar, avg, running Chrome etc), so I decided to check it out. It redirected to https://secure.logmeinrescue.com/Customer/Code.aspx

After some chitchat in which he confirmed my (incorrect, spamtrap) home address, he then said “I will now connect you to an agent – for this there is just a small one-time charge of £12″.
Before I let him take my details, I said I wanted to check what company it was. Again, he said it was “your Windows XP service provider” (whatever the hell that means).
To the answer “where are you based and what is your name”, bear in mind this man had a VERY thick/strong Indian accent and was calling from a scratchy overseas number.
“My name is Kevin Watts and we are based in Bradford”. Gold-dust! You couldn’t make it up! (Well, he obviously had).

I asked him to hold while I got my card. I put it on speakerphone and went down to make a cup of tea. I brewed up a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea, found a biscuit, did a bit of washing up, and went back upstairs. FIVE MINUTES later he was still going “Mr Marshall? Can you hear me?”. Nothing if not persistant! I then just decided to have a bit of fun and pretended he’d been put through to the UK police! Immediately, a supervisor (another strong Indian accent) came on the line sounding very surprised, and claimed that “Mr Marshall contacted us”!

So there you go – be warned. If I can get the audio up, I will. Please post a comment below if you’ve had this call.

PS – it didn’t sound much different to this!

Tags: scams, tech stuff

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 5:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Frances

re comment from Frank, there is a thread here mentioning/involving the company based in Durham "and India" though I couldn't quite follow its gist.
(Formerly aggreived receiver of scam call in Hants.)

Frances

This is the thread I am talking about

http://www.eukhost.com/forums/f13/eukhost-outso...

Frank

If comantra.nets an offical company, then why does your ip place you square in the middle of a feild in durham? does the company who run you static ip know what your up too? Im not to good with this stuff and i did find a report abuse link for their ip hosts company but lost it. im sure one of you will manage =]

94.76.212.128 IP address location & more:
IP address [?]: 94.76.212.128 Copy [Whois] [Reverse IP]
IP country code: GB
IP address country: ip address flag United Kingdom
IP address state: Durham
IP address city: Durham
IP address latitude: 54.7667
IP address longitude: -1.5667
ISP of this IP [?]: BlueConnex MK Ltd
Organization: EUKHost customer server
Host of this IP: [?]: 94-76-212-128.static.as29550.net [Whois] [Trace]
Local time in United Kingdom: 2010-02-09 04:25

Frank

-if this is no use please delete but i think they are going through these guys who might like too know-

== Additional Information From whois://whois.ripe.net:43 ==

inetnum: 94.76.212.128 - 94.76.212.143
netname: EUKHost-LTD-3729
descr: EUKHost customer server
remarks: ##############################################################
remarks: Please report abuse incidents to abuse@eukhost.com
remarks: Messages sent to other contact addresses may not be acted upon.
remarks: ##############################################################
country: GB
admin-c: RK3390-RIPE
tech-c: RK3390-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: as29550-mnt
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: Robert King
address: EUKHOST LTD, Clarence Street, Bowburn, Durham, Dh6 5BB
mnt-by: blueconnex-mnt
abuse-mailbox:
phone: +44.7753341080
nic-hdl: RK3390-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

route: 94.76.192.0/18
descr: Blueconnex Networks Ltd
origin: AS29550
remarks: ***********************************
remarks: * *
remarks: * Abuse: *abuse@blueconnex.net
remarks: * *
remarks: * Peering: *peering@blueconnex.net
remarks: * *
remarks: ***********************************
mnt-by: blueconnex-mnt
source: RIPE # Filtered

Keith

Supportonclick are still at it - got a call on Saturday - took 20 minutes to get rid of them even though I pointed out I was in IT Support (seems to be getting more persistant as did not go away when asked). Finally put phone down on him. They phone again half an hour later but wanted "the lady of the house" by which time I had "googled them". I asked how they got our name - no response. I then pointed out I had looked them up on line and that their reputation was s**te so there was no way I would ever want anything to do with them - they hung up.

MK

001274790083.
Male, Asian accent calls. Seems to speak from a script, but staggers over the sentences. Claims to be from a "Windows" company. Claims he had been monitoring my computer and that I had a virus, and all doom and gloom was about to happen to it.
Fortunately I know enough that I was being scammed. I told him he was "talking s**te". He quickly hung up.

MK

Don't know if it is a coincidence - but what gave it a slight plausability was that I had to contact Dell in the past few days, and spent an hour talking to their Inidan call centre.
Don't know what Dell's data protection rules are like outside of Europe, but it wouldn't be too much for callers to have their name and number passed onto these chancers for them to have a go.

MK

Forgot to say - introduces himself as "Kevin Martin" but seemed unsure about it in his faltering English!
He also new my surname - whether he is cold calling or has my name from somewhere else, I don't know.

rebecca

I had one of these people ring me and get me to look at my event viewer, after 5 minutes on the phone I put it down as I couldn't understand his accent and my spagetti on toast was going cold. Looking at this I'm glad I did now!

charlie02

Hi everyone my partner has just had a phone call from microsoft support saying there was errors on our computer, She followed run prefetch ect!!! the until she went to logmein123 and they said there were going to give her a password but she didn't, soooooo do we still have to worry about our personal details.....pls help thank you all the number 02033180510 strong indian accent named CAROL ROGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wyvia

hi everyone, just to let you all know i just got a call from them saying they were from Microsoft support. this screamed scam to me as soon as they said that because MS dont phone anyone up unless you contact them first. so i desided to play dumb (compleat computer noob) getting them to repeat everythink up untill they asked me to type in a websight into RUN "www.logmein123.com" and i know what they do because i have used a program like that befor to play games in college. so i desided to search google for the websight just as proof then i open up on them and asked what there phone number and address was what they refued to give me then i asked them were they got my name and phone number because how ever they got it was in violation of the data protection act and that them and the company that shared the data with them are liable to be sued and that i would also sue them for attemped to damage my property and they hung up : / and i dont think they will be calling back any time soon i would like to know were they got my phone number and name from though.

Frank

Same style of phone call today around 4ish (Scotland). I having just downloaded a Super Nintendo Emulator from a site i didnt really trust, wich tuned out to not work thought mabey there was something in the phone call from WindosTechSuppot about a malicious file causing error messages. "Please press the windows key and R for Robert" (im sure he said his name was Robert). he ran thru trying to scare me with errors i knew to be fairly normal.. and as soon as money and remote connection was mentioned i laughed and said no thank you, "very good" and hung up.. They have people with bad a accent figure out if your worth passing on so somone better spoken who deals with the money grabbing I hope he phones back so i can tell him he has the worst job in Kolkata!

ANONYMOUS

SYSTEM RECURE JUST CALLED ME... I knew within the first few seconds that this was a scam. They said they were providing tech support for Windows... LOL The guy was obviously Indian and he said his name was David Jones... ya okay... I don't think so.

bloodboil

These Fucking Tech Support Companies are giving India as well as Indians a Bad Name.I am an Indian my self and one of my buddies once worked for such an Company(WINTECH SOFTWARES).It is my humble request to all British and American poeple please if any one calls you and tells you to switch the computer on DONT DO IT. Use every verbal abuse possible and hang up the call.These companies are spruting up like shrooms every other day.PLEASE DONT GET RIPPED OFF. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE COMPUTER.If you do face any technical problems consult the local technician or directly ring up the MICROSOFT help-line. And if you already fallen prey to one such scam call directly ask for a refund from your bank or pay-pal stating that the payment was unauthorised that will really get their panties in a bunch.

tim

I received a very similar call last week and challenged the caller who immediately hung up. I dialled 1471 but the number was not stored.
I got a second call today and played along with the caller for a while to see what I could discover. After a while the caller ("Gavin" or "Kevin") hung up again. 1471 revealed that the call came from 001274790083 which seems to be a Bradford number, which corresponded pretty well with the caller's accent. Checking on the web showed this to be a "suspicious number". I contacted my ISP. The young lady seemed to be interested in the information and said that steps would be taken to circulate the information "appropriately".
I fancy that it was more than an attempt to sell some worthless product. I seem to recall a report (other than this excellent blog) that Bradford has a reputation for this sort of thing.

White Rose

I think they're calling themselves Log 4 Rescue as well now. Had a call from them this week, claiming to be from Microsoft (I had been reporting errors). Became suspiciious when they directed me to their site, having spun the line about trojans and the rest of it. Told them I wanted to think about it before making a monetary commitment. Did a bit of research elsewhere, which confirmed my suspicions, and when they called back a second time, told them I'd installed anti-malware which had sorted out my problems, so didn't need their 'help'.

brian192

Techonsupport are still very active in the UK. Have had a number of calls and usually try to keep them on the phone as long as possible to avoid them scamming anyone else. Must have got to this guy because he said they only way I could stop the calls was by winding the phone cord around my neck and throwing the phone out of the window! Just make sure you all have nothing to do with them.

Catherine Rowan Jones

I had an early overseas telephone call this morning, allegedly from Microsoft/Windows, claiming that my computer is badly corrupted. They wanted me to boot up and go through some procedures with them. I thought this might be a phishing scam, so I hung up. I've emailed Microsoft asking if it's genuine. No reply so far. The caller said they got my phone number from their Research Dept. When I hung up, I tried to retrieve the caller's number but it was not available.

Todd

I just had this! Got a call asking for me, and saying that they were my operating system provider and that they believed i had a malicious software installed... he told me to go into run and type in prefetch, but it was such a heavy indian accent that i thought he had said brefetch so nothing happened to which he suddenly got confused. And i then got suspicious, and asked "sorry, but do you even know what operating system i'm using?" he then replied with "xp?" and yes, as a question. i then told him that it wasn't even my computer and that it was my mum's to which he got even more confused and started to fumble with his words, which i have to admit was quite funny. he then said that he would call back another time when she was in and hung up, didnt even ask when she would be in.

Ryan

I just had a call from a very Indian sounding 'Edward', of 'Something tech Support', always mumbled, but apparently they are my 'Service Provider'. When asked what service they provided, he said "your computer". I'd only just woken up, and having just bought a new laptop, assumed it was something to do with the support package from PC World, but when he asked me to search 'Prefetch Unwanted' I decided enough was enough. I don't know anything about computers, and would rather leave it in the safe hands of Mr Norton Antivirus.

Jade

WELL WELL! I'm glad I'm not an idiot. I JUST got a call from these people telling me all the crap about malware etc. I happen to be a computer savvy individual. I did not allow them to get ahold of my computer or get into my computer, but I did run the stupid event viewer thing because that's an application on MY computer and it does not connect to their database in any way shape or form. As soon as I could get the idiot to shut up I asked who he worked for and guess what I found? THIS! I will be telling everyone I know about this. I will also be recording my next phone call with them if I can figure out how to do it. I'm glad I learned how computers work and that I know that crashes are not "imminent" as they state them to be. They can be! But not under the circumstances these fools lay out.

Brett

Had a call from comantra claiming to be windows support.I got as far as typing the address into the run menu which took me to their website.When i saw the company name was different to windows, alarm bells rang and i googled their name bringing me here and told him.Thanks.
However, i'm pretty clueless on all this and am now concerned by visiting their website, i may have allowed access to my PC.Is that possible, and if so, how do i search for and/or remove anything?I've scanned with McAfee which found nothing but am worried by typing web address into run menu, i may have set up an exception.

Jade

I doubt it. If you just visited their website I'm pretty sure they can't get in that way. Now if you let them take control and they were moving your mouse cursor around that might be a different story. You would have had to give them express permission to take control of your machine. That's how they get you. *I* think you're fine. They can't get into your computer unless you run a program allowing them to take control of your machine. Keep an eye on your bank account though just in case. It's not something I really think is an issue, but you don't want to be taken unawares.

wyvia

jade is correct the software they are using is similar to logmein.com were you have to give access to your computer by typing then the code or password that connects there computer to yours if you dont type in the code then they have no idea what you are doing and have no access but by typing in the code or password you are giving them permission to use your computer so you can not sue them or get the police involved for any damage doneto your computer

Roberta Henry

I just got the call but fortunately I recognized it rather quickly and cut them off. I was worried for a minute there but then realized that all systems sometimes have errors and that my computer wasn't running badly at the moment lol...Thanks for being so informative here and letting me know just what a pain in the behind I actually avoided

Julie

Having said that these phone calls had stopped, guess what? That's right they started again! We've tried TPS and now BT who told us they couldn't bar the number as it was international. They did confirm that they have had thousands of calls on this problem. I now have caller display set up which should help but what I really want to know is how do we get this stopped? Any ideas?

aconitealex

I live just outside St albans and have been getting a new call every five minutes from people claiming to be from Techon support. I even had two calls at the same time whilst on the phone to one i answered another via call waiting. Each time i tell them that i used apple mac computers and they didn't seem to even understand and still wanted me to go to the start menu on my computer! I then asked them how they expected to fix my computer if they don't even know the difference between a Mac and a PC. Shockingly badly prepared, but also quiet scary, some people must be falling for this scam. It was different people calling each time too... there must be loads of them!

Mont

Just got one of these calls when at my Dad's place. He is very deaf and passed the phone onto me. I hate the way that seemingly by saying they are "Windows Support Centre" it legitimises the fact they are infringing on Microsoft's copyright and only further down th eline when you quiz them they are not Microsoft.

For me he asked me to open run eventvwr (Windows Event Viewer) and tell him the number of warning messages I had there under Windows Log. Making it all up I played along and then we eventually arrived at the crux where I was to go to www.logmein123.com. At this point my knowledge of being able to play along ran out. Unfortunately I didn't record the conversation but took down the details of the place he was supposedly phoning from. Similarly to most people they said they were from Bradford but checking the phone number and postcode it all seems to be made up.

biggles

I have just had a telephone call from a Gentleman with a thick Indian accent from Bradford who gave me the 01274 900113 number and gave the usal logmein123.com etc instructions. Kept him on the line for 28 minutes before telling him what I was reading on this site. When I told him that this site suggetsed it was a scam he said he was going to prosecute "those Bastards" and put the phone down.

Julie

I reported a few weeks back that these people were calling me everyday. On their last call I told them I was recording the call (I wasn't ) and would be reporting them to the police. Thankfully I haven't had any calls since and hope it stays that way. I saw the investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre (not sure of his name or spelling!) on ITV This Morning yesterday and he mentioned it. I just don't understand how this can be going on for so long.

digitaltoast

Thanks for that, Julie! Found the link, will add it to the blog.
What I don't understand is why Macintyre is the first journalist to pick this up - the BBC and the papers are totally uninterested. Which is why it goes on and on.

Carrie

Well, they just called my work (I run an in home pre school) and said "Windows has authorized me to call you & offer you support for your computer. It is going to crash soon if we do not do something quick to fix it. You have malware & add ware running ..." & on & On...really trying to scare me! I asked for his name & company & said I would call back. He said "No, tell me a good time & I will call you back" very insistent. I told him not to call my work & he asked for my personal number. I did not give it & Googled " "support on Click" & got your blog! yea! be awear...they are sneaky & really try & convince you that they work for Microsoft!

Julia

I've just had this call as I entered the house from work tonight.I was tired after work and at first believed what the woman was saying.Ofcourse I asked her how she had my details and she couldn't answer, when I questioned her further she put a bloke on the phone and he continued in the same vain without answering my questions.She was obviously Asian but said her name was CAROL ROGERS -very funny, this is what woke me up and made me realise I was being scammed.I found these sites afterwards and realise I had a lucky escape.

meghanmurphy

Just got the call frm 947- 663 2176. The caller had very similar, Tech guy, stating Windows has a infection couldnt tell me the name of infection nor anything re: his company. Insisted he is the Tech support for microsoft itself. I searched there company and "Support One click" I indicated to him I can not see anything on there website where they are stating that they are the support for microsoft itself. He wanted me to run EventVWR and tried to scare me by sayign all the error files I am seeing will cause my computer to crash. I said if you think i am going to allow you to access my computer and provide me with your supposed software warranty for the rest of my life. I saw your page and really appreciated the blog. this company needs to be reported. I really hope people realize this is a scam. I feel bad for anyone who allows them to access their files.

Gillian

6th Jan 2010
Just had "The" phone call from a man with a thick Indian accent, using my maiden name from over 3 years ago. He told me he was from Tech Support and they had been receiving error messages from my computer programmes which showed I had nasty viruses in my computer. I asked him to say again who he was working for, and told him I didn't pay for any Tech Support.....( hell...even if you pay for one, you can't get through for hours, so why would one call me out of the blue?), I let him babble on about viruses and the computer for a while as I had already smelled a Rat with this call. Once he asked me to sit at the computer and carry out some things for him to resolve it, I asked him what programmes I was getting errors in...He answered that it was my Windows programmes and they had been flagging errors for 2 months......
I replied...."Well that's very odd because I have an Apple Mac Computer, which doesn't run Windows"
He quickly replied that he was sorry he must have had the wrong information given to him.
It can't be infiltration from Sky as thats in my married name, BUT my last renewal for AOL was via India in my maiden name...
It pays to be wary........

Miss Mad

I recieved a call at 8:20 am on the 05/01/2010. I was told the were windows service provider and i had been infected with viruses. I ask him from what comapny was he calling and he said windows service provider, in the end i ask him if he is able to communicate with me in fluent english to repair my computer from this virus then i am sure he can tell me in clear english the name of the comapny he was calling from. he repeated it twice fast and in the end i made him spell it to me and yes they were COMANTRA. I was told my windows had recieved viruses. I knew imediately that he was on a scam because how the bloody hell would he know what was on my computer without illegally gaining acess to it. So i told him i used vista and he was full of s*** and to P*** Off and the put the phone down. These people need to be dealt with before they cause people serious distress. COMANTRA = CON MEN

Jim

I got this call out of the blue on Dec 31st '09, the guy had a strong indian accent and took me through the same instructions as described in "Mr Marshall's" case. When I got suspicious and started asking how he had got our details and why he had called he said something like 84% of users were being contacted as they were very concerned for our computer's wellbeing. When it became clear we were going to have to pay or at least give him access to our computer I said I would call him back if he gave me his name and phone no. Again, as above, remember this guy had a very heavy Indian accent so when he spelled out his name P-E-T-E-R O'-B-R-I-E-N, I finished the call pretty quickly. The number he gave was 125 444 9124.

Dewitt

I just got a call from them too in the california, usa. wanted me to run the same command and then go to there website. I told them my internet was down(but its wasnt) and to call back tomorrow. Then im going to record this BS

Dan

Date 28 december 09. Same scam call received here in Florida usa. Obvious Indian accent. Obvious scam EVENTVWR. Best thing to do is keep putting them on "hold while you take another call" and string them along for a waste of there time.

jonegmarsh

I've just had a phone call from these jokers. I wasn't sure who they were at first, but luckily when they asked me to start typing stuff into my computer I put the phone down on them. Now I've read this forum, I'm much better clued up - thanks!

Andy Fletcher

Re: Fake Tech Support, I have had a similar experience: type in "prefetch" to "run", prefetch spelt out by an Indian named "Jeff" from "Microsoft Technical Support", unwanted programs wrecking my hard drive . Must check, "my computer"/"manage"/"errors", and more than 25 errors etc.etc. Name of this company onlinepccare.com, they have a website. They have silver, gold, and platinum programs to "look after your computer", starting at AUD$159.00. Another scam? I didn't buy anything.

Heather P

I just had a call from 'Mark Jordan' in Bradford on 01274 900113. He wanted me to type in eventvwr at run.
I managed to keep him on the line for almost 12 minutes and I wanted him to go and look out the window and tell me what the weather was!
He gave up on me!

brad packer

i thnk system recure is a complete scam and nothng else......they called me many times but my no. is registrd with dnc, still they kept me calling. there r lots of guys like kevin, alex, james, kelly, jeremy and many more.......so u people b aware of thissssssss.

Anne

Had a call this morning claiming to come from my ISP. Guy with thick Indian accent tells me my broadband has been slowing down and he will fix this problem. The trick to fixing it is for me to Start | Run | www.logmein123.com ... Only problem is I don't have broadband or an ISP (yes, I admit it, I played along to waste their time)

mark

i had a similar call from a woman calling herself annie richardson from techies on line and claiming to be working on behalf of microsoft. she said i could varify who she was by ringing 01274900113. i said "i will verify that you are who you say you are then i will call you back or call the police". She said. "shit" and hung up.

John Kerr

Following on - I did speak to Sky Support in India about two weeks ago. Coincidence? Seems there's a lot of them. Might be worth telling Sky/AOL/Dell - seems to be too much of a coincidence to me.

John Kerr

Just had the same call about 10 minutes ago. Strong Indian accent and, when I said I didn't believe he had anything to do with Windows, he put me on to a "supervisor". He did the 'prefetch' bit then said he'd hand be back to the 'tecnician' who'd 'take control' of my computer and sort the problem When I asked if he thought I was born yesterday, the problem solved itself by him hanging up.

justin

contacted me just now went through checks then he told meto type in www.logmein123.com towhich i said i will have to do it later as i have work to do at which point he started flapping and saying why cant you do it now about 10 times so i hung up

Julielb

Funny you should say that andygp; we were saying what a coincidence it is that they started calling us after our contact with the AOL support centre in India.

andygp

Yes just had the call from an indian guy on a sketchy long distance line giving it the hard sell that my computer was about to blow up due to all the error messages that were on it!
He then asked me to run Supportoncall, which i simply googled instead to find this site.... after that i just played thick for 15mins and wasted his time until ending with, 'Sorry, my dinners ready, must dash,' and hung up..... Dont think it'll be long until they re-try me, i'll try to record to call if i can..
Just a thought of mine though, after a lot of problems with one of my dell machines recently i did spend a few hours with different technicians from the official dell support center in india, I wonder if this was the source of my details and phone number these scammers used??

