PC Tech Support telephone touting?

fleabag

Hi,

Just had a call from a guy at a company called PC Tech Support. He knew my name and said that my computer had been sending up lots of error messages at their end and that he would help me sort it out. I was a bit suspicious straight away and asked him where the company was based. He said Dublin 16 and that they worked with Microsoft to solve computer problems.

He asked me to type in 'eventvwr' into the windows dialogue box and sure enough a list of warnings and error messages appeared. He asked if there were over 5 warning messages and when I said that there were he said that this was very dangerous for the computer. The warnings were all generally classed as 'Application Hang' and although I haven't a clue what this means I just got the impression that it wasn't as serious as was being made out.

I asked him if PC Tech Support were a commercial company and if there would be a charge for this. He sort of skirted this issue saying some problems could be repaired free and others they charged for. I asked him the website address which he gave me as www.pctechsupport.com. but this address doesn't seem to exist. I asked if they were Microsoft authorised but all he would say is that they 'did' work' for Microsoft.

I had the virus protection in this PC updated about 4 months ago and the PC itself has been working fine. I'm still a little puzzled by the call but my instinct tells me it's a company touting for business by making normal computer functions look like problems. Has anyone else had experience of this - are they a genuine company?

Thanks!

chin_grin

See this thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055837564

Slippin Jimmy

Lots of these companys popping up. Look at the sticky at the top of this forum.

DonkeyStyle \o/

fleabag wrote: »

Has anyone else had experience of this - are they a genuine company?

There are no errors on "their end", because there is no "their end". Nobody is monitoring your event viewer, nobody knows when your computer crashes. If you were paying enough money every month to have this kind of monitoring service (should one exist), you'd definitely already know about it.
Unsolicited contact from companies is horse-shít in general.
Why this scam isn't 100% common knowledge is beyond me.
This needs to be on the 6 O'Clock News... if they're still operating at all, then people are still falling for it.

fleabag

Just had a look through the threads you both suggested and sounds like exactly the same thing so I've stopped worrying a bit and I'm glad I acted on my instincts. What a set of scumbags but I knew the Boards would put me straight!

fleabag

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

There are no errors on "their end", because there is no "their end". Nobody is monitoring your event viewer, nobody knows when your computer crashes. If you were paying enough money every month to have this kind of monitoring service (should one exist), you'd definitely already know about it.
Unsolicited contact from companies is horse-shít in general.
Why this scam isn't 100% common knowledge is beyond me.
This needs to be on the 6 O'Clock News... if they're still operating at all, then people are still falling for it.

See that's what got me. I thought if it was a scam I must have heard of it. And when someone says there's something wrong with your computer it's agh! panic time!:eek: I'll put something up on my Facebook to tell my 26 (!) friends about it and maybe they'll spread it around if these companies are operating again.

I asked the guy to call me back after I'd checked out their website and surprise, surprise, he hasn't.

DonkeyStyle \o/

fleabag wrote: »

See that's what got me. I thought if it was a scam I must have heard of it.

What's more ridiculous is that this has been going on for at least a year... look at the date that other thread started.
On one hand it's up to people to exercise proper judgement and not trust every phonecall they get, but it's the exact same scam every time. I've gotten at least two of these phonecalls.

fleabag

Next time someone with an Indian accent tells me his name is Brian Dawson the 'phone is going straight down!

mw3guc

fleabag wrote: »

Next time someone with an Indian accent tells me his name is Brian Dawson the 'phone is going straight down!

Just do what you already did on this occasion - exercise caution, commit to nothing and check it out. If everyone did this (even if they haven't heard about this or any other scam) these guys would cease to exist.
It's easy for those of us who spend a lot of time (sometimes WAY too much time) online to imagine that everyone must have heard of this or that scam when the reality is that many have not. I am still astounded at the number of 'forwards' I receive from perfectly intelligent people who imagine that Bill Gates will gift them or a charitable case with x amount of money for every one they send

mr1percent

There was a recent report into this scam by microsoft.They did a questioner of 7000 pc users in Ireland,Uk, Usa and Canada. Ireland returned an amazing 26% hit rate for this scam, at an average loss of 51euro for those caught. The average in the Uk i think was 11%. Ireland must be a goldmine for these people.

aidan_walsh

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055837564