I don't know for sure that this is a scam, so I'm not sure if I should put it under scams or here...
Got a call the other day from a woman who claimed she was phoning me from "Global Technical Support". Apparently the reason for her calling me, was to tell me that my computer had downloaded some "dangerous & corrupted files" from the internet. Immediately I started frowning... and I asked:
1. How do you know this? and
2. Why are you telling me this?
She raised the pitch of her voice as she answered: "I know this because I work for "Global Technical Support", and your computer has downloaded some dangerous and corrupted files!" Ok, sweetie, you're not answering my question, and besides, who the heck is "Global Technical Support"? So she tells me it's a global company, that supports all Windows users. SERIOUSLY?! And to prove it, she told me my name and physical address (hang on a second, perhaps if you pay Telkom enough, they will give you the info of their ADSL accounts?).
I entertained her for a while, convinced that this was some kind of scam, yet curious to see what she was going to try and get from me. Cut a long story short, she told me to press the little Window key (bottom left on keyboard) and another, to open Eventviewer. Then she told me every yellow triangle and red circle showed a "dangerous and corrupted file" that my computer downloaded from the internet. So why didn't my anti-virus software prevent this or alert me? Because no anti-virus software or firewall can prevent your computer from downloading dangerous and corrupted files from the internet. (I know, I also thought : if she uses that sentence once more, I am going to throw up!).
Look, I am no IT expert, but everything about this call sounded wrong. Unfortunately I had to end the call, because I was called away to a meeting. I told her I had to go, and asked her to phone me back the next day... so it sounded like she started panicking, and she insisted in a high-pitched voice "You don't have 5 minutes for my call? I told you your computer is downloading dangerous and corrupted files from...!" I just put the phone down.
I am convinced this must be some scam, just a pity I couldn't get the whole deal. Have any of you heard of this before?
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