Julielb

These people have been calling me for several weeks and are now doing so on a daily basis. I get rid of them as quickly as possible but the fact that they are calling me daily and I can't get rid of them is really getting to me now.

MCrab

These idiots just phoned me again a few months after one of them told me to fuck off when I wouldn't let up on how he'd got my details. So this time I decided to play along and answered their questions, innocently expressing horror when he told me I had a trojan that was 'running wild' in the UK. He told me how he represented Microsoft and explained to me that no antivirus software would work against this trojan and that I could uninstall AVG and install three products recommended by them:

1) Advanced System Protector
2) Advanced Email Backup
3) Advanced System Optimizer

I dragged it out as long as I could, apologizing twice for leaving him hanging on the end of the phone while I went made myself a drink and took a call on my mobile. Finally, he got done with his spiel and wanted to arrange a time for a 'microsoft certified engineer' to call back tomorrow. I'd have loved to waste more of his time, but being busy for the rest of the week I decided to end it there.

I apologized for interrupting him and calmly told him I remembered a similar conversation some months ago a representative of his company had told me to fuck off and then hung up. I explained that I'd been 'more than happy' to waste his time and wished him the same, putting down the phone.

Some time goes by, my mother pops round to see me and the phone rings. She picks it up and is greeted by an Indian voice:

"Can I speak with Martin _______, please?"

"Who is it speaking, please?"

"Tell him it's his dad"

.....silence.....

"I....uh.....don't think so"

"Then tell him he's a bloody fucker!!!" *hangs up*

I have to admit these scamsters are so amateurish they do have comedy value. I can see saying 'tell him it's his dad' in an Indian accent becoming one of those family in jokes where everyone falls about laughing.

So if the fouled mouthed parasite I spoke to is reading this, thanks for the laugh you gave me and my mother. And, once more, I'm very happy to waste your time.

John Kerr

It's not just your own family who's getting a laugh out of this! Cheers!

Michael Allen

I have just had a call from Supportonclick.The caller was female.Indian sounding,persistent.Being pretty thick tech-wise I couldn't find how to do the first thing she asked me to do!Something about Start>Run.or Ctrl>r. Whatever,by this time i was getting very nervous but persisted and she gave the following numbers: 800 520 0987 and 01274 449124 and the name of the Co.
I thanked her and put the phone down and googled the name and here I am!
Hope this is useful.

bh

I got the call--did not sound Indian. Seemed Chnese, and so far, I have never gotten a Chinese tec thru IT support6....

im not THAT stupid

THEY JUST CALLED ME! I live in California, USA. The man had an indian accent, I could barely understand anything he was saying. I asked him what was he calling for, he said "all windows users are receiving a virus that will damage their computers, get on the computer and follow my instruction to protect your computer." <--- HAHAHAHA. I say this sounds like a scam and he stutters. I hang up.

The number was: 947-663-2176

Bart

The same idiots called me again today. Supportonclick. I strung them along for a good 30 minutes by telling them that when I clicked their Remote Support link, porn popped up on my computer. The end of the call I told him I clicked the Remote Support link and he asked me if I saw butterflied. I told him yes. He asked if I saw a donkey carrying a laptop. I told him yes. Then he asked if I saw naked women. I told him YES. He called me a mothafooker and hung up on me. But before he hung up I did get the pleasure of laughing in his face and calling him a scammer. These guys are hot and heavy at it.

comantra

Its really not the question of satisfaction in our current company or the behaviour of real ASIAN…..its just the practice that is followed by us.

Every company has dissatisfied customers and some employees like” Another EX- Employee” who are writing the comments below.
What we are following or rather say trying to follow is making things better.
It has 95% of customer satisfaction and approval till date and this is higher than any other technical support organisation in this field.
And some of the features like comantra connect on your desktop is amazing in which customer has to just click on that icon and they will be connected to the technical support team. I agree that there are few customers who are not happy but there are more who are happy and satisfied . I worked for dell and HP and i know how satisfied are the customers .If u cannot do good dont think of bad.
Happy to help you all
Comantra Solutions

P.Freeman (Freelancer)

Keep posting you shill!!! these posts wont help you. With YOUR advice we can all rest assured that your beloved COMANTRA IS a scam. Thanks so much for making that clear. The kind a english you are using makes it clear u indian ass or rather say jack ass. Call your english teacher to make her find how many errors you have in the post.

Have to ask, tho: Are there actual jobs in India where people are paid to act as shills for companies? I can see a cottage industry coming up where a manager markets his shills' services to scammers, so much per validated rebuttal post in forums and blogs, from "happy" customers. Maybe 5¢/post, with a dozen or so shills scanning Google, Yahoo and Bing for negative action on a client's site.

But anyway, PLEASE post here a LOT! It could be a good source of income for you and help warn the marks away from the scam at the same time. The more you and other shills post here, the higher the search rankings and the more you can keep posting. The general public will realize its a scam and the scammers will keep wasting money. Win win.
I pity you...worked for Dell & also HP...which location? which dimension? which vertical? Let them see you are using their names...few days more till UK trading standards catch your neck.
Sorry to be harsh!!!! but you cannot just scam our country...Start counting your days chums.

“Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth”

onlinepc

Hi Mr. Freeman I got the link from where you have copied and pasted this post (done some editing also) do you want to see that once again .----> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23401720-scam-... (don't forget to scroll down the page you will find it for sure)

onlinepc

Hi Mr. Freeman I got the link from where you have copied and pasted this post (done some editing also) do you want to see that once again .----> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23401720-scam-... (don't forget to scroll down the page you will find it for sure)

comantra

Once again one of our dissatisfied customer, but the strange thing is that you are writing this post using an Indian IP address (Hope you know IP means Internet Protocol address) , so you are in India right now ? I want to let you know that currently we do not provide our services in India. So please stop writing these things to make the people scare. If not at least respect your nationality. I hope you will not mind our grammatical mistakes in this post.

P.Freeman (Freelancer)

I wonder how come Clouns like you get the IP address of a third party website. Its truly amazing that u are hackers...unbelivelibly u have surpassed all the technologies...2 months more and you are finished...I am not surprised indeed to find the uneducated bunch in ITES...
To my utter dismay I wonder sometimes the land of snake charmers in now a place of IT criminals. See u with FBI soon.

pink and fluffy

Ok so i just got the strangest call from an asian woman who said she is from prefetch, she said she was calling because my computer had sent an error report to them telling them its downloaded a nasty virus that will slow my computer day by day and eat all my security information.
she asked me to pull up the run window and put in prefetch and all the files in there (143 of them) were all virus' then she put me thro to a technician who also was asian and i asked him how he got my home phone number and what computer i was using and windows i was running because when i set up my laptop i didnt live here and didnt have this home number so that freaked me out a bit and he said he was from windows and called to help me, i didnt understand him very well and his english wasnt very good and he kept getting snappy with me about not understanding him and in the end i hung up.

i have just renewed my norton and upgraded it today and did a full system scan before the call and it never detected anything.

i called 1471 and it gave me the number of my friend calling me at lunch time when they called about 1700 so there was no trace of the call what so ever

Bart

They are apparently now hitting the US. I got a call wanting me to run eventvwr. VERY strong Indian accent. I knew right away this was a scam when they said they were from "Google Tech Support". I never let this go far and there was quite a cuss fest between both parties towards the end. He claimed that Indians are very smart computer people. Phone number was 947-663-2176 but you can't call it back.

Steven Burn

@samsmiles,
First things first, call your credit/debit card company and ask them to do a charge back!

Secondly, report this matter to your local authorities. The more people that do, the more chance of their being something done to stop them doing it in the first place.

samsmiles

Hi gang

I'v been scammed. What a pity I didn't know this site yesterday. The story goes as follows....

I had just come off the phone to my ISP techies B.T. (who are, funny enough based in India). Almost as I put the phone down I got the call from a woman calling herself 'Rohni' who told me all of the shit others have documented below and I fell for it...signed up for the Platinum plan!

'Shawn Williams' then came on and introduced me to 'Brian Watson' who 'fixed' all my problems.
(I now understand that he put them there in the 1st place..ah well...)

Anyway I have mailed the 'lovely people' telling them not to try and take the money as my CC co
won't pay..so we shall see what happens.

moral of story

Don't ever buy anything from anybody who calls or emails without checking here
or on scam.com, first!

Merry Christmas to all

samsmiles

gobbo1

After about 10 phone calls and lots of threats I managed to get £115 ofd the £175 that they took from my nan back.
Not the full amount but at least she got some of it back

bernie

I was called by a "company" called "takeonsupport" pretty much the same style of call, Indian I'm sure. they got nothing out of me. I got them to leave me their phone number so I could call them back (0186 5521065) of course I didn't instead I contacted my service provider who said they'd never heard of them.

ayeken

Just been scammed, unsolicited call, same story, Indian company using the number 01274 900834, 01274900110, 0127449373, 08000470653 it’s not an exchange in Bradford! But service providers allocated number redirect! Comantra.net (registered in India) UK number was cut-off by Margrathea Ltd after breach of ‘AUP’ this week. Now a Cable & Wireless number in Tyneside today??? So much for “Conserving geographic numbers” – Where’s Ofcom??? The only presence in the UK is their website, hosted here by Blue Connex Ltd – Do a “tracert” to the website IP Address. JH - more email!

Tim Robinson

Hey I ran a tracert command on comantra.net to find out that India, Kolkata, vsnl.in. Guess will help more in investigation. Thanks more!!!

RonyJ

I wonder how do they get the phone numbers???? Just check this out folks. When I searched for them I got this and the guy on the other end Kevin from comantra just escaped.
Registration Service Provided By: THINKTECH SOFTWARE CO. PVT LTD
Contact: +91.9831052038

Domain Name: COMANTRA.NET

Registrant:
CoMantra E-Solution Pvt Ltd
Pavitra Mundhra ()
21, Rose Merry Lane
Shree Lodge,
C/O Shekhar Chowdhury
Howrah
West Bengal,711101
IN
Tel. +033.26662579

Creation Date: 28-Aug-2009
Expiration Date: 28-Aug-2010

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.thinktechsoftware.com
ns2.thinktechsoftware.com

Careful before its too late!!! This place is so weird that the cockroaches have moved next door.

andy

Recently bought a laptop which we use on a wifi link. Had a call from the logmein123 people. Was not at all sure but they were convincing. Bought the package!! They signed me up to a service operated by Tech-Is-Online which has a web site and shows their services and terms of use. It looks to me like they may be selling a legitimate service, but using scare tactics to sell it. They continually use the term Microsoft Certified Technician to try to emphasise their own legitimacy. They appear to have remotely installed Malwarebytes and Firefox, (both of which I now realise are free software), done a scan on my system, then uninstalled the malwarebytes. They also appeared to run a defrag and several cleanup routines, including emptying the eventvwr log to get rid of the evidence. They have not provided me with a report on what nasties they found or how many or where they were. Have I been scammed ?

silentfrog

Just had one of these calls from an Indian guy called "Nelson" from supportonclick. He claimed to have spotted a problem with my version of Windows which was caused by a malicious program that attacks the hardware and unless he sorted the problem immediately, it would cause irreversible damage. First he got me to type "eventvwr" into Run and notice the amount of warnings showing - this was a sign of the problem, he said. Then I typed "prefetch" and opened the Prefetch folder. There I was told to try and open a .pf file which clearly I couldn't, though this was seen as an example of the file in action. I'm no computer expert but I know all this to be false so when he took me to www.supportonclick.com and asked me to pay a small service charge for an online support technician to perform checks on my computer via Remote Assistance, I declined. However, for anyone who does not understand the technology especially well, this would have been a very tempting offer to get rid of the "problem". Strangely though, he gave me the company phone number: 012744449124 and e-mail: enquiries@supportonlcick.com. Don't know if they work but maybe they could be of use to someone.

Update: "Nelson" just called me back (though this time I swear he said his name was "Nicky"). I told him that I was aware of the scam and I had informed Consumer Direct to which he seemed shocked. He was adamant that he worked for a legitimate company that usually works with businesses but Microsoft asked them to urgently help Windows users. Apparently, their company has been contracted to call every Windows user in the UK, which I pointed out would take a while. Then I questioned him on why he thought their was a problem with my computer, not before reminding him that I was well aware that not being able to open a .pf file is no indicator of a virus. He spent quite some time dancing around this issue while I assured him that I would be very interested in his service if he could just give me a satisfactory explanation but after a good 5 minutes, his supervisor came on and terminated a call.

PETER CASPER

I PETER CASPER EMPLOYEE OF MICROSOFT,
I SHOW THAT AND TAKE ALL INFOMATION , NOW I ALART TO EVERY ONE THAT

SUPPORTONCLICK ,ONLINEPCCARE.COM.ONLINEPC24X7,PECONSOFTWARE, IS SAME COMPANY

EVERY TIME ANY WEBPAGE IS CONFIGURD OTHERS OTHERS STALIC INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESS , MINS STATIC IP ADDRESS BECAUSE STATIC IP ADDRESS IS ONE IN ALL OVER WORLD ,AFTER IP ADDRESS IS CONFIGURED BY NAME . I SHOWING THAT HARE ALL IP IS SAME SIRIL MIN EVERY IP IS OF SAME COMPANY.

203.200.180.164 - ONLINEPC 24X7 .COM
203.200.180.163 - onlinepccare.com webmail mainsite
203.200.180.165 - www.onlinepccare.com webpage site
203.200.180.166 - www.supportonclick.com webpage
61.8.157.108 --- again www.supportonclick.com
61.8.157.107-------- mainsite of peconsoftware webmail site mins (http://mail.pecon.co.in & http://www.pecon.co.in) is configured in same static ip address
MAINTHING IS SUPPORTONCLICK ,ONLINEPCCARE.COM.ONLINEPC24X7,PECONSOFTWARE, IS SAME COMPANY ARE ALL BOTH COMPANY PHYCAL ADDRESS IS

Corporate Office

Block EN 27, Sector V , 2nd Floor, Saltlake City,
Kolkata 700-091 , West Bengal India
Phone: + 91-33-4005 2247 / 2240
Fax: + 91-33-2231 7922
Email: cometome@pecon.co.in

Registered Office

19, R. N.. Mukkherjee Road
1st Floor , Main Building
Kolkata 700-001 West Bengal India
Phone: + 91-33-2210 0196 / 2243 0075/9939/9940
Fax: + 91-33-2243 0149
Email: sanjay@pecon.co.in

barry

Had a call from an indian guy from a company called teckies calling on behalf of microsoft asking me to type in,( inf corrupted system file ) in the run box, which I did then became suspicious and fobbed him off and asked him to call back while I called around to make checks. He called back and when I mentioned the word scam three times he hung up. He did say make sure I was NOT connected to the internet but i,m not sure why. So if your watching this teckies Teri mada fudi yangata !!

malc

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of...

It's made it on to the news

digitaltoast

Hey, you genius! Good spot - very well done. Thanks!

Sean

In UK, received the same call, this time from Support on tech, it was immediately suspicious. They wanted 139£! They obviously have a online credit card payment gateway. This is fraud and a very organized crime, Indian accent, and persistent. They prey on people and I hope the authorities will get them for international fraud.

timmyhavoc

They are calling themselves Techresolve now.
When i mentioned I had found this article when googling www.mein123.com (and not going directly to the site as requested) he said "no,no,no we are not supportonclick or anything like that" the funny thing was, I never mentioned the word supportonclick!
What info do i need to get from them to help any investigations?

adi

yes I had a call last night from a guy with a strong asian accent telling me he was from this company, when i asked him 3 times to repeat it, I still could not understand it!, he got me to run prefetch and said how bad it was etc , then he was going to connect me to his 'supervisor' so i put the phone down, he rang back and i said if he was trying to scam or sell something then i wasnt inetrested, he put the phone down!

Embla

People in the UK can report the scam here: https://secure.consumerdirect.gov.uk/reportasca...

digitaltoast

Thanks - good tip there.

Embla

Just got a call like this from TechOnSupport, asking me to go to "prefetch unwanted"... *Unfortunately* I didn't have the patience to hear how much they would try to get out of me as they kept insisting this was "their duty" as a "Certified Windows Service Provider" and that they had been notified of my computer problems... Otherwise pretty much the same script!

Steven Burn

I've had a response from Comantra, and they're looking into it. I'll keep you updated.

Steven Burn

Well, a follow up e-mail was sent to the person I spoke to at Comantra, roughly 11 hours or so ago, and thus far, nothing - not even so much as an auto-response (so much for "looking at it straight away" and "this being very important").

Steven Burn

I'm on the phone with Comantra atm, and they're claiming not to be associated with SupportOnClick.

Sujoy Roy

Bloody Bastards!!!! Scammers!!! They are the terminated lot from Supportonclick. They are thugs. They stole customer database and credit card details from supportonclick office. They were thrown out from the company. Please be careful guys. They will simply charge your credit card.

suman khatick

is not correct but sujoy roy is a mot of no1 it criminal

Sujoy

Seems another scam company techonsupport.com is shut down. Poor guys are you behind the bars???? I really wonder all scammers like techonsupport, comantra are operating in UK without any office. FBI is already investigating about comantra, techonsupport. Very soon it will be in the media across the world. All the best to you!!!

comantra

Comantra offers a grateful computer maintenance at very affordable price with best technique. Come and join CoMantra family and get the key solutions for all your computer problems. Lets make the life simple. For free demo contact us on our Help Desk number : 01274900110 or mail us at : support@comantra.net. - www.comantra.net

Tim Robinson

I received some calls last week, claiming my internet is crashed. I was on the phone with the guy named kevin for 15 mins...strong asian accent, wrong english. I wonder how do they get the phone numbers. They claim they are from comantra the key solutions. I never found any office address on the website, more over the phone number looks changed, its not the same as mentioned above. Their was no response from the number 01916451644. Strange they keep changing numbers with no office address. "Who Are They"?? I have already lodged a complaint to the trading standards, they are already in process of action as they informed and asked me not to entertain any phone calls. Hope they fix it soon.

SUJOY ROY

COMANTRA is a complete scam. Do they have any office? I doubt. Be careful guys!!!!

Henry

Mr Sujoy is theVice President of Support On Click Guys.....He thinks every Company is a Scam except his......But the fact is that they are cheeting the Poor People across the world....Its Support On Click who is the Mother Company who taught to do Scam......

So please guys beware of Support On Click & Mr Sujoy Royyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

supportonclick

sujoy is right..

Sujoy

Thanks!!! now the lines which you see about comantra thats a copy paste from qresolve. Check the website guys. Another copyright act along with scam from FBI. Your comantra has cheated enough people. We threw you out from our company becuase you stole the credit card details of our clients. How can you be so ruthless? taking away money from innocent people. We will not spare you. You are gone!!!

trachey

Is this the same sujoy roy who dont know how to speak english, so how did you posted the blog?????????????????????????????? any gusses which book

Simon Marshland

I received an identical call asking me to type prefetch in RUN followed by a spiel on how dangerous the files were etc. I told him that before doing anything else he suggested I would check with Microsoft as I had no idea who Tech on support was.I then called his support line 018655 21065 and spoke on a very bad line to another Indian gentleman who was unable to answer any of my questions. I then googled Tech on Support and found you. This is an obvious scam and I warn everyone to stay clear of these people.

Melissa Edwards

I received a call today. I asked them if I could call them back after I verified who they were. I received a phone number and was unable to return the call as the line was constantly busy. They had my name and home phone number and asked me to log them into the remote access of my computer which I refused to do. No mention of fee just wanted to get into my computer. very Suspecious people.

formatJ

Yes, I was just contacted this week regarding errors on my system and being infections causing my system to run slower. They want $109.00 for first year membership. I have a toll free telephone number to contact them "24/7" for any problems and they'll take control of my computer to correct errors. "You can watch my tech as he/she goes from place to place to correct errors. They call back with a followup next day to insure your system is working faster than before. I have names, tech numbers abd their toll free phone contact. What should I do with this?

comantra

Comantra offers a grateful computer maintenance at very affordable price with best technique. Come and join CoMantra family and get the key solutions for all your computer problems. Lets make the life simple. For free demo contact us on our Help Desk number : 01274900110 or mail us at : support@comantra.net. - www.comantra.net

tracher

i have got the total details of this fake peoples i had a word with those bustards, unfortunately they hacked my e-mail address & send me an e-mail,i think they r calling from india, www.comantra.net, & i suppose they are using fraud names also, because they all are having some asian accent, i will get in touch with www.g2s.com & will track them down, be-aware from them.

markphillips1

Just had the "suppport on click" Person call and tell me my computer was running slow. I told him no but that did not seem to matter. He was determined to have me look into my computer. I followed his lead and went into the computer management section of my computer. He wanted me tell him things I was seeing. In the meantime I asked him if I could have a phone number to check him out and he gave me one. I called on my cell (while talking to him on the landline), could not understand the language' so I hung up the cell. I told him I could not hear him. While he was trying to fix his phone I checked out "support on click" and found comments that he probably was a scam. I hung up. He called back twice. I decided to answer. I told him I did not understand what he was doing and wanted no part of it. He told me it was up to me. And I hung up. I then called my mother to warn her. People like that competely disgust me! I hope this may help someone else who may question a phone call from these people.

