Last
night, I got more than one call from someone who purported to be a Microsoft
Certified Technician. I shouldn’t have
even picked up the Unknown Name call, but I have a good friend who sometimes
comes up that way on Caller ID....
The
guy said MS servers showed reports that my PC suffered critical errors and
could crash at any moment. I’d worked
with actual MSCTs extensively over Memorial Day, and wondered if that was how
they had my PC ID and other information.
I
was very skeptical from the get go, and kept asking how I could be sure this wasn’t a
scam. The guy told me to go into
run/eventvwr/custom views/administrative events. Sure enough, there were literally hundreds of
red error exclamation points and dozens of yellow warnings. Very scary looking.
To
fix these issues, he wanted me to download something from xprtpc.com, which he
said partnered with Microsoft. That was that. I knew better than to download anything.
I’m
annoyed that I even gave the guy the time of day. But I had spent many hours with MSCTs only a month ago, and thought perhaps they were following up because of that. I wish you could hear how convincing and
persistent he was. I’m glad I didn’t
fall for it. But how many do?
How
many people trust that others have good intentions? It's sad that bad apples spoil so many bushels.
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