Three times today I got a robo-call from “Christine” or “Catherine” from “Microsoft” telling me my system is compromised and if I dint let them change my IP address they would cancel my license.
I’m certain its a scam.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/microsoft-license-keyip-address-scam/d0f8de80-58c5-4ff2-84cb-4a4ff39824f0
What, if anything, should I do?
Honestly, you should probably just hang up if you answer the phone when they call, or delete the message if they leave one on your answering machine or voicemail.
Yes, it’s a common scam. 100% bogus. And the call is not from Microsoft, but some boiler room in Calcutta.
What to do? Ignore it, or if you feel sadistic like I do towards crooks like these, toy with them as long as you can. Every minute you waste their time is a minute they aren’t stealing from someone.
But NEVER let them take remote control of your computer, and never execute or open something they might send you.
And remember, the person calling you is a criminal so you can respond accordingly.
The other day I got a robocall telling me that a judge was shutting down Microsoft, and that I was therefore due a refund for various subscriptions. That one made me laugh out loud.
I’ve gotten that one before. More than once.
I get those and laugh, then say “My computer runs on Linux!” >click<
Install a spam call blocking/screen app. Or tell the FCC to do their fucking jobs.
I told one of them that once and he started insisting that Linux had the problem as well. Nowadays my son answers the calls because he likes to mess with them. One night my son was asking if they had any job openings and then asked another guy if he wanted to come over for supper. By the time the scammer would have gotten here from India the food would have been cold, so we didn’t follow through on that one.
I used to put my youngest daughter on the phone with them sometimes. She loved (still loves) to talk on the phone. But she was only two, so her range of topics was pretty limited, and her pronunciation wasn’t that great. But she could chatter away for quite some time. It was amusing. I would say to the caller “hang on for a minute – this sounds important. Let me fire up my computer and get a pencil and paper, and then we’ll get going. I’m so glad you called!” and then put the girl on the phone.
It was amazing how long they’d wait for me to come back on the line sometimes.
Let’s examine those options.[ol][li]Install a spam call blocking app. How will you block them? Caller IDs are routinely spoofed and changed, so that won’t work.[*]Tell the FCC…lotsa luck with that one. Millions of complaints so far haven’t produced much in the way of results, eh?[/ol][/li]
Maybe you could email them a (non-beef) burger.
[quote=“Musicat, post:11, topic:836106”]
Let’s examine those options.[ol][li]Install a spam call blocking app. How will you block them? Caller IDs are routinely spoofed and changed, so that won’t work.[*]Tell the FCC…lotsa luck with that one. Millions of complaints so far haven’t produced much in the way of results, eh?[/ol][/li][/QUOTE]
The Google screening app works really well for me, the one where it puts its annoying AI into a real-time conversation with the caller. Screen your calls before you answer them - Phone app Help
I use it for all unknown numbers out of my local area code now. You can see a real-time transcript of what the robot and caller are saying, so you can pick up at any time if you want. Otherwise you just let the caller waste time with the robot and then ban that number afterwards.
As for the FCC, whelps, I suppose that’s reason #2,403,239 we need a revolution 
Hang up. There is nothing to do. You don’t even need a cite to convince us it’s a scam. Nobody can change your IP address except your ISP, Microsoft doesn’t have your phone number, Microsoft has no way to know your system is compromised, and “compromised” doesn’t even mean anything. The phone number is spoofed, they are out of the U.S., there is no way to catch them. I used to fuck with these people but the entertainment value is not worth the time.
Useless. I’ve gotten numerous scam calls and every time, it’s a different number. And they’re all from the local area code and frequently the same prefix.
The FCC has no jurisdiction outside of the US where these calls come from.
I always ask them “Does your mother know what you do for a living?”. One guy actually got mad at me, most of them just hang up.
A new bill to help stop robocalls was recently introduced in Congress. I don’t know if the bill will get approved or if it will be effective if it is signed into law.
I have NoMoRobo on my landline, and it has blocked everyone of the Microsoft spam calls. Alas, since I did have fun messing with them. It works by looking at patterns of calling numbers, and blocking ones where lots of calls originate from the spoofed number. It blocks about 90% or more of spam calls - I know because it rings once and I can see the caller. So don’t knock it.
I don’t get many spam calls on my cell.
You understand that the main benefit of the app is that a robot talks for you, right? It’s not the number blocking that’s helpful, that’s just a side benefit. It’s that the googlebot will waste their time instead of them wasting yours.
It’s not about legislating the call origins, but the US telecom infrastructure that these calls pass through … AT&T, Verizon, etc., and mandating that they have better security methods in place to help fight caller ID spoofing, DNC databases, etc.
I do a variation on the theme. I ask them ‘does your mother cry when she thinks about what you do for a living’.
One woman told me her mother was dead. I ask her ‘well, do you think your mother in heaven cries…’. She got mad.
The telecom industry has defined a mechanism called STIR/SHAKEN to authenticate caller id info, so your phone provider will be able to tell that a call which claims to be from your own neighborhood according to its caller id is actually coming from India or wherever. They started designing this in 2014.
About half of US phone companies are now working on deploying this technology on their networks and testing it. Actions at the FCC and now Congress are intended to prod the rest into getting on board too.
Once it’s operational, it should become possible to (say) block all calls that are *really *from India, say. (At least until the scammers figure out how to work around it.)
I usually go with “Is your mother ashamed that you’re a crook?” if I don’t feel like talking to these guys. Then I hang up, so I never learn the dead/alive or ashamed/proud statuses of the various crooks’ mothers.