Mark Phillips

Just had the "suppport on click" Person call and tell me my computer was running slow. I told him no but that did not seem to matter. He was determined to have me look into my computer. I followed his lead and went into the computer management section of my computer. He wanted me tell him things I was seeing. In the meantime I asked him if I could have a phone number to check him out and he gave me one. I called on my cell (while talking to him on the landline), could not understand the language' so I hung up the cell. I told him I could not hear him. While he was trying to fix his phone I checked out "support on click" and found comments that he probably was a scam. I hung up. He called back twice. I decided to answer. I told him I did not understand what he was doing and wanted no part of it. He told me it was up to me. And I hung up. I then called my mother to warn her. People like that competely disgust me! I hope this may help someone else who may question a phone call from these people.

comantra

Hi tracher if you have any doubts regarding our services we will be happy to clear all your doubts if you can directly contact us, please give us your call back number where we can contact you and clear all your doubts. Its not required to track us as we are ready to be tracked 24X7 on 01274 900 110 as we are conducting a genuine business of technical support. If you are not happy with our services we are ready to refund your registration fees if you will get in touch with us. So its not required to go anywhere else as you can directly come to us as we are here to serve our valuable customers.

Ed

24 November 2009 - 12:14 I just received this scam call but stopped when asked to run the link to Logmein123. The guy (possibly Indian) at the other end of the line seemed upset that I wouldn't cooperate. What is of concern is that they had my name and phone number. Somebody has failed to observe Data Protection Act requirements. Fortunately as he was speaking to me I was using a second computer to check him out - and found this site.

Dean

i've just upgraded my s*y broadband from base to unlimited package and on the same evening got this call from some ppl who claimed to be from a company called onlinesupportforyou.com. She said it's a service provided to broadband users who upgraded to the unlimited package.

Now where did she know that I had an upgrade?

Geo

I got the same call on Saturday 21/11/09.It was an overseas number withheld(caller display)Indian on the other end of the phone.He said I had windows error reports and if I went to my computer he would sort them out.I asked if he was working for microsoft?-silence,"please just go to your computer",I asked him where he got my phone number?"from the list",I asked what list?"please go to your computer".I asked him what operating system I was using?"xp or vista".Wrong I don't use either of these,he transferred me to his supervisor,I hung up.The phone rang and it was his supervisor,I asked all the same questions and got the same replies,I wouldn't let anyone into a computer to fix it if I hadn't initiated the call.I told him politely not to call again,(well maybe not politely!)

Suspicious of Hants

Exactly the same thing just happened today here near Winchester, Hants. Spoke to a woman, it sounded like call was from India, but she said no it is from 'Oxford-shire' and 'I am new' and passed me to a supervisor (as described above). Am now sorry that I spend any time talking to them to be honest, should have just googled and discovered the attempted scam straight away. The problem they would have helped with was malicious files downloaded by a computer at our address but to resolve it wanted me to allow them to run a file - didn't get as far as discovering what as I asked for their phone number and address. Most irritating nonsense.

lloydy

Ive just had the same thing happen to me this afternoon. Luckily I googled the telephone number and found your very informative page

GEW

I have had a call too at the weekend, and when I asked his name he said Adam Wilson (he a very strong asian accent) I nearly laughed out loud! He also gave me his ID number and phone number, which was an 01274 900834. I phoned it back later,-putting 141 in front and a similar sounding man answered. My experience is exactly as discribed by you, only I didnt go as far as typing anything into the computer. I suspected it was a scam of some sort straight away, and just played along with them. This is very dangerous for anyone who is not a technically aware as others. I feel that they not only want to steal your money to buy software, they could be getting you to download a virus of some sort to access your passwords etc, but could steal your credit card details as well.

BJ

We fell for this two. We accually went through the whole proccess and our credit card was stollen. I watched what they did and they didn't do anything to fix the computer and now we can't get a hold of them to get our money back or anything so we know they are a scam. But the card was cancled and they wont get any more money from us. We accually had been in contact with our computer company as well and thought it was a follow up visit. Very ticked off but knowing that there are people on the web sharing the info is a very good thing

Keith

I had the same kind of call. I actually got as far as letting the guys access my computer remotely because it so happens I had been in contact with my genuine ISP about slowness problems, so I thought it was a follow up to that.
But then it became obvious it was a scam when it came to them wanting credit card details over the phone etc. So I hung up then.
My Q is: Has anyone found any problems AFTER one of these scam calls? Like ID theft or money taken out of accounts?

tracher

Strong asian accent, difficult to understand. They rang me twice from comantra.net & charged me
275£, i found that they are a scam & their provider www.g2s.com took my money they a doing computer scam with www.g2s.com, i have filled my charge back form, be-aware of this fraud peoples, kevin a basterd!

comantra

Hi tracher, I think that you have some misconception regarding our services , If you have any doubts you can get in touch with us on our helpdesk number: 01274 900 110 , we will be more than happy to help you in resolving your query. We believe in customer satisfaction.

Andy in France

Technical support service my backside. Comantra called my Step Father the day after I'd called Sky about problems he was having with his emails. "I understand your having trouble with your computer" was the opening line that threw my step father as he's very nervous about all things IT.

He let the so called technician have access to his PC via log me in and the Asian gentleman on the other end of the phone spent a couple of hours looking around and doing nothing. Who knows what they can do in that amount of time, LogMeIn is very powerful and they would have had access to any file on his computer, the mind boggles.

During this process persuaded him to pay for the annual fee of £54 by credit card.

I work in IT and knew it was a scam the moment I heard what had happened. We spent a of hours on the phone getting my step fathers bank details changed and the "annual charge" cancelled.

Unfortunately the bank were not much good either and Comantra managed to take £275 out of my step fathers account. This has since been refunded after another couple of hours on the phone to the bank. So be warned this company is just as bad as the others mentioned in this forum.

By the way they did not fix the problem with Sky email, what a suprise!

I must admit thought their website made me chuckle, it's crap.

P.Freeman (Freelancer)

UK guys Please report all your complaints to the below mentioned website...Hurry up

https://secure.consumerdirect.gov.uk/reportasca...

alex

everyone knows your a fraud why are you still bothering?

Sujoy Roy

Hi Tracher be careful, its better you claim a chargeback. Why dont you register with www.supportonclick.com, we will give you discount plus lot of benefits. Do a proper research about CO-MANTRA. Its a group of uneducated people who dont even have an office. They are collecting quick money to become rich. Be careful!!!

linda

i got this kind of calls very often but i have never noticed about it, last night i researched about this companies & i got the company called comantra is based in india to some saltlake

linda

i got a service from techisonline last night after that my computer is working fine, is it a legitimate company?

markphillips1

No not at all its not a legitimate company. Linda please be careful. Techisonline is not a company at all. They operate from home, they are in India. Please contact your bank and get your money back asap. If you need quality service, contact supportonclick. I will be happy to help you and also give you big discount. Awaiting your response.

josh

This is josh i had a call from comantra.net they told me to pay 120£ for some prefetch they are scam & they don't provide their phone no. they gave the phone no.of some other company

markphillips1

Hi Josh...As I have warned before, please speak to your bank to claim your money back. These scammers will cheat you. They dont have any office, they dont have any authorized trade liscence to operate in UK. They are scamming and cheating innocent people. Guys you are messing yourselves by paying comantra. Just think what are you getting in return?????

comantra

Hello Josh we really apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. But I want to clear your doubts regarding our services , CoMantra is a computer maintenance company and we make peoples aware about the maintenance of there computers as computer is an electronic device which require a regular maintenance like your car and we provide a convenient services for your computer at a very affordable price by the help of remote support technology. You can always get in touch with us on our helpdesk number 01274900110 or visit our website www.comantra.net for more information. We will be very happy to hear from you.

Sujoy Roy

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!)

“OK sir, can you please tell me how many files there are?”
I told him 30.
“Oh my gosh, this is a sign of very heavy infection. You must not touch these files. [about the only truthful part of the call]. Please now clear this box and type ‘temp’ and press enter”.

Again, “your computer has very heavy infection with so many files”. He then babbled some crap about how these file were your f-a-t32 system files and that “at any time these files could scratch your hard drive”. Riiiighhhht…..

Then came the money shot. “We will connect you now with an agent, please go to www.logmein123.com”
As I had full armoury on (google toolbar, avg, running Chrome etc), so I decided to check it out. It redirected to https://secure.logmeinrescue.com/Customer/Code....

After some chitchat in which he confirmed my (incorrect, spamtrap) home address, he then said “I will now connect you to an agent – for this there is just a small one-time charge of £12″.
Before I let him take my details, I said I wanted to check what company it was. Again, he said it was “your Windows XP service provider” (whatever the hell that means).
To the answer “where are you based and what is your name”, bear in mind this man had a VERY thick/strong Indian accent and was calling from a scratchy overseas number.
“My name is Kevin Parker and we are based in Bradford”. Gold-dust! You couldn’t make it up! (Well, he obviously had).

I asked him to hold while I got my card. I put it on speakerphone and went down to make a cup of tea. I brewed up a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea, found a biscuit, did a bit of washing up, and went back upstairs. FIVE MINUTES later he was still going “Mr Marshall? Can you hear me?”. Nothing if not persistant! I then just decided to have a bit of fun and pretended he’d been put through to the UK police! Immediately, a supervisor (another strong Indian accent) came on the line sounding very surprised, and claimed that “Mr Marshall contacted us”!

So there you go – be warned. If I can get the audio up, I will. Please post a comment below if you’ve had this call.

PS – it didn’t sound much different to this!

digitaltoast

Hey Sujo; why not copy and paste exactly what I typed? Oh wait, you did...

Sujoy Roy

Making so many grammatical mistakes. We doubt that you have completed your education. First learn to speak english. CO-MANTRA is creating a mess, just in the quest to earn quick money. I doubt that they have a proper office. Guys please be careful!!! If you need any computer service only contact www.supportonclick.com.

jonston

We got a thrid call in the past two weeks in Washington USA the state not DC. >:(

revblue

We've been plagued with these for the last week or so. I teacher ICT up to A Level so checked the PC and did an in depth virus/malware scan and there is nothing wrog. I am fairly sure that they are using the phonebook as my wife's name is different from my and the PC is in my name and they always call me by my wife's surname. Also the day we got the first call my wife's parents got a call and they live in the same telephone district.

I am trying to report them as we are on the telephone preference service but the Bradford number diverts to Calcutta.

My advice is run a system restore just in case as they always seem to phone as we boot up the PC.

mrwatson2

They called me today too. They had me check the System event view and count up how manny errors and warnings. i told them.. "OMG, Dont not worry sir. We CAN HELP YOU." go to this website www.supportonclick.com. Then have the technician connect to your computer. He tried to get me to pay at leat $100 US but wanted me to pay $230 for platinum package. I told him I did not have a credit card and my parents were away. But insited that i pay now and must make a decision. I told him i could not and he got frustrated and said didnt my superviser tell you that you had to pay. I said he told me that I have to pay after the software was on my computer. He continued to push so I told him I was not interested and hung up. he called twice and left a message.

Message: (in an indian acccent) intimidating voice
"What you think.. What you think we are joking with you. This is the last time I will give u a call, I will call you back in 5 mins. If you dont pick up the phone its your wish. Its your wish if you dont pay the service charge after taking the service its your wish. Because i need to pay the technicians. Untill I pay the technicians we will not do the work anymore. Instead of helping you out those things will corrupt your computer. You will have to face the consequences. A new computer is $1000-$1200.............. Be ready for that.............. Are u ready for that.............. You have to pay the consequences whithin ????? (i think he saifd words)."

I am sending an email to FOX 25 about this for them to do an investigation. I will be taking screen shot of my computer and handing them the messages from my phone if they agree to persue. Hopefully they do so no one falls for these people and give them money.

Ant Daniel

Have had two similar calls now, as an IT professional I knew instantly that it's some sort of social engineering scam. But we need to get the word out.

Peter Kerrison

"Jack Dawson" from Tech-On Support has just spent 90 minutes on the 'phone, finally "inviting" me to renew the support on Windows XP for about £110 for 2 years. As I 'had to go out' & so hadn't time to give my PayPal details, he's going to phone me again tomorrow. He's very good, very plausable - had me pressing buttons all over! Is my computer now at risk?

Lee Atkinson

Just happened to me. Unfortunately (for them) I'm an IT professional, so I went a long with them to see what the scam entails. They claim all the files in the prefecth folder are malware. (In fact, they are files created by Windows to help speed up the launch of applications. It is possible that if there are lots of files in the folder, deleting them can speed up Windows, but under normal circumstances you should leave Windows to manage the folder).

Just before they were to pass me onto the 'Microsoft certified professional' I then laid into them for at least five minutes saying that it is despicable, considering that most people who have computers don't understand them and they would be scared of the scammers lies.

Incidentally, I think they called themselves 'Tech support', they said they are the Windows service provider, that Microsoft doesn't provide tech support, but get this company to do it (in fact they sais thet Microsoft is 'just a brand'!

It really makes me angry when they can easily con people with less IT knowledge.

Lee Atkinson

Just happened to me. Unfortunately (for them) I'm an IT professional, so I went a long with them to see what the scam entails. They claim all the files in the prefecth folder are malware. (In fact, they are files created by Windows to help speed up the launch of applications. It is possible that if there are lots of files in the folder, deleting them can speed up Windows, but under normal circumstances you should leave Windows to manage the folder).

Just before they were to pass me onto the 'Microsoft certified professional' I then laid into them for at least five minutes saying that it is despicable, considering that most people who have computers don't understand them and they would be scared of the scammers lies.

Incidentally, I think they called themselves 'Tech support', they said they are the Windows service provider, that Microsoft doesn't provide tech support, but get this company to do it (in fact they sais thet Microsoft is 'just a brand'!

It really makes me angry when they can easily con people with less IT knowledge.

Neil Bailey

Yes Support On Click are still at it, I've just had a call with the usual accent. Unfortunately I fell for it back in April 09 for around £200. (Today I just put the phone down on the table and hopefully let him run up a bill). I did dispute the matter with Barclaycard and said that although I readily parted with my details I since discovered that I had been scammed. To their credit Barclaycard refunded the money to my account and said they would raise the matter with Support on click's bank. They reserved the right to re-charge my account but 6 months later it hasn't happened so I'm hoping they're sympathetic. Others who have paid out like me should perhaps try disputing it with their credit card providers, though I don't hold out much hope for those going through Paypal. Good luck!

davidhardwick

One of our customers had a call from these people claiming there were issues with one of his PCs, I logged in and checked it out to find it was 100% ok. My customer said they announced themselves as Microsoft. I called techonsupport to find out how they got my customers number but they would not disclose, just said they were providing a warrenty service and they had a server team in oxfordshire.

Clearly a scam but don't know what we can do about it.

jl17

just had a call told him battery was dying so he had to call back in 30 min gae me two web site www.techisonline.com and www.logmein123.com Told me i was inserious and immediate dangr. COmputer will crash in 7 days. needs me to visit the web site immediatly to avoid. Had me check Prefetch file, said everything in there was malicious virus. also system event viewer, all malicious files.

mrs p

got a call from 'support on click' today, I asked for a telephone number to verify that the call was genuine before I gave out any of my 'computer details' here's the number: 01274900834. When I called the number and spoke to an agent and asked for some more details to verify that it was not a scam they cut me off - twice! - I then searched the company name and top of the list was 'scam'. What I would like to know is how did they get my telephone number and how did they know that I am experiencing some probs with my computer, does anyone know?

bryanjefferson

My experience is very similar to the others: unsolicited phone call, heavy Indian accent suggesting he was from my Windows service provider. He said they had received a number of error messages from my computer; did I remember the system sending them. I said no! That was the first trigger point for him to consider hanging up.

He asked me to switch on my computer. It was already switched on but I passed on the opportunity to ask him why he didn't know it was already on - that would have been trigger point two!

He told me where to find the Start button (very helpful) and asked me to type the Prefetch command only in my experience it was Prefetch unwanted files! There were 93 files in the Windows Prefetch folder and he asked me if I knew what they were. Most of them were immediately recognizable as they had names similar to programs. I said I didn't know what they were. He told me these 93 files meant there were about 200 malicious programs on my computer which had already delivered all my passwords to other computer users.

He then asked me if I had noticed my computer running slower every day. I said no; it runs at the same speed every day. That was trigger point 2 and he quickly rang off saying he was sorry to have bothered me.

So you can have some fun with these calls provided you know where they are heading. If you are in a hurry it would be more effective to tell them upfront they are speaking out of an orifice below their lower back!

comantra

CoMantra is a technical support service. As computers have become more popular and sophisticated, the job of keeping them running has been taken-over by an ever-increasing group of specialists known collectively as "Solution Engineers ". The first point of contact is generally the manufacturer’s tech support. However, as manufacturers and others scale-back on in-house technical support to manage bottom-lines, innovative and entrepreneurial tech support companies are building a robust business of providing help and a sense of security to consumers. It also doesn't hurt that computers and other gadgets have expanded beyond the realm of just the most tech-savvy.
CoMantra will provide you with the use of e-mail services, addresses, bulletin board services, instant messaging services, chat areas, news groups and other message or communication facilities designed to enable you to communicate with CoMantra employees and others as appropriate to your Service under a Plan Order (each a "Communication Service" and collectively "Communication Services").

stackridge

I don't dispute the fact that Comantra are a legitimate company and have the right to ring potential customers. My point is they made the call - early in the morning as I was preparing to leave for work - and NEVER mentioned the fact they were ringing from CoMantra but gave the impression they were calling from Microsoft, and thay had logged a problem with my computer.

I have a policy in my household. Whenever I get cold called, either on the telephone or at the door I ALWAYS say a polite NO THANK YOU. If that person does take the hint I will repeat it but firmer. If they insist on continuing I will hang up or shut the door. Because of the CoMantra caller's "lack of honesty" I did not hang up sooner. What eventually alerted me to this deception was his demand for money and becoming abusive with me. I gave him the same back but still felt my time had been wasted and was sufficiently annoyed to search out this thread, any thread, on this particular dishonest practice and warn other potential victims.

comantra

Thanks for your post. We really apologize for the inconvenience caused to you ,we will definitely investigate the issue and will take strict action against the same. -CoMantra Team

Kate

11.11.09 Just had a call from 'Angel' in Bradford Microsoft telling me my computer was slow and I may have downloaded dangerous packages that will cause my computer problems. She could transfer me to someone who could fix it. I told her I didn't know who she was, so she gave me a phone number in Bradford to ring 01274 900 110. I telephoned and asked the name of the company, a guy said 'Comantra' and that Angel would ring me back in 2 - 5 mins. I hung up, quickly checked the internet and found your page. She rang me straight back, I told her about her company being a scam, she said, 'what company? I do not know of this.' I said 'Comantra. She said 'o.k. no worries', and hung up! Both people had strong Indian accents, not Bradford accents. Thank you - a lucky escape by the sounds of it.

comantra

CoMantra is a technical support service. As computers have become more popular and sophisticated, the job of keeping them running has been taken-over by an ever-increasing group of specialists known collectively as "Solution Engineers ". The first point of contact is generally the manufacturer’s tech support. However, as manufacturers and others scale-back on in-house technical support to manage bottom-lines, innovative and entrepreneurial tech support companies are building a robust business of providing help and a sense of security to consumers. It also doesn't hurt that computers and other gadgets have expanded beyond the realm of just the most tech-savvy.

rwkshaw

I just had a look at the support on click website, had to have a read of the testimonials just for a laugh.. here is just one, which I think you'll all agree, is a little bit too far fetched....

Mark Daly
Australia
The Technician Ronny, performed immediate and concise solutions to the issues involving thorough virus and malware removal on my PC. If it were not for Ronny's persistent attention to detail and professional effort in fault analysis, these densely problematic issues may have engulfed my PC, effecting several of the worlds most dominating industries beyond all measure. Look over your shoulder Bill Gates, Ronny is on your case, and will rise his tower above and beyond your dreams, creating a web of protection over a world of the infected.

Hehehe

ROFLMAO! "..rise his tower above and beyond your dreams.." :D

Anxo

Just got the same thing. Apparently my computer has malware because I haven't renewed the Windows warranty after one year and this is making it very slow. This time the guy's name was Troy and said his number was also 01274 900 110. Same story, computer slow, bla bla bla, go to www.logmein123.com because they wanted to take over my computer to fix everything and make it very fast... Then I told him that if he was the Windows customer support he should know the licence number of my Windows and I asked him to give me the number. He hang up straight away and hasn't called since.

elaine_s

I had the very same call today, and was told there was no fee just for the anti virus package of £55.00 I (unaware at this time) gave instructions to take the money from my paypal account, only to find that the package was for 5 years and they had taken £275.00!!. The company name I have since found out is Co-Mantra.net they have a website but would not provide me with an address. I have tried to get my money back, though paypal and the comany but to no avail. Any ideas on this would be grateful. This has upset me extremely as i always thought i would be able to see straight through scams like this, but they are clever in making you think you are dealing with microsoft - clearly not!!

Kevin

I disagree with this comment because they have being very helpful to me and gave a new reincarnated my damaged computer back to its normal function.I suggest all don't go on the money they are charging but look at the service and value addition they are giving to the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!

digitaltoast

Isn't it funny how all the people posting saying it is a great service are mostly called Kevin, and are based in Calcutta (This Kevin is posting from 203.200.160.213).

And isn't funny how this Kevin's email address has "kevinwatson" as part of it, and the person who rang me from the scammers is called Kevin Watson.

Amazing how many Kevin Watsons there are in Calcutta. What are the chances of that, eh?

Heather

Plus he uses the term "reincarnate'" which--while technically appropriate--is not a usual vocab word we would use to describe a computer getting fixed!

gobbo1

My 91 year old nan got scammed by these charlatans . I am trying to get her money back any good tips?

helenbutler

This is still happening now.
Same number just called me and same scam - this is awful and people must be getting scammed all over the place! Sorry I couldn't record it.

pigofthesea

the name he gave me was aaron taylor!!!! I did get a couple of phone numbers out of him though, 01274 900834 and 01274 449373 so the bradford connection is real, aaron taylor.............my arse!!

RichSpalding

My Parents were targeted by this exact scam today (07/11/09). Claiming to be from TechOnSupport (http://www.techonsupport.com), and again using the name Henry Watson. Thanks for the article for confirming it was a scam.

LT

Oh my God! Me too. Just got off the phone after going through the prefetch unwanted page via run - and saying I had 80 of these dangerous files, and him saying '80! That is very dangerous. Don't open them', and then getting me to type in eventvwr - and handing me over to a supervisor because problem was so big!

I stopped when he wanted to get me to go through www.logmein123.com.

I was protesting throughout the call - saying I really think that after 10 yrs with this computer, and this being the first time Microsoft has ever bothered to help (with essentially a non-existent problem as I was unaware of any problem and my computer isn't slow), I was understandably suspicious.

He gave me this number: 01865521065 and name: Henry Foster and they called themselves Techonsupport.

elainewright

I WAS CONTACTED YESTERDAY AND THEY KNEW MY COMPUTER WAS RUNNING SLOW.

THEY SAID THY WOULD CLEAN IT AND I WOULD BE INSURED FOR 2 YEARS.

I PAID £105 IS THIS WASTED. THEY DID APPEAR TO MAKE IT RUN QUICKER.

kez

I just paid £180 my partner is furious as when i rang him he looked it up and found all this evidence of a scam , they just rang me back for feedback and i accused them of being a scam which he denied and got quite nasty with but rang me back a further time to see if i had found any evidence! Really not sure what to think or do!!! I got scammed last xmas(by a diff phone company)this is just disgusting, shall i try and get my money back through paypal??? I feel so upset

owain

I would check your accont isnt loosing money! or any direct debits set up over the next few days.
worrry? yes I would

guest

Just got the call. I only found this site afterwards or would have recorded the 10 minute conversation. Same thing: run event viewer, get scared by the error messages. I told him I knew exactly what my event viewer log looked like, thanks, so didn't find out what the next step would have been. I was interested to find out what the scam was going to be, but not to the point of touching the PC. I did worry at one point that I was paying for the call, and his assurance that I wasn't isn't very reassuring now! He did find a lot of inventive ways to keep the call going.

He kept asking me if I was an IT professional, to which I answered truthfully that I'm not. (I just build my own PCs so I know what I'm getting.) I think he might have called me a liar about that at one point, but the accent was so heavy I wasn't sure. In the end he gave in and wished me a nice life!

These predators should be in jail. I'm surprised Watchdog isn't interested.

batdog

Got one of these calls today. Usual spiel about my Windows computer running slow. Strange, I thought I ran Linux on my PC. Anyway I was a bit bored so strung them along all the way to handing over the money and then gave them the sucker punch of knowing it was a scam. They protested until I told them I worked in IT and knew very well what the Prefetch folder contained. At which point the "technician" told me to "F**k Off!" Brightened up my afternoon!

owain

this guy has just called my wife ( I am at work) but she didnt do what he said to do, give card info,,
she said I would like you to speak to my husband, he said hes going to call back tommrow, what should I do, is there a way I can catch him out?

digitaltoast

PLEASE record the call and string it out for as long as possible if you can! I would love a recording of this - many thanks!

johnsmith88

supportonclick is not a scam, they take money only after fixing your computer problems.
No 1 can tell that their service is bad. even i took more than 5times service from them but they conducted well and very helpfull.

digitaltoast

Yeah, that's funny. An Indian, posting from India (202.90.98.2), calling himself "John Smith", using an Indian webmail service, saying they don't take money before fixing, and yet everyone else says they do. Strange...

Cranners99

I am in Florida and just got the call from an unknown number. He had asked for my wife (it's her name on the phone account...) and said that something had downloaded its self last week. The first Indian guy was pushy and said that they were aware of all of the problems that I was having with my computer. I played along and had him tell me how to get to the 'run' command. He originally had said that he was aware that I was using Vista and should hit start and run. He eventually twigged that it wasn't there and had me use the widows key and "R". He asked me to type 'eventvwr' which I did as I kew it wouldn't hurt. When he tried to explain about the red symbols I acted dumb and it must have frustrated him and he said that I knew nothing about computers and would need to speak to one of his techs.
The tech came on the line and tried to have me connect to www.logmein123.com so they could look ate the problem and fix it. When I asked where he was calling from he said New York, got upset and told me that I needed to speak with a manager.
The manager came on the line and said that my free offer had expired and for them to fix the problem would cost $89. I asked the 'manager' his name and in the thickest Indian broken English said James Thomas. I asked for his phone number and he eventually gave me (516) 703 7900, which is a dead number. When I stated that I had decided not to use their 'service' he became very rude saying that he hoped I did not have a very nice day...

NameJamesgirl007

OMG I too spoke with James the Jerk.(actually two) Phone number 516-730 7009. Slight difference. They had been harassing me for 2 weeks. They finally got me at a weak moment as I am just getting over a mild case of Swine Flu. I still have a lot of nasty crud in my head so I didn't hear the warning bells. To my utter shame I went as far as typing in prefect and counting 171 red f----ing exclamation signs. OMG he was soooo upset about my computer having unwanted downloaded junk that will eat up my hard drive. Then he tried to get me to do some more key clicking of which I was intentionally being somewhat hesitant to do. He finally said that he would have to send this to the Senior Microsoft Tech. That is when I spoke to another James. I wanted to say there sure are a lot of James' where you are calling from. I was told NYC. I made some excuse to need to get off the phone. Then I found this site and feel REALLY STUPID. I usually pick up on scams. Now I am worried about what the jerks can retrieve from my computer???! Oh how I hope James calls me back....

Gill

Had a call this morning. Said he was from Microsoft and he had had a message from my computer saying there was a problem. Because it was serious he had to deal with it. I asked his telephone number. 01274 900113. I said I would phone that number to see if he was legitimate. He said it was no use contacting them because the technicians would need a pin number and he was the only one who could give it to me.

I asked how he knew? he said go into System tools > Event Viewer>Application. Scrole down and there will be an Error warning. Well - there was - but I was still wary and he said it will be within the last month. It was! (This really does make you think he knew something and was from Microsoft)

So I asked what was he going to do about it and by that time he was getting quite aggressive. In fact he said 'Are you a computer technician?' I said I was not and he said then listen to me!

So I said I have to be wary of people making calls such as this and he said he understood but needed to sort my computer out. So he was going to send me a document. I asked if it was via e-mail and he said no - he was going to do it now. So I asked what was the cost?

He said £5. So i told him that I was not paying money over the phone without verification of who he was and I was a pensioner, not a business, so I needed more eveidence of him first. He then said, 'Do you think you are the only pensioner if the world!'

To that comment I knew my instinct as to something was not right was confirmed.

I phoned Trading Standards and reported it. I then phoned the telephone Prefernce Agency and asked if they heard of this scam and he googled it and came up with this site.

What else can we do. My Mum who is 87 also had this call but had said I do all her computer Virus stuff for her - but they could have got her also.

Kat

I've just receive a call from someone calling his self Mark Jenkins re Tecon support. I found the whole conversation quite feasible as I have been having problems with my laptop recently but why would the mighty Microsoft Corporation take time to phone me with this information? that and the fact that I could hardly understand him (with a name like Mark Jenkins!) made alarm bells ring. He gave me a number to phone back - 01274 900834 but when I rang it it wasn't taking calls at the moment!! What a surprise. The scary thing is that he knew my name and kept saying to turn my computer on and trust it if I didn't trust him - was he going to access it remotely? With my help?Something needs to be done as I could quite easily have been taken in.

stackridge

I've just had the same www.logmein123.com call. Said they were calling from Microsoft and they knew about the problems I had been having. Gotme to type in eventvwr in the run prompt.

I did give them access to me computer briefly but was unhappy - googling the details in all the time - so logged them off quickly. At first they said it was free, then said I would have to pay £55 by card or Paypal. Did I have a lucky escape or did they do any damage in the short time they were messaging me? I did not type anything else in, regarding the prefetch command.

Strong asian accent, difficult to understand. They rang me twice - we got cut off once - and "Maxwell" was quite abusive when I said I would not pay. I should know better and hope I had a lucky escape. I am certainly glad I did not pay over any money

P.S. Just remembered the name given to me for the company behind this CoMantra http://www.comantra.net/

Helpline Number For UK: 1274900110 - this ties in with the message above for complaints. I'm still bloody annoyed I nearly fell for this and wasted my time on the long call. It seemed so plausible and they did say it was a free service - at first - and also made it sound they knew I was having problems with my LiveUpdate. Bastards!

comantra

CoMantra is a technical support service. As computers have become more popular and sophisticated, the job of keeping them running has been taken-over by an ever-increasing group of specialists known collectively as "Solution Engineers ". The first point of contact is generally the manufacturer’s tech support. However, as manufacturers and others scale-back on in-house technical support to manage bottom-lines, innovative and entrepreneurial tech support companies are building a robust business of providing help and a sense of security to consumers. It also doesn't hurt that computers and other gadgets have expanded beyond the realm of just the most tech-savvy.

The challenge is not in finding help rather, it is in determining whom to call. Good news is that now, quality echnical support is just a “click” away – www.comantra.net

CoMantra signifies "Value, Quality and Guaranteed Resolution for our customers’ technical problems". We support consumers in the US, Canada and UK as well. No matter what the issue is, what time of the day, which day of the week, or the make of your PC and/or related products CoMantra solves, each time, every time!

Bratchap

Hi buddy this was not a lucky escape for because your computer might be at risk they gave you a call to rescue it because the same thing happend with i pretended to abe scam but the quality service provided on my computer impressed me.

digitaltoast

Hi Bradchap, meet Kevin a little further down. He's happy with the service too. You might know him, after all, he's sitting at the same computer as you 203.200.160.213.

In Calcutta.

Andy

Just got a call from these idiots a few hours ago. Kept me on the phone 30 minutes, I knew it was a scam based on the fact that windows RUN doesn't really have commands like prefetch virus corrupted etc, with the spaces.

I played it out for a while though, finally the tech guy came on and asked me if I was happy to continue, and said NO... he got mad and said "Are you a technician? No. You have lots of viruses that needs fixed".

Sure, I've only been working with computers for 15 years what the hell do I know. He then said "Are you in the UK? You don't sound like you're from the UK."

That's just rich coming from some Indian claiming to be Alex Smith. I wish they'd phone back so I could just abuse them.

geomac

Same problem with me - cold call from India (number withheld) claiming to work with MS from whom they obtained my computer error reports - asked me to checl prefetch file - "too many entries bad for performance" Then to check event manager - "too many errors and alarms slowing system but don't worry we can fix all that". Asked me to connect with technician from techonsupport via www.logmein123.com. Technician downloaded freebie software including ccleaner, Advanced Windows Care and run them - big deal - I could do that. had to pay £60 upfront (via Paypal) and I can have support for a year on techonsupport web site or on an Oxford telephone number. Followed this up via Google and found I'd been conned - trying to recover £60 via Paypal. Grrrrrrrrrrr

MM

I just got one of these. The beginning was identical to the above, but as I am a Un*x person, I typed the "prefetch yadayada" into google, not the "run" dialog. I didn't have the time to have fun with this idiot, though, so told him to get lost after that. To me at least, this sounded like a scam from the outset. What annoyed me was the fact that he knew my name. Where to these bottom-feeders get this info from?

ringding

they scammy bastards tried it on me, offering me a service providing that was better than my currently provided services and a better dealing than my current providings

also they asked me to open
eventvwr
and prefetch
saying that my machine was heavily corrupted from websites i had visited....
what? ebay and facebook?
im happy with my current providings

viv_plank

I was called today (24/10/2009) by Techis Online - Bradford. The young lady said they worked as Microsoft technitians and that my computer had been logged as running slowly and she would check some system info with me. I let her go along with it and this is what happened.
1st. She told me to click Start and Run and type this command in the run box - EVENTVWR. Now I had to click Application and count all the red crosses and yellow triangles. She told me I had a very large number and a big problem with the PC.
2nd. Click Start and Run and type this in the command box - INF CORRUPTED SYSTEM FILES. Now I had to count the number of files in here. She told me that this showed how many files were corrupted on my PC, and as I could see this was a large number.
3rd. Now she said we should check my software warranty. I should click Start and then right/click My Computer and click on Properties, under the place where it said Registered To I had to copy down the last 6 digits. She told me that this is private info and I should not share it with anybody not even her (Genuinly convincing).
4th. Click Start and Run and now type into the command box - www.logmein123.com - then I would need to enter my last 6 digits in here and they could check my software warranty for me (I didn't do this step). If it was out of date I could purchace through them a new 2yr extended warranty for only £55.

I didn't acctually do the last bit as I told her I had on money with a car tax bill to pay next week (I had no intention of doing it, I have heard these things before) but I did tell her that if they had a number I could call them on then I would do it when I had the cash. The number I was given was 01274900113 and I should ask for her Jessica Willson.

nel99

When i asked the guy why he was being so persistent when i had researched this type of call and had over 300,000 people clarifying it was a scam he replied "I love computers. It is my nature. I love computers more than my girlfriend"

And he expected me to believe what he was saying...

Oh dear

Matt

Hey, thank you very much for posting this. I had this happen to me today (Thursday 22 October 2009). A couple of indian guys I could barely understand phoned me up and told me some cr*p about my computer 'sending a signal to windows' telling them there is a fault. He then got me to key in 'prefetch unwanted' in the run task bar and gave me some more garbage about spyware and my computer eventually 'running out of disk space' if it was not repaired. Eventually he asked me to go to the logmein123 and tried to explain that my 'windows warranty had expired' and i needed to pay them £50 a year or £150 one off payment'. I asked why would would i have to pay this and he said 'Windows is not the same company as Microsoft, we are service provider.' I then said 'this sounds like a scam' so he transfered me to his 'manager'. He gave me some more bullsh*t so I just hung up. They rang back but i ignored it.

cora123

Ive just had one of these phone calls, i told him to ring back cause i hadnt got my card handy, when he rang back luckly i had read this page and my fella told him to f*** off it was a con, thank foe warning people

Sara

My mum got the call today. Guy said he was called Martin and phoning from Microsoft because her computer had downloaded lots of files that it shouldn't have. She was a bit concerned because she had just shut down her computer and it had run loads of updates but when she queried the position and said she had really good anti-virus and firewall he hung up. We are in Wales, UK. I am concerned about where they got our number from because we are ex-directory and signed up to all the lists that stop people cold-calling you.

Rabb

My wife has had a phone call from eddie at 'tech on support' on each of the last 2 days stating they were part of windows upgrade system, he says, in a strong indian accent, that our computer has sent an error message to microsoft and there company deals with these problems. When my wife asked for a number so i could call them back he got angry and hung up, both times!!

glelvis

I had a phone call today at around 12.40pm, it was mostly as everyone says however they rang me back on my mobile as i was buying time, the number that came up wasn't with held it came up as 00489734823624

I hope that this information is of some use.

Thank you all

MCrab

Just had this phone call claiming to be from Microsoft. Tried to pin him down on exactly where he'd got my details from. After a while he must have realized this fish wasn't going to bite and I got a nice polite "oh, fuck off" before he hung up. I'm beginning to think he might not really have been from Microsoft after all.

munkee

phone rings - i pick up - hear nothing for 10 second then a small click and then 5 seconds worth of music - then an indian/pakistani sounding dude comes on asking for me by name. I said he was speaking to me and he introduced himself as mark roberts - might have been rogers tho as i didnt make it out too good. anyway - i asked if he was sure as he sounded more like an abdul or a mohamed or possibly even saleem type of guy. he said no he was mark and he was phoning about my computer, how has it been running, was it slow. This was when i knew that he was selling a scam. I said no its fast as a rapists arse as its a s**t hot top spec custom built water cooled gaming rig. He asked how old it was- was it over a year old. I said yes - he then said that was i aware that the parts inside are no longer covered by the inbuilt safety systems as they ran out after a year. I asked him what parts exactly but he didnt answer he just started going on about how his software warrenty would fix it and give me protection. I asked him again what parts are no longer covered but again he just kept going with his speel. I then asked what company he was from but he didnt answer again and instead started over again telling me about his software warrenty thing. I then said if you dont tell me what its called im not going to buy it and explained to him how he wouldnt buy something from me without knowing what it was would he. he then started over a fresh about hte software warranty thing. thisprocess went on about 10 times before i eventually managed to get the name of supportonclick out of him. One of my mates at work had this happen to him about 6 months ago but he foolishly went and logged onto the link the guy gave him as the guy said he was from dell and my mate has a dell computer so he thought it was legit. It turned out that they downloaded the contents of his computer through remote access - as he does a lot of online banking they got access to all of that as well. They then made the mistake of demanding hat he pay £120 for them "fixing" his computer and getting abusive when he said no. The dude then turned round and said we have seen your accounts on your computer you can afford £120 - in fact me might just take double that. after that my mate hung up the phone and called police and had to change ALL his bank accounts - alot of hassle as he has shares and stocks and s**t loads of different bank accounts!!! After researching it the best we cabn come up with is that supportonclick.com are actually a legit responsible company but these fraudsters are using their name as a front for their scam and use names like microsoft, dell, HP etc to kind of scare folk into doing as they say as lets be honest if you had no idea about computers and someone phones up saying they are from microsoft your gonna think why are they getting in touch with me-it must be serious-id better do as he says!!
anyway folks - dont let abdul or wahtever his real name is cause you the same grief as my mate.
Im UK and number was with-held.

On another note - id like to switch internet providings hehe - fonejacker is class

Madmeister

9/10/09
Just had 'the call' which was similar to all the others. I kept asking who he was (he had a thick aisian accent), all he kept repeating was he was a computer service provider and he was informing me of a serious threat to my computer. I realised almost at once it was a scam but I listened for a while whilst he asked me to open various files on my computer. He asked what security software I had and at one point said I should disable it. I repeatedly asked him if he had 'authorisation' from Microsoft and he repeatedly answered yes, I asked him if was authorised by my seller and he said definately but when he was asked to confirm who my seller was he didn't know! When he asked me to type into 'run' PREFETCH' I told him I wouldn't until he contacted me via e-mail with full details of his authorisation, UK contact address etc. At this point he rang off. I dialled 1471 only to obtain this number 01119. I don't recognise this as any sort of number and I won't ring it just in case it's another scam! I have not received an e-mail and I don't expect to, however, if I do I will copy it here.

edwinaboyd

Ihave just been scamed

A. Canadian

I Googled fake tech support today... so thanks for the confirmation information! We got our caller today (Edmonton, Canada) the variation being that he said:

"Hi this is Gerrard calling from I.T. - and I'm calling about your, ah, oh issues anti-virus... apparently there was a ticket generated... um you have a... you have a poss... possible file infection... please give me call back - my phone number is 604-298-9792 once more 604-298-9792 thanks bye bye.

According to our caller I.D. the call actually came from 604-5879-6661 (10:24am). Area code 604 is British Columbia, our ISP is here in Edmonton (Alberta). I'm curious as to what service or program he would have said "generated a ticket" lol from our computer. I'm kind of surprised he left a message and am almost tempted to call back - except I won't waste the coin on a long distance call :)

Plus our guy had an excellent connection so I've got a perfect wave file of the phone message (5 stars for the Sansa music player mic!!) I'd post it if I knew how, email me and I'll send it to you if you want though.

And please anyone who wants to - feel free to give Gerrard a ring and see if he's interested in buying anyone's products/inventions/services/magazines/etc. or just use his number(s) in any bogus application/spamtrap/crank call you'd like :) After all he deserves something for his efforts...

Jim

From what I see, the "supportonclick" morons are in Western Washington State, USA mode now. My experience is identical to many posts. Too bad these folks can't channel their skills to something productive and legal- they could make a lot more money. I asked my caller "does your mother know what you are doing?" He became very agitated, telling me he was from an important international firm, and I couldn't talk to him that way...hmmm OK. I signed off by telling him to apologize to his mother. Thanks a lot for your website.

deane75

September 30, 2009 - just got the same call here in Western Washington State, USA, probably from the same man - heavy Indian Accent, same pushy attitude, same script. Windows XP provider indeed! He was adamant that Microsoft was NOT the provider for support for Windows, and then went on to add something about HP and hardware... I hung up on him.

Matt

Sounds like the very same c*** who rang me!

James

i have just been called by "System Re-cure" in Australia today. They assured me I have had troubles with my computer. (She is unaware that I build computers for a hobby and that I am studying software design at university). She assures me that she needs me to go to www.systemrecure.com.au. Thinking to myself, great, so I quickly googled the so called company and look what I See? With majority of titles including PC Scam. She then says what do you see? Playing dumb I said oh I think my internet is down... Then she says thats okay for now we can check your problems.. She asked my what OS i am running. Happlily I said Windows 7 x64 rc. She was alittle confused, i think. She replys Oh... Well could you please click start then run. I cut her off and said I don't think you are doing what you say your doing. I build computers and have knowledge in computers... before I could finish she says Oh oh oh you dont need our services and hanged up.... Hmmm I tried to record it while i am doing this however, the quality was very shot.
Why is this happening? Are they intercepting error reports send from programs and os' and then pretending to be a legit company? Thank god no one else in the house pick uped the phone.. don't know what would happen...

Adam

Same thing happened to my parents luckily they asked for my advice on the call. We are in Perth Australia. The name we got was Kevin from system recure and he said he was in Sydney. I'll be waiting for another call so i can have some fun.

Calls came week commencing 21/9/2009.

jackie

I just got a call tonight by this guy with a thick accent with a foreign number on my caller ID saying he was with Global manufacturing maintenance support on click and that my computer had a problem, he wanted my to shut down my computer and let him guide me through it so he could detect what the problem was, and that if I did not do it my computer would crash, I asked him what his name was he said Vanwyk and he gave my an employer ID number and I told him that I could not do it at this time could I call him back, so he gave me a 1-800 number to call him back and wanted to know when I would be calling him I said probally tomorrow and then he wanted to know the exact time. I asked him how he got my phone number he said the computer gave it to him. I knew right then it must be a scam because microsoft is not going to call you and say hey let us fix your computer. What I want to know is how did he get my name and phone number.

akni

I had a very similar experience. A phone call every day for a week. I didn't try the police tactic but told the caller I was using an RAF computer and was she suggesting it had been infected in some way. Perhaps they should talk to the MOD. A 'supervisor' came on line and suggested I got my own technical support to look at the problem!!

grahamwalker2004

I got this phone call too although the muppet with the strong Indian accent said he was from Oxford . But surely people aren't so thick these days they will get a complete stranger tell them what to type in their Run menu . Surely not ??? But I suppose there must be rich pickings before they go to all this trouble . By the way , when I laughingly challenged him ( and he got a bit stroppy at that point ) as to how to prove he was in Oxford he was willing to give me some 0846 number . I got bored at that point and put the phone down . Regrettably really as it would have been some nice sport to string him along for a while and pretended to be REALLY thick .

salsabeth1

I have just been contacted by a lady with a thick Indian accent, who was almost shouting down the phone at me telling me I had problems with my windows vista. At first I couldn't really understand what she was saying but the gist of it was that she wanted to controll my computer remotely to fix it.,... Yeah right i'm gonna let her do that. At this point I told her she was nothing but scum and put the phone down. Do people really comply with these phone calls?

Valerie Morgan

Hi. I have been scammed by Supportonclick.com. I was having trouble with Hughes.net upload and download speeds. An email was sent to Huges.net about this and a few days later we got a call, my husband picked it up and said they were from Huges.net and gave the phone to me. Like a dummie I did it all and got hooked into 300 dollars. Now I am worried they can still get into my computer and how to get my money back.

chrissiesmith66

Yes I had the same call this morning from Raymond Oberoi didn't fall for the Warranty bit but I did for the rest! He was on the phone for around 30+mins because I wouldn't pay for the 'WARRANTY' he said to switch the computer off & he would call again tomorrow. Are they just after the money for the warranty or are they generally just hacking into your files? When I ran my security afterwards it showed Trojan had entered my system. I contacted the police & they said they would send someone round tomorrow, if it was proven that my computer had been accessed & altered it is a criminal offence. I feel very foolish, I'm not elderly, just not terribly computer savvy!!!

Chrissie

Yes I had the same call this morning from Raymond Oberoi didn't fall for the Warranty bit but I did for the rest! He was on the phone for around 30+mins because I wouldn't pay for the 'WARRANTY' he said to switch the computer off & he would call again tomorrow. Are they just after the money for the warranty or are they generally just hacking into your files? When I ran my security afterwards it showed Trojan had entered my system. I contacted the police & they said they would send someone round tomorrow, if it was proven that my computer had been accessed & altered it is a criminal offence. I feel very foolish, I'm not elderly, just not terribly computer savvy!!!

tarquin330

I had the same call last week. Heavily accented voice on a poor line, calling himself Justin Brook, saying I had a problem that would gradually slow down the Windows OS. I replied that I run a Mac. He hung up. Got another call later the same day, and went through the same stuff. He said to call TechOn Support on an Oxford phone number (01865 521001). I tried this number out of curiosity yesterday. No-one answered, although it rang differently from a regular UK number, which made me think it was diverted, possibly overseas. But Googling this number reveals a similar scam background. Thanks for your page, and the entertaining little movie.

borobabs

Well they have upgraded now to a Indian ladies voice and I couldnt understand what company or anything, but they had the good timing to phone me just as my computer was running a bit slow and told me your computer is running slow??she then wanted me to go to start, run and the letter E for elephant , err hello I hav nt reported it faulty and Im not writing anything ;;
This was in the Middlesbrough Yorkshire area ;;

amanda_v

I got a call from these people two days ago. I'm in Canada. Although I hadn't heard of the scam before the guy sounded really dodgy so I told him I wasn't running anything on my computer until I'd had time to check out his company. He wanted me to go onto supportonclick.com immediately but I wanted time to google it first so hung up. He immediately rang back but I didn't answer. Thanks for this page - it confirmed all my suspicions.

bluemonty

Was called today with request to start computer which I refused, and then it was suggested I go to their website supportonclick.com, which I have also not done because it may be dangerous. I then asked where their HO was and was told they have offices all over the world and the uk branch was in Bradford. Hope this helps.

matthoward

I just had the same call (I'm in the UK). It was from "Computer Technical Support" and I was asked in a thick Indian accent if my computer was running slowly or behaving strangely. I asked what he was talking about and where he was calling from and he just hung up. He did however know my name, and after reading the post below, I have my suspicions that there is something wrong with the telephone exchange in India that is allowing fraudsters to tap in. I had, earlier on, phoned the HSBC bank, which has its call centre based in India.

onlinebiz

Well I too just had the wonderful phone call. This one asked me to check under My computer, then manage and applications and if I saw any error messages that meant infection. If more than 2 it is heavly infected. Well I spend most my days on the computer in internet marketing and I have just about seen it all. This one I had heard about. They even gave me the correct phone number for support on click which I had not heard of. When I question him this he actually got kind of mad and said everyone has heard of them. You must be not informed! I let it go as far as the supervisor, but when he said he needed to connect to my computer, I said no way jose, I must confirm this first and he said what ever mame and I hung up the phone. What that actually had me looking at which I really had never was basically my error log. I have old computers and guess what I get alot of errors!!! So I guess my computer was really infected. They tell you that no antivirus McAfee or Norton can detect these junk files I must have down loaded. This is very scary, because I can only image how many people fall for this. Like I said I do interent marketing and before I get involved I always check it for scam alerts. Thanks to sites like this we are able to help each other out with this. Thank for this and people, please be careful.

Biodagar

Hello! I came across your site when reading another forum (a games forum actually), wherein the gamers had had a lot of fun jamming the supportonclick webchat with ridiculous conversations. But that is by the bye.

I haven't been scammed by these guys, but I have found other interesting forums where it appears that a lot of people talking about being phoned up are all from the same phone companies. It tends to be talktalk in the UK and Telstra in Australia. I'm not sure what that suggests.

Anyway, I also just found out that these guys are posing as a legit service on Twitter at this address: http://twitter.com/supportonclick -- and am posting it here just to add to people's awareness of other potential unwanted contact.

willjack316

My father has had this scam run on him today. 25-8-09. I have managed to find who is behind it.
Feel free to spam their email the Ba*^#+ds!!.

Registrant :
Name: GloWebSoftware GloWebSoftware
Organization: Glo Web Software
Address: 9A Gariahat Road,
City: Kolkata
State: West Bengal
Postal Code: 700029
Country: IN
Phone: 2093465
Fax:
Email: gloweb@gmail.com

Domain : techonsupport.com

Administrative Contact :
Name: GloWebSoftware GloWebSoftware
Organization: Glo Web Software
Address: 9A Gariahat Road,
City: Kolkata
State: West Bengal
Postal Code: 700029
Country: IN
Phone: 2093465
Fax:
Email: gloweb@gmail.com

Technical Contact :
Name: GloWebSoftware GloWebSoftware
Organization: Glo Web Software
Address: 9A Gariahat Road,
City: Kolkata
State: West Bengal
Postal Code: 700029
Country: IN
Phone: 2093465
Fax:
Email: gloweb@gmail.com

Created on.......: 2008-12-30
Expired on.......: 2009-12-30
Last updated on..: 2008-12-30

Domain servers :

Name Server: ns1.webmasterspack.net
Name Server: ns2.webmasterspack.net

I also looked up the address on Google earth. Wish they lived closer to me :-)

rosjeka

I am in Australia and get about three of these calls a week. I am sick of it. So yesterday another "rep" rang "We are a microsoft, toshiba and macafee service provider". So I have recorded the conversation (and its not too bad, though I'm very loud on it). I even ASKED his permission to record it and he agreed!

I will get my kids to tweak it a bit to bring my voice level down and send it to you if you want.

raven

Hey David is correct !!
i tried that it just open up the prefetch folder with the files in it !!
I googled the prefetch word i've found that it'll speed up the actions on ur computer.
if we clear them off some program may get corrupt.
So beware of that after the work done by technicain you may face the issue that computer crashed down..

raven

Hey David is correct !!
i tried that it just open up the prefetch folder with the files in it !!
I googled the prefetch word i've found that it'll speed up the actions on ur computer.
if we clear them off some program may get corrupt.
So beware of that after the work done by technicain you may face the issue that computer crashed down..

jimboon

Ha, just had "Henry Rawson" from "Oxford" with exactly the same scam. I googled the command he asked me to type in and got to this site. It was very informative.

What a numpty poor Henry is, he had no idea I was playing with him. I have 20 minutes of conversation on my iPhone (me taking the p*ss) with idiot and his dumb colleague. I work in technology so I had some fantastic fun playing the dumb one with this chap trying to scare me using Windows XP application log info/warning/error messages. I especially liked how he tried to explain how he'd been alerted to my specific problems with my specific PC "our research department is notified of all the errors on PCs all over the world and if they see really serious ones they pass them on to us to call out". Worryingly, some poor people fall for this. I didn't get anything to find out who they are - clearly not that stupid - but I did ask idiot #2 what the weather was like in "Oxford" and he claimed it was raining - but not flooding yet. Which is tosh, it's sunny there. Anyway, after 20 minutes, I was clearly too dumb to continue with - and they were getting suspicious. So I've wasted 20 minutes of their international call time - and I've had some fun from it. Suggest others do likewise, they are used to folk hanging up, but if you have time and it wastes theirs - it really irritates them, especially if you play dumb and they think they have a hit, then after stringing them out, you blow them out. Unfortunately it's the only way to get back at them, and it delays them from calling some poor person who is taken in by it.

davidjo

I want to draw your kind attention towards the act which I think is a cheat against you.
As you’re got the so called “software warranty” for your windows or software installed in you computer.
You all got the support from the Techonsupport as they told you that you are getting software warranty but in real scenario there is no term called software warranty.
Warranties are always against to the spare parts of your desktop or notebook.
They have also told you that they are “Windows” service provider.
Windows is a trademark registered product of Microsoft Inc.
If anything goes wrong with your Operating system the support you can avail by only authorized 3rd party technical solution or by Microsoft technical support helpdesk and by your computer/notebook manufacturer.
Here are the links:-

http://www.microsoft.com/solutionfinder/Marketp...
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/supportonclick-sy...

What I’ve seen as in case of Techonsupport now a days their website live chat is not working.
Have you checked out the contact us page it’s saying it not on the web server.
Please refer to the attached documents.

Means they don’t want to hear from you again by any means .they have their numbers shown on website. I hope they might be going to off that number too.
Before its too late go and get your hard earn money back from them and let the other concern official to know on your place. So that other people able to know about this kind of scam...

Before you get any call first investigate that company is really genuine as they are saying over the call.
Because in this tech support they’re watching you while you’re making payments on their website.
They will say that your computer got malicious files on your computer.
They instructed you over the call the click on Start—run then type prefetch virus or something like that!!!

Check the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_prefetch

What ever word you suffix with the prefetch it’ll open up the prefetch folder because windows explorer ignores the rest of the words.

If you still confused with this!!

Type the prefetch and suffix it with your name after providing a single space.
For E.g. prefetch David

jaffa

I just had the exact same call got the guys name and numbers what should i do now? very angry that they nearly got me but i got advise just in time

davisdanaes

Tech on support !!
when i got the paypal bill it came up with the Annex Softwa
I got suspicious with that then i started the extensive research upon this company.
i got something on here in the link
http://annexsoftware.businesscomplete.net/?disp...

their company link is not seems to be genuine.
So better hang up the call as you listen to this call.

steventurner

Hello all, even i got a same kind of call from tech on support and they tried selling me the same service which i dont require,but when they worked on my computer for long hours and now i can see that my computer is running much better that earlier and yes i have got a good news for you guys that, the fake compnay which we were searching for is "Supportonclick"
and thier url is "www.supportonclick.com" guys beaware of support on click..thanks..
Steven Turner

backx

wonder who you work for........

backx

please stop these people if you (the moderator) knows the ip address block there comments system recure support on click tech on support all the same rip off virus spreding no hopers i hope everybody complains to microsoft and buys an apple........

digitaltoast

backx - Looks like "steven turner" is posting from India - surprise surprise! But I won't block any comments, I think people can see what type of outfit they are.

Also, complaining to Microsoft won't help - they're not from Microsoft, buying an apple is a good idea, everyone should eat more fruit.

backx

there not from microsoft but they are telling people they are thanks digitaltoast for your very infomative web site and help in verifing the senders of these bogas posts i hate my privace to be breached by any one let alone by people like this we in aus have very big issues with these kind of people at the moment and i pray they will not have a negative effect on people of there race i hope they see this and feel some sort of remorce for there actions what goes around comes around if they dont stop neither will i (boxing history for however many rounds it takes to stop these people affecting and infecting good wholesome hardworking hardhitting people

Subramanium

Tech On support Rocks...Exceptional Service by them

Steven

How transparent and stupid these guys are! What's to bet that Subramanium works for Tech On Support!

Moderator - please can you let us know where Subramanium's IP address originates from!

Subramanium

I recieved the same kind of the call yeserday.My computer was badly effected by virus and it was really very slow.Tech On Support guys helped me a lot.Yes they charged me 55 GBP for the service and promoised me to provide me a 1 year free support for my computer.My computer is fine now.Thank you tech on support for your help....

Lucy

Just had a call about half an hour ago from these people. A man with a thick indian accent said he was calling from my "windows service provider" and then claimed to be from tech support. Some persistent questioning on my part netted the name "tech on support" (the first time I asked he omitted the "on" part). Really pushy and wanted to know if my computer ran slow, how long it took to boot up (bizarre) and claimed to have had a report from me about some problems.

Was suspicious and refused to cooperate, but he kept asking if my computer was switched on. Eventually I told him there was nothing wrong with it and he seemed to realise he was getting no where and said goodbye.

Mark Oxbrow

I have just had this call on 8 August. Much the same as other comments here. As soon as I started asking questions about the company website, address etc. I was put on to a supervisor and as soon as I asked him about where the company was registered he hung up on me. Number untraceable off course. The VERY INTERESTING thing for me was that throughout the call they called me Mr. Owen which is not my name. Only once in my life have I been called that. It was for about one month earl;ier this year when British Telecom mistakenly had that name on my account (another Indian agent - who first took down my details when I opened the BT account in december - had misentered my name). I have one BT bill with that name on but by the end of January they had my correct name on their records. That is 98% proof to me that Supportonclick got my details from BT !!

David

Doing it in Australia now too. Some idiot called me and said they were from MICROSOFT and that they would connect me to a MICROSOFT technician!! Script change again!!

I reported it to Microsoft.

ratfinder

HI just had a phone call from a man with an indian accent he asked for me by my sur-name I am from the uk in yorkshire never heard of this scam untill now so he caught me unawares however I said I had never heard of support on click they mentioned they were part of the maintance of windows and they had information that I had been having a few errors on my computer lately they asked me to go to my computer and switch it on so they give me the information to clear the problems. They said you had to be careful nowadays with all the virus's around . I started to smell a very large RAT and said I would write it down instead of putting it straight on my computer the guy said "why do you want to do that" i didnt answer him I also said I am not going to do anything to my computer because I dont know you and you could be doing anything to it. I asked if he could ring back tomorrow when I have had time to think about it, . I am sure he wont ring again but you never know, that would be interesting. Glad I have seen this site thankyou I have written an article for our local magazine to warn people of such scams.

lasttime9

Hi, my grandparents nearly got caught by this scam today. Lucky my parents were there at the time and phoned me whilst it was going on. The guy said he was from Windows Support saying they think an attacker is trying to hack into the machine. The Indian man on the phone began guiding them through looking for errors.
By the time I got around and told them to hang up, disconnect and shut down I found they were guided to the Event Viewer, Firewall and Problem Report & Solutions. He also said the Windows Warranty had run out!.

He was quite persistent and even saved a message on the answer machine! The number was 01865521001 and the name he left was Raymond O'Brian.

People need to know about this as it sounds like more damage can be done and lots will be caught out loosing money. I did a virus and malware scan on the machine just in case but don’t know how they got hold of the name, address and phone number.

gemzyj

i got one today! 1.08.09 at 12.20pm glad i googled the address first, i recentlty had pc trouble and thought it was them calling back... but googled logmein123.com first and found this!! thank u so much!!

pennie chapman

oh sh.... it's happened to me - I got my daughter to ring the shop where I bought my laptop but they said any problems must be internet and nothing to do with them. I bought a 3 year service for £170 I feel so b...... stupid.

pennie - lichfield staffordshire

Valerie Morgan

Hi pennie. I got hooked with supportonclick for 300bucks. I am in the States, were you able to get your money back. poppy

theideasman

Thank you so much for this, I had the same call in Australia and they said they were from Sydney so I asked where and they didn't know, lol so I got the web address put it into Google and put SCAM at the end and the first site that was revelant was this one I ask her to hold on (I was still on the phone) I read a bit you had written and then I realised that it was the same, I went back to the phone as I had put it down and she had hung up, then a minute later she called back, I ask her to give me her details and company name and she made up something, I was still reading your blog above and then saw the record it bit so I asked her to hold on again and she said it was urgent that she sort this out now as it will delete my hard drive wipe all my personal info, I told her that I was on google and just found out she was a scammer and that I would be contacting the police she said that it was her job and she was only trying to help me and couldn't believe that I was this way with her, I then remembered she just asked for me as Mr Cain so I said if you know me and my address then you can tell me her first name. she said Mr Cain so I laughted and hung up.

Thank you so much for this as I was a little worried when the call came through as I have had some computer problems with websites so I would have been a little sucker had I not thought about how much Google is the best tool on the Internet.

Nathan

rbbrain

Hi,

Today (29 July 2009) in Melbourne Australia I just received a phone call exactly like the one described above. I was very suspicious from the start, so I quizzed him and dragged it out for about 16 minutes. Then I gave up and hung up on him. There's no way I would let them take control of the PC, nor give them money.

Sadly, there are probably some gullible people in this country that he might succeed with over coming days.

I wish there was an easy way to warn the less informed and gullible users out there.

amylu

My mum had the same call yesterday 28/july 2009. She is not computer literate and our norten had expired so she thought it was them, they said they were from microsoft and gave her the supportonclick website. They were VERY nice to her, assured her that her computer would be fixed and cleaned up and run quicker, for someone that doesnt know much about computers its easy to fall for. She let them into our home computer that i myself have used for internet bankind,ebay, paypal etc for years. she has no idea what he was doing but said he was on there for around 40 mins! She then paid by debit card £99.00 for a '2 year warranty' She hasnt got paypal but she has an email from 'paypal' saying shes paid that amount to them etc! so i dont know if they set her up a paypal whilst on the phone as she doesnt evn know what paypal is!? When i got home i went into panic mode and still am to be honest! we have turned our router off to stop access to the computer. We have cancelled her debit card also. Now im just worried what hes actually done! My brother is good with computers so he is going to change router passwords and run some antivirus stuff. Im going to get my bank card cancelled too just in case. Can anyone suggest how much info they could get, what do i need to change etc? im worried about identity fraud and my online banking.

petersmith

They will not take personal info as far as I know. They will just take the money for the services offered. Let your brother check what has been done to the machine. if things are fine then no need to worry.

amylu

scanned the computer with adaware and avg and did find a list of trackers on the computer!
so they defently do place trackers when they are 'fixing' your comp!

PK

Just had call from these scumbags.

Appalling line. I hung up on them. They called right back. I hung up again. They called again. After a short conversation where they gave the same info as in this thread (he called himself Michael), I told him I was Googling while talking to him, that I knew he was a liar and to f*** off and never call me again.

Name

I had theese scumbags call me up today, ell i as in bed so my mum told them to call back as theyd asked for me. My mum shouted up to my bedroom, " Someone rang to tell you your compuers slow and they want to fix it" . I thought this was suspicious to say the least. They called back 25 mins ago anyway and said they where from support on click and my computer was running slow and they would fix it. The guy had a HEAVY indian accent and i started the call by saying "where did you get my name and number from" he replied "ummmmm?" so i said again "Where did you get my number from?" he now said "From the authorities"......i got suspicious and thought what the hell is going on here!!!!! Then I lied by saying " I have given the police authorities your number, i have traced you i have special software!!"....... and i said to the man, "I've never heard of your company, and i certainly have never joined your company, and I dont know how you got my phone number so never call me again" then he hung up. SCUMBAGS!!! Then i googled the line (Phone Scams - your computer has been running slow) and found this phread and now know all abut the scam. Even when i didnt know about the scam when they called my house they couldnt trick me cause im not stupid. They should be locked up for their scam because a person who knows less about computers/life than i do, lets just call them "The technologically vounrable" (a housewife, the elderly) may be tricked into giving these morons access to their computer, and bank details, and paypal, and full address ect ect..............THESE GUYS ARE SCUMBAGS AND NEED TO BE STOPPED!!!!!!

johndguk

This happened to my Mother, who is in her 70's and who's computer knowledge is limited. She passed the phone on to my son, asking him to do as the guy asked. Got as far as the logmein123 bit but didn't work so hopefully no harm done. They say they'll phone back today - so thanks to this info on Digitaltoast - my mum will be able to cut them off with confidence
Thanks everyone

owens2

Just got off the phone with these guys second call first was click on support now tech on support stating they have had infromation sent from my computer! Sent how??
Well i go on to tell them that they tried this scam before with my husband and me already mentioned the other name of their so called 'company' he assured me it was not a scam and gave me the customer help line number 01865521001. I asked him how did he get my information as I am not registered with this 'company' he said we get sent the info when you purchase your computer. So to entertain me I said when did I buy my computer (laptop by the way) he said 2 yrs ago madame complete lies my laptop is over 5yrs old so I promptly ended the call and called the 'help line' very scratchy line where he tried to explain himself again i said could not hear a word so he said he would call me back! Yeah right treid the number again its dead fault on the line!!! These people are so clever that they can set up numbers and then cut them off instantly watch out for them dont believe a word they say or do anything to your computer or give them money! I had no way of recording the call which is a damn shame would love to see these guys caught!!

owens2

The guy called me back 45mins later, stating he was not a scam where did I get this information from i told him the internet when I googled his so called company he said its all lies; then he could not answer me how he obtained my phone number. He also could not answer why the help line number I was given no longer worked! I told him my husband works with computers, asking which company he worked for which I promptly told him none of his business he replied my husband was a waste of time and space and I better hang up the phone 'HE PHONED ME!!' arsehole! I wish/hope these people get what is coming to them!!

Bart

Today 7-20-09 I received a tele call from SupportOnClick and a Direct Connect Link‏ to the download they want you to infest into your computer. Here is the email I asked them to send me directly because I will not conduct business on the telephone.
From: SupportOnClick, SupportOnClick (direct-connect@LogMeInRescue.com)
Sent: Mon 7/20/09 2:54 PM
Please click the link below to request a live support session: https://secure.logmeinrescue.com/R?i=2&Code=868682 Best Regards,Support On Click Team

Beware these two Indian team up to sounding very skilled and professional and have all the right answers.

londonlad

they are still active as at 21/07/09. called me in London with all of my personal details to hand. the scary thing was i have just bought a new computer so i was, only for a second, in two minds.

some Indian sounding dude tried to scam me but i googled his instructions and got this page. thanks for saving people from these scammers.

if the scammers are reading this i sincerely wish upon you some terrible form of scrotal cancer and one of the degenerative diseases that eats your brain and makes your life horrible.

Kattie

My mother recieved this call in Australia. Unfortunately she let him have access to her computer but after realising it was a scam she had her computer checked by a local technician who found a rootkit virus had been put on it. I suggest anyone who has let these scammers get this far, get your computer checked!

Maggie

I was phoned on Friday, 10.07.09 and the caller said his name was Alex Smith who had a strong Indian accent, the call was the same as many others and as my computer had been running slow for a couple of days I fell for it and handed over access of my computer to a technical man. Like a fool I paid an amount of £99 my mastercard as he said the warranty on my computer had run out. I feel an idiot after reading all the comments on this page but can anybody tell me if they still have control of my computer and how I can get rid of it. The firm I dealt with is called techonsupport.com. I have cheched with my credit card firm and they have only taken £99.

Steven

Hi Maggie.
1) Do you recall exactly what they did once they were in your computer? You should have been able to see what they were doing.
2) Out of interest is your computer any quicker?
3) In the system tray (bottom right hand corner) is there a logmein icon on display? It's a grey box with blue dots.

Maggie

Hi Steven,

1) I know they cleared Log files and my Recycle Bin but cannot remember others.
2) My computer is running a little quicker.
3) I cannot see any logmein.icon on display.

I have spoken to my provider and the only thing they could suggest is that I change my passwords which I have now done.

Steven

Good move changing password (make sure this is the password you use to logon to your computer as this is the one that logmein needs).

If your computer is working quicker then perhaps you didn't waste too much cash and you were lucky!

clanger311

Amazing! I just had the original post phone call then then and it seems they're all called Kevin Watts. When I informed him that I was a computer software engineer he took off sharpish.

Ashley

I am happy with supportonclick as well. they have helped me install an anti virus in my machine. the support staff was efficient and friendly. now I am happy with the anti virus security in my computer.

I can now surf the internet with peace of mind. thank you supportonclick.

Steven

Thanks Ashley. It's useful to be able to link supportonclick to systemrecure!

For everyone else reading this thread - supportonclick is the same team or set up as systemrecure

The more these guys try and post on here under fake English names - the more people can see they are a fake service - I love it! Do they really think people are this stupid!

There is a useful discussion forum about supportonclick here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread....
Perhaps they had to set up systemrecure as supportonclick got too well known as a scam and stopped working?

backx

got me one night after long days work said they were from microsoft took control of my computer after google search got onto scam turn all connections off said com stoped got phone and recorded as you advissed didnt pay or go through with any thing but they allready had control of my comp found out where this company opperates from and who it is reg to Arun T Paul, 56 A Pratapaditya place, Kolkata West Bengal under a gmail account - systemrecure@gmail.com
left email they got back to me and saidWell, Can you specify the greivances so that we can take care of it. Anyways we apologise if any inconvenience caused to you. Kindly let us know about the issue.

Thanks
System Recure Team so i did said how about saying you are microsoft certifed technitions?
still havent got back to me yet funny that all new posts on this site saying how good they are wonder who they work for had nothing but troble with my comp since .new addministrator accounts added to user accounts couldent update windows microsoft has help resolve all issues but when they responed to me noticed my email name as the person who sent it will keep you updated whith progress

digitaltoast

In case anyone reading this hasn't figured it out, let's take a quick look at the 4 commenters who found the Systemrecure service useful, out of the other 108 who didn't:

Roger: WHOIS - 115.187.39.8
Location: India [City: Calcutta, West Bengal]

Lee: 121.246.189.49
Location: India [City: Calcutta, West Bengal]

Here's Roger again: 115.187.38.99
Location: India [City: Calcutta, West Bengal]

Heeeeeres Larry! 115.187.38.99
Location: India [City: Calcutta, West Bengal]

It's great that Larry and Roger managed to get help - TWICE!
Their on the same PC, or in the same office, at least...

momooooooooo88888

hey digital toast - I have been scammed today by these nasty cheats and liars - My bank are getting the money back for me , but it is just not good enough that these low lifes are getting away with this stuff

Steven

This is hysterical Digital Toast! I think you should publish the IP addresses of all commenters .

What is so funny is that they think that people will believe their comments.

Anyone who speaks English as a first language will be able to see that Lee, Roger and Larry are the Indian guys from systemrecure posing as satisfied users. They use the same poor English as they do on the phone!

What is really funny is that Larry states he has been using systemrecure for 4 years but according to whois.com their website was only registered on 07-Jul-2008! So he was using them for 3 years before they opened! Yeah right!

larry

I also got the same from this company but if you have a computer you should try out with another website. they ate really good. I am using their service for past 4 years and they really serve the best as per my experience. Check out with http://www.systemrecure.co.uk

Roger

Very Helpfull Tech Support-systemrecure.co.uk. They called me up and helped me fix my computer problems that i was facing from a long time. The local tecnicians simply wasted my time and money. Thanks to system recure that they fixed my problem in 30mins. They are truely helpfull and they charge even less than any other support. If anybody get a call from them simply try fixing your computer-feel the difference. Thanks to systemrecure.

Lee

MR. Lee (Australia).

I think this is not a scam..... The people who are clamming this as a scam I Think they are the actual scammers .......

Because, I have receive a similar kind of call on 15/06/09, from System Recure and they have provided me a very good service, And I am really happy with them . And after the service I have got register with them for 5 years and when ever I just call them up they are always there to help me regarding my any kind of computer software problems,,, and you know the number in which I call them up is a normal local call chargeable number ......

Well, Do you people think that a thief will stole your private things in-front of you and you will never be able to understand what he is doing ???? Then I must say you people are the foolest Persons in this world ....

What ever the work this people (system recure) are doing it's in-front of our eyes we can see every thing in front of us ...... So tell me how any one can stole my private documents in front of my eyes ....
If yes then tell me I will not stop them from doing this ????

But still I will Like to say that I am really happy with systemrecure's service ..... So I will suggest you to go for it ...... As I believe they are the best for Microsoft OS computers ........

mr boon

mr lee? i wonder if you are brett lee?
and even for an australian you write very well.

How about you cut the shit, and get a real job asshole.

backx

i wonder who you work for maybe systemrecure@gmail.com

Steven

July 08 – UK – Report on scam call offering technical support

• Guy with heavy Indian accent on phone (claimed he was calling from New York not India)
• Clearly reading from a script
• In summary: claims that he is working on behalf of Microsoft and MS error reporting tool has informed him of potential virus and junk files on my machine (which is a total fabrication as (1) it couldn’t tell him this and (2) it is anonymous).
• When I pushed him on this - he couldn’t tell me more only the danger of junk files filling up my hard drive space! When I told him I had 110 gigs of free space and regularly cleared my ‘temp’ (not junk!) files – he said that he wasn’t a technician but could put me through to one.
• Offered to put me through to a MS technician who would clear my machine and if only needed would sell me a support package with no obligation
• Persisted on ‘sale’ despite my clear counter arguments.
• Say’s he doesn’t know how he got my number but was given to him by head office.
• Although doesn’t know my name or email address he knew my postal address! (No idea how unless a rogue data analysis clerk of some company sold it to him?)
• I got put through to tech support guy (just wanted to hear what he would say) – who’s accent was a lot thicker than the first guy and couldn’t really communicate clearly. He wouldn’t give his name or personal email address only enquiries@systemrecure.com and said it would get through to him even without his name!
• Gave company name as www.systemrecure.com – they actually have both .co.uk and .com websites and have clearly utilised SEO techniques by releasing lots of press releases under their name so a google search ranks them naturally high. I found later (using a whois tool) that the site is actually registered to Arun T Paul, 56 A Pratapaditya place, Kolkata West Bengal under a gmail account - systemrecure@gmail.com
• Gave phone number as 020 33 93 6689 – I called after the call (obviously disguising my number with the prefix 141 first). Someone answered and just said “hello” no company name – it sounded like one of the guys I spoke to earlier.
• Found further information on the following site http://www.pcrepairs24.com/india-scam-fake-supp...

Roger

Some people like the same contacted me and they were very helpfull. I dont think that the comment as made turns true. Its just a try to make computer users fool and stop them helping the needfull. Any ways "systemrecure" seems very helpfull to me and I dint agree by the comments made above.

Metqa

Ha, so you are saying that you let people who you don't know call you on the phone and you give them permission to do whatever they want with your computer and you pay them $99 to do that? Well in that case, can you give my access to your computer and pay me for it? I'd be happy for you to pay me to muck around in your harddrive and have free access to all your private passwords, financial data, and private personal information anytime I want. Why would anyone want to "fool and stop them helping the needfull" People can pay anyone any time to fix their computers in person. Why do we need a stranger calling me on the phone to "help" me give my money and private information away? My comments "turn true" no matter what you think.

sam perry

Yeh, had a very similar call too today (am in UK). What concerns me most of all is that they caught us off guard because we having been having problems with our internet connection with Orange. Have spoke to Orange several times this week and today again and they've escalated (or so they say) the issue as they still haven't fixed the problem. About an hour after this call today to Orange, these scammers called and started saying 'oh you're having problems with your computer' etc and things went along very similar lines to this post and what everyone else is saying theyve experienced, so we thought it was from Orange to begin with as we were expecting a call back at some point anyway! They didn't manage to get us in the end as things started not to add up fairly soon. To compound matters we have had other unusual scam calls today. I called Orange to let them know, they just say - youre data is secure blah blah no leaks. Still I wanted to let them know in case anyone else has the same problem. So either it IS just a coincidance OR someone in the Orange call center, which is in India, is leaking customer details or there is a security issue on the line as suggested by another comment poster.

Just for completism in case it's useful.
Telephone number we have for them, which I called back to check and worked is 01274 900 834 (UK). No idea whether they are making money off the call, but when I called back and asked who they were they told me 'support on click' (which is how I found this page) and then said they'd put me on hold, so does that suggest that it is? Line is terrible also, perhaps for making identification difficult?

f***ing b*****ds aren't they. hope this info might also help others as this page helped me. good luck!

sam perry

if there is a silver lining hopefully this is another nail in the coffin for overseas call centres.

Metqa

LOL, I like the bit about pretending to be the Police, I wish I had thought of that. Ha, I got this call and did everything they guy asked up until the run execute program. the whole time he was talking and lamenting my poor infected computer, I was looking up this company, I finally confirmed that it was a scam. I politely told him I could not afford the service and asked for their phone number to call later. He kept insisting I use the one time service and finally I blew up and told him this was a scam and hung up on him. He called right back. I asked him his name and he told me and I said “Nicholas, if you call me again I will call the Police. Do you understand “police”?” He kept say” yes please listen to me” and I said in my most stern Mother-like voice “Nicholas, Hang Up The Phone!” “Nicholas, Hang Up The Phone!” “NICHOLAS?!?!? HANG UP THE PHONE!” Finally, he paused, wished me a nice day and I thanked him and after a moment. he hung up. Tee hee!
7/8/09 3pm

www.soc321.com
www.supportonclick.com

Oh yeah, when I asked for the phone number he gave something with a 316 area code. Where the heck is that?

gerry2000

Just had the third call from an Indian sounding man 'David'. Has our surname correctly. (I was out for the first two calls and wife had answered and said to call back', so they are persistent.) Shows up on the phone screen as 'private' rather than a number. Said was calling about my computer service; first two calls had said 'Windows XP' but he didn't get that far this time.

I said 'so you are from Microsoft' - David said something like 'no, but we are their agents for service'. I then asked how I could check on authenticity, was there a website to check. David 'No but I can give you a phone number'. I didn't pursue this.

OK, so where are you calling from, are you in this country? 'Yes, in Oxfordshire'. So, whereabouts in Oxfordshire? reply something like 'We are the agents for Windows service' No, what Oxfordshire town are you in, where is your Office? He rang off at that point.

I am grateful to digitaltoast for the warnings already posted. Searched and found your website before today's call came. Moral is: basic checks on authenticity are needed, and will usually show up the scams.

ric

Had a friend with this on June 26 2009; fortunately he didn't bite. Interestingly he just got a new computer; makes me wonder if these guys have some access to new system registrations.

lee

got sucked in thought they where from micro soft any addvice

Alarmingman

Hi Lee
If you didn't actually pay, then just check the settings on the computer to make sure all OK with the way you want to work.
Your permission needed to allow access to your PC from a remote location so no real worry there.
Check to see if there are new programmes loaded and run uptodate virus and malware for safety.
Make sure your wireless settings are WPA encrypted and suggest changing the password.
The more I think about it, the more I am sure that they are just very clumsy about the way they are trying to earn money by solving computer problems remotely.

Emma Richardson

I had a very similar call early evening of the 27-06-09 (UK) , he claimed his name was John from Bradford, and he had a very strong Indian accent and the phone number was with held, thru out the call he ignored my numerous questions and a broken record technique ensued where we both continued talking over each other, he was very difficult to put off, at one point he played very loud music down the call only lasting a few short second , this threw me, and then he came back and continued his spiel ...as did i , he then hung up!!

oldbutcher

Had the same call this afternoon for heavily accented barely comprehensible Indian guy.

Played along as I have nine computers with windows registered to my company not in my name so was immediately suspicions.

Kept him on the phone for about 30 minutes while I ran 'tests' which I knew what they were and so wasn't bothered, but refused to run www.logmein.123.com and informed him I knew this was a scam as all the tests just showed files I would expect to find on my computer.

I also informed the police.

By the way they are now calling themselves Take on Support.

Kandi

I got that call today 6/25/09. I was very suspicious, but played along for awhile until he wanted me to enter an access code into the computer to allow the technition access. I asked for his name and number and said I wasn't comfortable doing this now, but would call him back later. He said, "May I ask why you are not comfortable doing this? Do you think we will gain access to your computer and steal all your important files?" I said that is exactly what I thought he would do. He then said, "I may assure you Mam, we have been in business for 50 years and would never have lasted this long if we were not legit, yadda, yadda, yadda." Later I thought, what computer business has been around for 50 years?

Robert

This is interesting. Friend has a Vista OS laptop and asked for help in setting up e-mail and a few programmes last night 24th June 09. AS computer came from Utilitiy Warehouse as part of a package, when we received the call just as Vista and Defender had updated files and reported errors, I thought that this was a service provided by Utility Warehouse. The timing was unbelievable.
Being unfamiliar with Vista and the new security regimes - supposed to be be more secure - when Alex Carter with a strong asian accent called, I fell for it hook line and sinker. Watched him take control of the computer and, download malware from Major Geeks!! and did some minor preference settings.
As there is nothing on the computer, not too concerned just yet. I really got suspicious when he attempted to change the settings to allow remote control and so intervened.
Really started to worry when the log files were cleared, not saved and cleared so no backtracking possible. During the conversation, told me that they could keep the computer clean for £49.95 per year and had a special deal to cover 2 years.
When pushing for agreement at the end of the "clean-up" and asking for confirmation that the laptop went faster, I pointed out that was unable to compare as not my computer, did not think that the preference he changed would make that much difference and at 10:30 at night was not going to commit. At this point tried to disconnect the remote access - a programme running would not allow the disconnection and am concerned that all the settings, passwords etc have been downloaded.
As I mentioned, there is virtually nothing private on the computer but now feel that all the passwords have to be changed and settings checked.
Have to be honest feel an absolute prick that I fell for this and may have compromised a friends laptop.
However, having watched the "technician" move round the computer - and the fact that they downloaded shareware makes me think that they are not highly professional, offer a "service" of sorts and are just trying to make a buck but being underhand.
Where they got the registration information remains a mystery.

Zorfling

I had this same call yesterday (23 June 2009). I'm in London UK.
Again, a strong Indian accent, and he just said he was from the "Windows company".
Then he asked which version of Windows I had and then asked me to run "inf virus".

He also said he was from http://www.techonsupport.com.

digitaltoast

Interesting; I got the following post overnight:

I agree totally with Daniel. The support on click guys were real cool. They were really fast and helpful. And the best thing was you dont have to anythin gof your own. the whole system was automated.

He later deleted the post, but posted from IP address: 59.93.247.9
descr: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
descr: New Delhi

Now let's have a look at
Domain Name: SUPPORTONCLICK.NET
Pecon Software Ltd
Calcutta
West Bengal,700091
India

Hmmmm, totally impartial, of course!

A'fra

I just got a call today and I because i have been having lot of problems with my computer lately, I genuinely believed it was an authentic call and fell for their trap. Two guys (a customer care assistant and supposed supervisor) talked to me, Indian I recognised and when asked admitted that they were and said were calling from New York. Gave me this number +1 0280147449. But now I'm really worried because they had complete access to my computer and when I said I couldnt pay now for $289 they said they will call me on 30th of june the date I gave as a guarantee of payment. Can anyone please tell me what I can do with my computer now? HELP :(

Name

Had someone call my home number today and they spoke to a friend who's staying with me. They appear to have gotten my number from the phonebook, as they referred to her by my surname (as the number is listed against my name).

The person claimed that my PC had a virus and they wanted to help fix it, however she told them it's my PC so would need to talk to me. They gave a phone number of 0280147449 to call back on.

I called back 1hr or so later, and the line quality was really really poor. Person had a thick accent, probably Indian, and after asking him to repeat his name and who he worked for I hung up. I never caught his name or company name but it was pretty obvious it was some sort of scam.

AShley

I agree totally with Daniel. The support on click guys were real cool. They were really fast and helpful. And the best thing was you dont have to anythin gof your own. the whole system was automated.

Karen

I had this call this afternoon and I got to the part where they told me to go to www(dot)soc321(dot)com where they were going to access my computer and got a bit wary. Luckily it was nearly 3 oclock and I had to go pick up my daughter from school. I asked them if they could call back tomorrow as I would be late - I also thought this would give me time to check them out. Luckily I found a few sites confirming its a scam including this police report from the Queensland police service: http://www.police.qld.gov.au/News+and+Alerts/Me...

Incidently I am in the UK

I think this information should be made as public as possible as so many people could fall for it.

Eddie

Hmmm... I fell for this, gave them access, they did an on line tweek, but I have not paid... any advice? Can they still access my pc and would they have stolen anything when they did using Support-LogMeInRescue that was downloaded???

Zoggprime

hey eddie , check your pc with an antivirus and possible take to a professional to make sure its clean, as for logmeinrescue ,they can only access your pc if you put a pin number into it to start the session and each pin number is 1 use , so no they cant access but to give you piece of mind delete the logmein support file ,which should have given you the option to delete after the session ended

Richo

We live in a regional area of Australia and we just rec'd a call from an "Out of Area"source (which usually means "India"). It was a call from an Indian male claiming to be a "windows service provider" He too ran through the same blurb that has already been posted however, we did not subscribe to following the prompts but rather told him we were not going to allow him access to our computer as he could be anyone ringing up. He kept saying what is stopping you. My husband eventually told him he would check out the "prefetch files" with his IT guy at work and see if he could delete them himself. The man stuttered and mumbled around saying that we could not fix the files our self because they will be deleted but when we logged on again it would corrupt the operating system of the "Motherdrive". My husband asked his name which was "Josh O'Brien" real believable ridgy didge Indian name, with an accent that strong he wasnt born in Australia, and I am sure there wasnt a surge on Irish/Indian names in the 80's or 90's. Anyway he gave the following numbers 01274900834 and also the same number that has previously been posted as (02) 80147593, which we have not even bothered to ring. I dont care if they are legitimate, I wouldnt give anyone remote loggin to my computer......

One Girl

My mother & father-n-law got a call like this, being older they were very concerned about their computer but didn't know what to do. They called me and asked me about it, they gave me a #347-289-3770 which I googled and found it to be and unlisted telephone number in NY.... So I called this "James Packer" guy back and asked them the name of the company they said Support Onclick. They began to inform me, that my computer was infected not even knowing if I own a computer or not. I told them that I had looked up their information online and seen that this was a scam. I began to tell them that there was know way for them to acess my father-n-laws computer becuase he doesn't even have internet service. He began to tell me what you need to do is take a look at your computer so I can show you that it is infected. So I told them NO what you need to do is get my father-n-laws phone number off your call list and make sure you don't ever call us again. As I began to get rude with him, he quickly got off the phone. So this is a scam, and you should inform them to not call you. They are trying to trick people into thinking that their computers are infected and must have their services to fix it.

vince

just hung up on these guys, got the call blah blah blah bradford ( really crackly line) hello mr pole your computer is running slow and is infected , I asked where he got this information from and he told me from an online forum, well it is running slow and I had looked in some forums on this subject but I didnt leave any contact details so I just hung up on him , then googled and found this page ,, word of warning to the careless " never , never deal with people who call you , only deal with the people you call"

Daiel Colleman

Hey guys, got a call from support on click two days back. a guy with an indian accent. asked me if computer was running slow. i told yes. they provided me support and now my computer has really picked up speed. believe me, not a scam. the tech support is good. at least i am happy with it.

digitaltoast

It's interesting that Daiel is the only person here happy with the service, and is also the only person posting from an Indian IP address: 59.93.169.46

And

Just got a scan call like this. I kept hin on the phone for 10 mins without going to the logmein website. He started to get irate and told me basicaly "don't come back to us if your PC is full of viruses" to which I concluded the conversation by saying "don't be a knob"

ben

yea i just had a call also [edited] only they have taken a different approach they want you to open event viewer then they goin on about my computer is totaly fucked and i need to go to www.supportonclick.com n yea the filthy [edited] wanted me to enter my credit card details for a subscription of $335 by this point i was satisfied knowing wtf they about n hung up

Steve Wilson

Recieved the same call as everyone bellow. Quality of phone audio was terrible. When I asked the guy if he was part of Microsoft to recieve error reports from my PC he said he could connect me with his technical support who could help me better. As I was interested in how he was going to run this scam I said no problem. I got a call back from another man with a thick accent but with much better audio.

This guy gave me the same blurb and asked me which version of Windows was I running as he could give me instructions to remove this problem from my PC. Although I have various PCs running XP & Vista. I told him I was running Leopard OS X10 the phone went dead. I guess they don't do Macs.

Steve (Luton - UK)

JohnJohnston

Support on click contacted me from Bradford by phone over a month ago and badgered me for over two hours saying it was essential that they check my computer. They said they were working for microsoft which they were not. Afterwards they said I had to sign up for 3 years for them to check the PC, I was so frustrated that I did and paid £172 by credit card. As soon as I had done it I felt I had been a fool and that I was the victm of a deliberate fraud. I contacted the company who refused to refund the payment. I contacted the credit card people who have now refunded the payment and will be deducting it from support on click.
My advise, which I wish I had taken, is don't discuss anything with them, put the phone down

kt

so the bank refunded you the money??? i gave them my credit card details and they took out $355 australian. i cant believe i fell for it!!!!

mike

same thing to me, i started trying to sell him double glazing and kept him on the phone with this for twenty minutes before i got bored and hung up to which he phoned back and very politely informed me that i had been cut off due to a technical error

Steve

Just got a call from them then - they were this mob:

http://www.supportonclick.com/

They claimed they had information from my routed service that my PC is running slow. I am not going to explain the mash of terms here and why it doesnt make sense but in short when I asked him to spell his company name he hung up on me.

So I found their website and gave them a call to an 02 Australian support number and spoke to a guy named Raymond for a while about what they do. I stated that their abuse of the telecommuncations system to lie to people and extract money from people was just not cricket and extracted his managers name which I wont list here and will be in touch with him next week to have a chat about where they found my details.

:)

Steve.

larry

Well, I dint accept as I got a proper service from systemrecure. I dont know ..may you are quite tech savvy but I as a computer donuts really liked the one stop service provided to me by systemrecure.

Helen

Helen Northampton UK. Same call as others.Indian Accent.Addmitted from india when questioned but told company is based in Bradford. Two phone numbers given as I said I would check it out and call back if my suspicions were unfounded. phone numbers 01274 900 834 and 01274 449373 first one of these mentioned by another persons comments. I was given the company name as supportonclick and asked to look them up on internet to see how genuine !! they were. I was called back twice and to be pressured into going ahead as my computor was endangered!! from all the errors and warnings and my cover had run out. The opening script was that they were windows operating system service providers not sales but to correct errors in the system as it was causing problems with my computor that AVG my protectors could not help with. Your site proved my suspicion correct Thank you Especially when pressed was told of the cost of future cover. There is no way I would let any one into my computor under these circumstances.

Pam

Yes i have had a similer call, as a retired lady i am not that clever with PC's and thought this was genuine. i was apprehensive at first but did let indian spoken man talk me through the computer as i had had some unwonted emails and he did seem plusuble. Did not however give bank or ccard details, should i be worried, as i am at the moment. Pls reply back asap.

sam perry

No don't worry please. You didn't give them any details or pay them anything so that's all good. If you want to reassure yourself the computer is fine (though you don't mention installing anything so there is no reason necessarily to believe so) just update the virus checker and do a full scan. Job done and you can forget about it! All the best!

Sparrow

I just got a call from 'Support on Click' May 22nd 2009, 1pm Australian EST. Obviously bogus from get go, but wanted to see what he would try and get me to do just out of curiousity. I took notes and managed to record the second half of the conversation.

First he asked me Vista or XP, then to got to the Start menu>Run and type in eventvwr, followed by Start menu>Run type in prefetch. Then he spent ages explaining that malicious application and system files were in my computer and would soon start to slow down and crash my computer. He asked me to try and open a file in the prefetch file list, and told me this wouldn't be possible, and I should see a message that says "windows cannot open this file" and this was meant to be evidence that this file was malicious. He then asked me to Start menu >Run : www.supportonclick.com But I didn't actually do this, just pretended to. My computer is dual boot and I was working in my Ubuntu partition, using Firefox to check up on the scam, that's when I found this site.

So roughly from here on in I managed to tape the rest of the conversation on dictophone. (Just happened to have it lying around, what are the chances?) Basically he wanted me to give my name, email, phone and I would be sent a support session number and the Support on click technicians would then be able to connect with my computer and fix it, at a price, will require your credit card details, etc. This was followed by a rather suspicious monologue of how, whilst the technicians were working on my computer, they would absolutely not be recording any personal information and so on.

I then told him the game was up, and enjoyed listening to the positively comical excuses he provided on how the competitors were making all this scam business up because they are threatened. Unfortunately the recording of this conversation is on tape and is not the best quality, but I will look at trying to get it uploaded so that others have the opportunity to listen to it.

surfinsaint

Have just called round a buddy's house who has been having a couple of issues with his pc..........!

It appears that when connecting to ie, he kept getting security warnings requiring him to accept cookies from a secure website, strange when his home page is MSN, but even stranger was the phone call stating that "we are from Microsoft, and are wondering if you are having any problems connecting to the internet".

Apparently, they went as far as to Remote into his PC and rumaged around. When it got to the money shot, my pal hung up and turned off the PC.

Have had a look around and in start>run i can find references to prefetch and supportonclick.com.........

Help, what would they have done? There is a command for "cleanmgr" which I think is an MS cleanup program, but can't find out any reference to anything else they could have done....?

Jill

5/15 just received the same phone call telling me my computer was infected and running slow. He called the first time and got my husband, wanted to know how long we had the computer and that it was infected, both times the phone number was blocked, no number showing. I told him it was running fine, he didnt agree and I kept asking who he was calling from, my pc internet computer support provider, what I said, then he went into a spiel about the world wide web and what the internet is...would not elaborate on who he was and got very snippy when I told him since I did not know who he was I was not about to give him any info about my computer. Then went on line to see if there is some scam and lo and behold there is-steer clear!

Maree

Hi, I have experienced exactly the same today, 14th May 2009.They phoned at 10am saying reports have shown from your senior microsoft provider that they have detected harmful problems, and virus is detected. I was asked to go in start menu, run and type prefetch, he then asked what do you see. He as Very difficult to understand indian accent also.
I asked how they got access to my computer, my telephone number,talk talk survey they said and RSB? I said it seems that you're opportunists or hackers and I would like you to phone me back. in 10 minutes, i spoke to husband, he said to get something in writing. They did phone back, I asked to send info by post. They game me their web site: www.systemrecure and gave me www.logmein1123.com. He gave me to the supervisor, I said I haven't the cash. He said to phone Mr Thomas, who I was talking to previously if i change my mind on 02033936689. He had said they would run it free and wasn't clear what money would be charged? the supervisor said it was £125 for 5 years, we do everything! yeah right!!!!

James

Just got a call from my girlfriend saying these guys had rung. They went through the usual MO thankfully my girlfriend said she'd speak to me first so they asked her to call back on 2033936689 and called themselves www.systemrecure (as above.) Any ideas who best to report these calls to?

Katie

I had a woman with a heavy accent and she said she was from "pc support".... she was really persistant and pushy when i kept saying i have nothing wrong with my computer but she kept insisting an error report was sent to her from some provider....

Im in Melbourne Australia.....9/5/09

Joanna

Just had more of the above from Sam of SupportonClick. Fortunately, working in an IT dept, I'd never dream of doing anything to my computer on the basis of a random phone call from a stranger. I assume that SupportonClick is a scam web site. I was about to email them to notify them or complain about them but having found this site decided that's the last thing I should do.

I can see how some can be taken in. Wish ISPs or Google highlighted these scams on their pages - it would be helpful to have some sort of banner running exposing these.

Joanna UK

Woody

Well iv had the call.. the process wen ton for a week at time i woudlnt answer and he woudl call like 10 times... we went through about a week of aruging and me cussin him out and he saying that he will have me put in jail for my language... he offered to come to my work to picc up the money which then i told him if he come sanywhere near im gunna pull out my gun and blow his "F****** brains out and thats about how that went and after which he still calls bacc trying ot get me to buy his services! I had called microsoft myself and they confirmed the scam and told him that and he says "This is not a scam" and he says my computer had sent him my number which i know he had called my Grandmas house phone and asked my grandma for my cellphone number but shes old and doenst know computer stuff so she gives him my cell phone number which started all this, and after all the cussin and me threatennig him while hes still trying to get my to buy his services at about the end of theweek he says

"I have you put in jail! im going to get my money! you watch how i do this! im going to fine you 500 dollar" and i say "F*** you homie go ahead and try you aint getitn nutin from me ill go to jail fo i pay you" and he say " then that just what your going to do" and i say "and i say Ni**a i dont care if i go ta jail i been their liek 5 times anyway B**" and after which i hung up and never to have gotten call again...

I recently got a call form a new scam from Google Pro the number is 888-208-9320 the guy is american ... well he sounds like it kinda laid bacc, but its scam iv checced the number and everything on google and stuff and google confirmed its a scam but yea just letitng yall know of it just incase he calls you

Tim

My wife received the same call but they left her with a call back number so I could call them back when I got home. After checking out this site, I did call them and was surprise to get the call center (347-289-3770) and the contact's name was Ron Wilson. I did call them and was put through to this person and got the same story as everyone else. I tried to do a reverse look up on this number but it is blocked. Why can't the police track down stuff like this?

C Owens

We were contacted today regarding the same thing, they could not give us details of how they got our name and home phone number! How are they continually getting away with this??

Georgie Best on a Bloomer

I've had two of these in recent months.

The first one couldn't understand that I run a PC but it's not running Windows of any sort (I'm a linux user) and that it's not a MAC either. Tee hee. He showed me first of all by his complete ignorance of what I was talking about that he'd got absolutely no idea about computers at all.

I got another one today. Instead of telling him straight away that I didn't run XP or Vista, I asked him what sort of problems my computer had. He replied with vagaries about Windows errors being reported by my computer to them when I visit various websites. I then told him that it was perfectly obvious that he was trying to scam me as I don't use windows so it couldn't possibly be me.

Slience.

Then, "Can I just check your name please? It is Mr. F Best is it?"

"No, Mr. G Best"

"Oh, I see. And is your phone number [proceeds to give me my phone number with 3 digits different]?"

"No sorry."

"Oh sorry to have troubled you sir!"

[Dial tone]

I love the idea above of pretending that you've connected them to the police.

Can't wait for them to phone again....

:-D

Kari

My husband received a call from these people on Tuesday asking for me. On Thursday we received another call, this time they asked for my husband, and as soon as he said the "your computer is running slow" part I told him to stop right there and to never call our number again. I don't do phone support of any kind on my computers. I have either dealt directly with the company it was purchased from in person or through their website, or I take our computers not under warranty to a local business.

Nana

I am in US. just got a call last night, 4/27/09. We fell for it and allowed access to computer(sorry to be so gullible but we just had a McAfee problem and thought this was same reference.)
After more than two hrs. and them taking control of computer we are so concerned that something is missing or access to personal accounts is threatened.....is there any way to find out except wait for tragic results of these horrific invaders...?? Any ideas will be so apprecaited Nana

angie

check your bank accounts etc, if they phone back demanding money say you have reported them to the police, and any other united states law people, and say you are recording this call, as evidence.
in the u,k we have ofcom and and the fraud department, and the department of trade and industry, plus a few others departments
run a spy ware check-virus checks make sure your firewall is on, or contact your own internet provider for advice, or a local computer shop, please dont give the scammers any money,
They may try ring you back demnding money, beat them at there game and scare them, espically by saying you are recording the conversion as you know they are scammers and the police are aware.

Mick Thompson

I have just had a similar call this afternoon saying my computer was running very slow,which it is.
Unfortunately I fell for this scam and paid with my credit card £172 for a three year cover on my computer.Also I was told my computer would run much quicker, in fact there is hardly any difference at all. I dont know if I can get my money back. Any ideas

robindiane

I received a call too just a few minutes ago. He told me my computer was running slow. I told him this was nothing wrong with my computer. He insisted that he had been informed it was running slow. I told him if he knew this information than he illegally broke into my house to get this information. I repeated this each time he told me my computer was running slow. I asked to speak to a supervisor and he refused. I told him if this was a legitimate business he would let me speak to a supervisor. I also told him several times to remove my phone number from his call list and to never call my phone number again. I did not want him to solicate my business and if there was a problem with my computer that I would take care of it myself. Finally he said that he would remove my name from the phone list and he was telling me to have a good day. This is the 4th call we have received. My husband received the first one and figured out it was a scam. The last two times they have called my husband has said a few choice words and hung up the phone. Hopefully this will be the last call but I doubt it.

angie

i,m in the uk and also got a call today, phone rings i pick it up then it rings them, hello madam i am, calling because your computer has a virus, it was a women and as are house phone is registered with telephone preference service, i told her, the reply was mamm you have a virus on your pc, buy now alarm bells were ringing as i know 100% my pc is fine as i always run virus checks spy ware checks etc, its not running slow its not crashing it get updates for viruses and spyware everyday, i use a very good all in one protection software for viruses and spyware, it also informs me if a site is safe or not, plus many extras
so i informed her THE ONLY VIRUS I HAVE IS YOU ON THE OTHER END OF THIS PHONE, she hung up lol

sam perry

love it!

Lyric

Had a very similar phone call today from an idian (i persume) women telling me that my computer was running slow and that she had got this info from my computer (alarm bells start to ring!!!) I told her that my computer was fine and asked her who she was. She gave me this story but I couldn't understand her accent at all!
She wanted me to go on my computer and do things but again I couldn't understand her so I tried to hang up but she kept on the line so ended up pulling the phone line out if the wall. When I did reconnect the phone the same 'unavailable number' kept on phoning, must have been about 8 times . I didn't pick up.

I thought it might be a scam then I google it and found this page!

gallicgirl

I've just come off the phone with another Indian gentleman. I'm an expat Brit living in Florida, but somehow the guy knew my name.... I asked him if he was calling from India and he said, no, from New York. Said my computer was running slowly and that they'd been working on a global survey. Said I should go onto the computer and he would give me support over the telephone. He said they had received several reports in the last month or two of people having these problems with their computers, especially if they were running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. I asked him if he knew what operating system I was using and he said, "Windows XP?" Told him, no, sorry, I'm using Vista - at which he didn't skip a beat, but said that they supported that, too, and that there were problems with that also. Hmmm

I told him that since his call had come up as "unknown" (which here, usually means either from a call centre where the number is not available, or from overseas - my son lives back in the UK so I'm familiar with the different messages on my caller ID) I had no way of knowing who he was and was not therefore going to go on line with him on the phone. He was certainly persistent - the phone rang once and I got a phone ringing tone and then I heard this guy with terrible background noise on the phone. Told him I couldn't hear him so he called back, same again. A "colleague" then called - better line, but there was a satellite echo - I'm not sure how he thought I would believe his story about calling from NY.

He then said, OK disconnect from the internet and I'll go through it with you - we offer telephone tech support. I decided this was rather strange, but said, OK, I'll have a look, once I've disconnected everything. I duly disconnected all modems etc so there was no way he could access the machine. He then went through a procedure where I should look at the Computer system management log - if there were more than five red (error) messages, then the computer was badly infected.....! I must surely have lots of junk files and probably some virus files in there which would cause my computer to crash at any time.

Of course the next thing was that he said if I would go online, he would go through the procedure to sort the computer out. I said that sorry, but there was no way I was going to go online with someone who I didn't know, as I had no way of verifying who he was and that I was not going to give access to my computer to ANYONE I don't know.

He then said I could go online and google them (Suppport on Click) to see who they were, and gave me a telephone number on which I could call him back. The number was somewhat interesting as it was neither a standard US number, nor an 800 (or 866) free phone number. He said his name was Enrique and his colleague's name was James. (Hmmm.... yes, sure) I said I'd check them out and call back. Of course, I shan't be calling back.

I'm very tempted to send a copy of this to Microsoft, though I'm sure they must have had reports on these people by now.

Anyway, hope this helps anyone who's also been contacted by these people - they're obviously working their way through US telephone nos too. Just don't give access to your machine to anyone other than your usual tech support (and even then, only on a limited, as necessary, case by case basis).

Ron

UK. 17th April 2:45pm.. Same call as everyone else. His name was Paul today. Same story about fixing my PC running...Do You Have Vista or XP Sir? Neither I still run Win2K !. Oh! just type in PREFETCH in the Run box. What has happened..Error Message. (Prefetch not used in Win2K ) Oh dear! That sounds serious. Now type %Temp and what has happened ? - My Computer has just blown up !!! Whats your name I'm going to sue you put me onto your Supervisor NOW !..... Then the line went dead. That was a shame as I think we were really starting to bond! Better luck next time?

Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz

was called by this operatio ntoday (17 April 2009) -- same stuff. They had my husband's name and address (though they'd spelt his surname wrong). Got quite indignant when I asked them to prove they weren't a scam, and urged me to go to their website. Said they'd got our details from an online survey we'd completed (couldn't tell me which).

mick

I Had exactly the same call in Australia at 6.30 pm saying he was from window support and that they had conducted an on line survey and had rang to fix my system. I was on the phone for 37 min all the time a little uneasy. he said the service they offered was free for 3 years after a fee of $385 dollars. I disconnected from the net towards the end and gave him a mouthful. Do not trust these guys. Definate indian accents.

Rachel

hey, I got a call today from someone asking me to do a similar thing, well all i could understand was that he was asking me to type something into the run box. He asked me to go to my computer but as my phones in another room, and i didnt belive what he was telling me i asked him to tell me what to do and that i'd write it down and get round to it later, but like i said all i could understand was typing something into the run box.
I noticed that the name david wilson came up on this site, that was the same name given to me, although he was calling from bradford not a number in austrailia, the number given was 01274 926 824. i repeatedly asked him what company he was from, and where hed got the information of a "junk File" on my system, but the accent meant i didn't quite catch what he'd said.
I hope this information has helped you, and will protect others from the scam.

rob h

sorry i didnt get to record it but i had a very similar conversation! Thank you for the information very much appreciated!

garyh

Just had a similar call, it seems ridiculous that nobody can trace where these calls come from. Even with all the reports on scams on Watchdog etc. I can see how some people would be vulnerable to these scams. I didn't get as far as as some people that have posted, as soon as I said that my computer was not running slow, he said goodbye and hung up!

rich123

HI JUST HAD SAME TYPE OF CALL THIS MORNING 11.00 SATURDAY 11/04/2009 .I TOLD HIM THOUGHT IT WAS A SCAM AND PUT PHONE DOWN NOW I,M WORRIED AS TO HOW HE OBTAINED MY HOME PHONE NUMBER AND MY NAME ANYONE ANY IDEAS.

Lou

I just had a call like this. Someone called Sam Decasta from Support Onclick, same questions as the majority of the posts above. He asked me to go to run and type 'prefech', at this point I googled what he'd asked me to do and founf this post. Thanks! I'm also from the UK and the number he gave wa 01270 900 834, same as some others from the UK above. He also gave me their website www.supportonclick.com. At this point I told him I had to go. The number he gave me doesn't work. Total scam I think.

Kath

yep, my mother had this phone call in Australia. Was told her computer was running slowly.

Amazed

Oh and Im in Australia Weds 8th April 2009.

Amazed

I too just had exactly the same call, and it sounded extremely dodgy, I googled the company and rang back and the bloke does work for that company....but i didnt avail myself of their services as it sounded to far fetched. You can find them at Support on Click.

David G

I just got one now. Wednesday 8th of April 2009 at 2:15pm. I got a woman with an Indian accent who told me she was receiving information that my computer was sending her error reports. She told me to go to My Computer (and because I have Vista, not XP, I thought that was odd seeing as though its just called 'Computer' now. Any person in tech support with know how would know to say it properly).

I was then asked me to open the event viewer to look at all the error and warning events that were displayed. She was using this as a way to convince me that I had some terrible system problem that would destroy my computer, as she said 'maybe not straight away, but over time'. She asked me to type 'prefetch' into the Run program in the Start menu. She asked me if I could identify any of these files, of which almost all of them I could (I'm wasn't sure about a few and I'm not that computer literate, I'm just lucky I can pick a crap con lol). She also asked whether or not I use Internet banking and I said no, and she said well feel free to use it in the next few days after we've 'fixed' your computer, because it will be safe to do so. Pffft, yeah of course I will.

After all this, I was asked to go to a website, which I didn't bother with and whilst she was telling me what to do I searched for 'support onclick scam' and low and behold this website and about 20 others came up to say it was a scam. I was given a phone number 02 8014 7593. This is an accurate phone number for Australia (in terms of how its written) although I don't know if they've actually provided an Australian agents number or if it's just bullcrap. (I haven't rang it nor do I want to in case the charges are ridiculous).

The woman tried to convince me that a technician will be there doing stuff on my computer and I can sit and watch what happens. I thought no way am I gonna sit there and watch while anyone can stuff around with my computer. She wanted to also provide a software warranty for me that would be if the computer stuffed up within the next year, they would fix it for free.

Its scum like this (the crap of the digital world) that deserve to be shot. It only makes people hate the technology they're using because of the ease with which a scammer can exploit it. I hope the information in this is useful for someone to find out where they're from and to get them put away. This crap, along with writing viruses, phishing, and what not has gone on long enough. There needs to be an end to it. Imagine how cool it would be to be able to share files with people across the planet freely and without being worried you'd cop a billion viruses too?

hempton72

I had a call yesterday from a man with a strong accent who spoke too quickly to really understand. I asked him several times to repeat the name of the company he was calling from which he didn't do and instead kept insisting he wasn't trying to sell me anything - I hadn't suggested he was!
It was lunchtime, I couldn't be bothered and hung up.
Today he called again, this time I got him to spell the company name - support onclick.
He kept asking me to confirm I had a computer and used the internet which is odd as he also told me that my PC had contacted him to say the mother system was in trouble and was highly infected and soon all my data would be corrupted. If he 'knew' all that why didn't he 'know' I had a PC?
He said he was from microsoft office support and he knew I used windows XP and it was his responsibility to maintain my PC. I asked him why, his reply was because he was from microsoft .
I didn't like the sound of him at all and told him I thought he was trying to scare people and hung up - I then googled to see if it was a scam or whether I should get my PC looked at! There's nothing like a seed of doubt!
I have used geek squad before - is it possible he can remotely access my system without permission?

Simon

My Mother had one of these this morning, asking her to go to start, run, wnter EVENTVWR fortunately she's fairly switched on and ended up putting the phone down.

Homecaptain

I was contacted by the same scammer... Thick Indian accent, very western name (Dave something...) Said he was with online tech support and had received several error logs indicating my system is running very slow and that he could fix it. I asked if he was with Microsoft, and he said "Microsoft doesn't have the people to provide tech support"... really? I said that if there was a problem that required debugging that Microsoft would have a system update, upon which he replied "don't be so finicky" Wow. He directed me to fire up my computer and give him remote support access; he said that he might have to re-install my virus software. Oh, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I asked him for the name of his company "on click support". I told him that I don't have a service agreement with them, that he sounded shady, and hung up the phone.

MarE

I just receved the same type call. While I don't know much about computers, I did go on "high alert" when he said there would be a charge that I could pay by credit card. I asked for his number and said I would call back after I made some calls because I was suspicious. He said his name was Austin (he did have a heavy Indian accent) and he gave me the # 347-289-3770. I did not call him back.

My son-in-law works for Yahoo. He told me it was a scam.

MarE Atlanta, GA 3/27/09

Claire

I had a call like this on Saturday (22nd March 2009). Again a very strong Indian accent saying he was my Windows XP service provider and that my computer was very slow. I told him that I hadn't asked him to call. He asked me to switch the computer on and follow his instructions. I told him to call back when my husband was in - so far they haven't.

Hackneyboy

A further update from my mother-in-law (see above). She received several calls on Saturday from the same guy. When she told him that she wasn't interested, he became threatening and told her that she'd already received the service and it was now time to pay. Fortunately this time she had wised up and when she mentioned that she knew he was a fraud, he hung up.

Hackneyboy

Apologies for copying the same information that I posted on your Money Saving Expert thread but I found out yesterday that my mother-in-law fell for the scam. Unfortunately she went so far as to let him take control of her laptop and gave him her bank details.

On the bank side of things, she was fortunate not to have enough in her account to clear the £57 a year that he was offering to take out. He's due to give her a call on Saturday to try again, We've since phoned her bank and they've cancelled her card etc. There's been no activity on the card.

However, what happens about her laptop? She's with AOL/Carphone Warehouse. Can he log into her laptop at any time? And can he log on to another family member's computer as they share the same wifi connection? What's the best course of action? I've suggested changing all passwords using a different connection, but does more need to be done?

John

Just had similar call here in Sheffield, UK - 18/03/09 11:09. He was never going to get anywhere as IT support has been my job for the last 10 years but I was curious as to how the scam worked so played along for a while. Strong indian accent and poor line. Said he was from Support OnClick which seems to be a genuine support site (http://www.supportonclick.com/). Asked me to switch my computer on as it was a support call because my PC was out of warranty. Got confused when I asked him which PC (I have 4) and settled on telling me to switch on the oldest PC using XP. Told me to go to Start - Run and type eventvwr and press enter which obviously brings up the eventviewer. Told me to look at the applications and did I see any entries with exclamation mark or cross (of course - I've never seen a PC or server yet with a clean event log). Aha - this was a sure sign that my PC was infected with junk files so I should go back to the Run box and type www.logmein123.com and press enter. At that point I balked - I use logmein on a daily basis to support the company I work for remotely so know exactly what it can do and I hadn't actually heard of logmein123 before so wondered if this was a spoof site with autodownloading junk on it. After I asked him multiple times to give his name he hung up. I immediately did 1471 to get the caller number. Usually with this sort of call you get number withheld but I got number 02025 411 2194. I've tried doing reverse lookup on this number but it's not recognised by any of the search engines I've tried so far.
On looking at www.logmein123.com after losing him I wish I'd hung on a bit longer before pushing him on his name - once on this page he'd have had to give me the 6 digit PIN for me to proceed which would have been useful to have when shopping him to logmein. Ah well, maybe he'll ring back.

Thanks for this page btw - confirmed my suspicions about the call.

kelly

I have just recieved the same call from a MR ALEX SMIT With a strong indian accent aking for me or my husband which i dont have. It was an out of area number, He said my warrenty for windows is up and he can sort out all the problems on my computer, he went on and on about the serious-ness of having virus ect, he then asked me to find RUN on my comp and to type in p r e f e t h j u n k which i did, he then asked how many files where there i replied about 50, he said oh my gosh, that is why my comp is running slow, he kept saying he was making notes of it all and that the maintenance team would be able to sort this all out, he then told me to go on the internet and type in www.logmein123.com which i did but it came up with a pin number needed, he then went on to say that a payment of £60 Would garentee me for 2 years, i said i hav'nt got that much money and i would call him back. He left a number- 01274 900834, im not sure if i was charged for that call because when he rang me i answered it and it rang and then he answered! very strange i not sure if it was a scammer or not?? very confusing!!

Heather

I got the same call yesterday, 3-15-09, in rural Pennsylvania. Fortunately, I didn't fall for it but there was a short period of time when I thought it might be legit because I was on my husband's computer and he has all kinds of bells and whistles that I know nothing about. I told them that I had to do some research and get back to them and they gave me a phone number. I googled that number and found out it was a scam.

Johnnie Moore

Thanks for this. I found it via digg while engaging this scammer in a long conversation, with all the characteristics listed by other commenters... "official warranty provider to windows xp worldwide" etc. I was offered a £50 scam, so not as pricey as some but cheaper than others. Couldn't record the call, sorry, but kept him occupied for 33 mins as some kind of public service and in the vain hope that BT might be able to trace such a call.

Russ

My mum just got this call a few minutes ago. She listened to his patter for a minute, then told him he clearly had the wrong number and, if not, he was a scammer. She then hung up on him. Smart one, my mum! Nice to find how the potential scam would've worked.

Chibi_Lothlen

I've gotten two calls from these people already! :/ I live in Australia, and the man claiming to be my "Windows XP service provider" (I'm running Vista!) is allegedly calling from Sydney. His accent (Indian) is, however, very heavy and sometimes it is difficult to make out what he is saying.

He gives me exactly the same instructions, down to the code he uses for letters and the "Oh my God" responses. Thankfully, since it is not actually me that owns this computer, I couldn't be sucked in far enough to sign up for his ridiculous warranty - whatever the hell that is. After getting rid of the guy, I found this website through a quick google search I did while asking him to "wait a minute". You've probably saved me from being very foolish, so thank you~!

Actually, last time he called my mother asked him for his name and number and he gave her something suspicious. I'll have to get back to you on the details.

Is there something I can do to help? Since I assume he will be calling again.

digitaltoast

Thanks so much for the info. I would be REALLY grateful if someone could record the call, or at least get some more info. But a recording would be the best!

backx

got full audio of phone call better still email systemrecure@gmail

digitaltoast

Have you REALLY got the audio? I'd love it! Email me!
Thanks

Gymie

Just got a call...boy that was fun. I can't believe that people would actually fall for that line.

Joel

And to think that I can avoid all of this. I have a Mac.

jethro

same thing has happened to me a dozen times near Seattle, WA, US. last time was today, march 5, 2009. He not only wouldn't let me hang up but was very rude. When I told him never to call again, he started verbally assaulting me and telling me I had no power and could do nothing to stop him. Then he called back ten times in a row. Later in the day, I have received four hang up calls in a row, after a brief office environment background sound. I think I will try to call my local phone company.

I would very much like to get the address and pay them a visit firsthand.

Claire

Just had this phonecall. I immediately cottoned on when he said he was from Windows XP and I do run Vista! I humoured him for a while quizzed him on what qualifications he had - he made up some random letters! Then hung up. He hasn't called back so far.

Joe

I would love to hear the audio!

Michael

Thanks for sharing this, its amazing the length they will go to.

Just to clarify, logmein123.com is a legitimate site that host a tool to allow users to connect and share workspace as well as get technical support. Similar, but better than the more advertised GoToMyPc.com. It can, like any other tool, be used to exploit unknowing users into allowing someone to take over their computer. I just don't want people to associate logmein.com or logmein123.com with the scam. They actually provide a valuable service.

fyi - to use logmein123 they have to have a paid logmein rescue account, someone should get their info and notify logmein of the scam.

Suzi

It is amazing what lengths a scammer will go to.

I was actually just on a call with someone who contracts with my office for their tech support. She was having some problems, so I asked her to go to www.logmein123.com she said that she had heard of a scam with this (she was familiar enough with me and my co-workers to know that we were using it legitimately) and thought we should know.

p

I just got a very similar call, heavy accent, Windows XP support center from an 'unknown number' stating that my computer is sending errors and they need to fix it. He did have my name as it is in the phone book. It just so happens I am working at home on a work computer. So then he said "don't you have a home computer?" I said no, and, "I'm not doing anything to this computer, our tech support handles all problems." He quickly said okay and goodbye. I'm sure it was some type of scam!!

earl

We clearly need to SHIP the REST of our IT jobs there.. they are soooo smart!

Boob Biter

I just made a call like this, and thanks to your blog, they knew it was a scam. Very uncool of you and all.

Sam

IMy mum just got this call (we're from the UK) and she followed him upto the logmein123.com..
she was a bit suspicious, wonder where they got her information, and checked with me..

I just said hang up. they even called back afterwards.she told them her son would deal with any viruses.. and then the phone went dead!

apparently the computer told them we had a problem.. (along with our name and number!)
He was also called 'Kevin Palmer..from Bradford!' again, with a strong accent.
He told her that having more than 5 files in your prefetch means you have a virus! >_>

and when you go to 'computer management' if you have any errors or warning, that means your whole system is about to be corrupted.. your harddrives.. everything!

So..good job I was home! If people don't know what they are doing when it comes to computers.. I'm sure they'll fall for it.
They probably won't even find this page!

blufeenix

Wow I just had this call literally 2 minutes ago so I figured I would google it, anyhow as soon as he said your xp provider I smelled BS, so I said sorry mate I'm on linux!

Anne-Marie

Just had exactly the same call, I got as far as the prefetch and then logmein123.com,(wrote it down but didn't type it in) and didn't like the sound of it so told him I has to go out - he says he's going to call me back tomorrow - thought it sounded very strange and yes he said he was from computer maintence Bradford. I'll be ready for him if he phones again .
Anne-Marie

sam

OMG, guys, I ogt this guy and thank god for this post, a few days before someone hacked into my com and got my paypal details tnakfully I was able to system resotre before he got to far. But anyway will this be costing me hundreds of dollars on the phonebill because it seemed when we anwsered it clled him, and if so can he claim we wrang him even though we have the caller id...

Yvonne

My laptop had crashed 2 days before I got this call so I thought it was a genuine call from micro soft and let him try to retrive the files I had lost, He said he would even clean up my old computer that I said was running slow, I must admit it is running better now. My call was from Austin Parker from www.supportonclick.com based in Bradford, , but he is now asking for £120. for 2 years anti virus and clean up when ever I want it. He is going to call me again tomorrow as I said I had to ask my husband. What shall I do now he has got into my computer ???? by the way he gave me his number it is 01274 900834 Please help me someone

Jan Ackerman

Yvonne, hello and hope this will reach you. I've just had the very same experience and don't know what to do. Can you help me by telling me what you did to solve the problem. Boy, now I've really done it. Jan Ackerman ackermanj@satx.rr.com

Andrew

Very similar scenario occurred here in Australia tonight where my elderly father was called by an Indian sounding Microsoft technician named David Wilson. Thankfully he sensed something was wrong and said he'd call back. The number offered by Mr Wilson was 280147593. A Google search will show this number is associated with a scam. Beware!

grayfox

I just got it and told him i way going to call the cop and he said that he would have me arrested for prank calling them. i told them go head i have them on my caller ID

Chris Haper

Thank you for your comments above. I too have had virtually identical call today 30/01/09. At the point were he asked me to type into the RUN window, I said that i would not dream of doing anything so reckless and that if Microsoft thought that i had a problem then they would send me an e-mail or instant message to notify me. Our friend from Bradford immediately rang off. I do like your idea of keeping them waiting and purporting to transfer their call to the local Police HQ..

Curt Johnson

I just recieve a call from the same people. he claimed to have just received the error reporting message I just submitted to logitech for a problem I was experiencing. As he was talking, I google'd the www.logmein123.com and saw these posts for fake messages. Thanks for posting this information.

Nick

I had this call 5 minutes ago - Identical! Including the Bradford bit. I was suspicious from the start and when he told me to enter Prefetch I told him I wasn't doing anything that someone I don't know, and didn't contact, was telling me to do. He then went far less friendly and said "Listen Mr Smith, I don't have a lot of time to deal with your call" I said "me neither, Goodbye" and hung up.

Mike

I've just had the same call. 28/1/09 at 11:30 am. I'm in the UK. Unknown number, same accent, same script - "Windows XP service provider" ... "your computer is running slow" ... so I asked how he knew and he said "your computer told me".

I didn't actually let it get any further, as I realised that it was a phone 'call back' system, ie my phone rang and when I answered there was a ringing tone until he answered and asked my name. I decided it could be costing me £1.50 a minute so stopped the call. As previous comments have said, they had a name and phone number from somewhere.

Alex

If someone rang me up and said "this is your Windows XP service provider", my immediate response would be "I have Windows Vista. Goodbye." :D

Missy

Just received a similar call this evening 1/24/09 at about 8:00 pm. Thick Indian accent, unknown number on caller ID. He began the call saying he was my computer service provider calling to fix problems with junk in my computer. He asked if my computer had been running slow, I answered no. But he insisted that my computer needed fixing and that he got my number and computer's ISP information from Microsoft internet service provider. I told him he didn't know the name of my service provider. I asked for his phone number, and he replied 64-68-45-18-26. This has the same amount of numbers as an American phone, but he said it in 2 number sections, rather than as Americans would say 646-845-1826. Then he said he was going to connect me to his supervisor. He asked if I had windows XP, asked if I had 5 minutes to fix my computer, and then told me to go to the "Start" menu. I did not because I am just not going to listen to anyone that randomly calls me, but I was curious to find out what he was going to tell a stranger to do. He said to click "run" and type in www.logmein123.com. He asked "what do you see on your screen" I told him nothing (because I hadn't done it) and told him not to call again. By the way, this heavily accented, obviously from another country, says his name is Jimmy.... Riiiiiiight!

Joel

SCAM. SCAM, SCAM, BIG TIME SCAMERS
Hey, Guys....
This is Joel Romez
I recived a call from Log4rescue which is an Indian scam company and they tried to sale their fake support on to my computer. The indian guy told that he will be taking 99 pounds for 1 Year support and they took 299 pounds from my credit card. I have researched the Indian Market from some of my Indian friends and they told me this type of FAKE COMPANY are growing in Indian market to cheat money from overseas and the Companies are likely to be Log4rescue. Click4rescue, virtualpcdoctor, Comantra, onlinepcdoctors, TechSupport, Techresolve,

steventurner01

hello mr joel romez first of all let me tell you very clearly that we dont have any customer by your name.and secondly i think you are fake posting done by our compatitor.....
and if you want to proove yourself go ahead and post your card statement.and show me where log4rescue has charged you...
and if you dont post it will be ultimately proove that you are a fake...we have lots of satisfied customers and you never exist in our customers database...sorry but you are caught this time..wish u luck next time take care
Thanks
Steven Turner
Technician in log4rescue

HILLARY SARGENT

LOG4RESCUE IS A REALLY SCAM COMPANY, I ALSO GOT A CALL AND HE DID THE SAME WITH ME.

steventurner01

please go ahead and have a look at my website stating 92% of satisfied customer
and if you are a customer of our company then help me out with your user id which we provide to your customers,and i will give you the full support...
and i think you dont have a user id because i cannot find any hillary sargent in our customer database.i think you are a friend or something of Mr joel Romez...

Daniel

Same thing happened to me. I’m in the US, (Atlanta, Georgia). Call came in on 1/21/2009 @ 13:45 UTC-5.

They have modified their script a little bit. Now they just say “Windows provider” and “spyware”.

Had the same thick accent, on a very poor quality connection. (Probably somewhere in India or Nigeria.)

I literally just got off the phone with Adobe tech support in India and this guy calls. Makes me wonder if there is a breach in the Indian telecom system. (Check your phone system BSNL, MTNL and PSU.)

Primrose

I have just had two calls from a compnay calling themselves -

Fix and Click - with Indian accents. Their telephone number is 0208 0990390

By the way I reported the others as requested on this site to Watchdog.

digitaltoast

Gemstone Bay, New Zealand

Lake Matheson, New Zealand

Skipper's Canyon Jetboat, New Zealand

Flags flying over the Ville Close

Swan taking off

Street performer,Vienna

Model and real cranes

Snow, Wales