Scam Warning: Microsoft Global Tech Support

Scam Warning: Microsoft Global Tech Support – Part 2

December 9 2011, 3:08 pm

In April 2010 the London private detectives, Conflict International, released a blog article titled – Scam Warning: Microsoft Global Tech Support – which discussed an international scam involving individuals posing as Microsoft technical support staff.

For just over a year the blog article went largely un-noticed. Fast forward to May 2011 and things start to change. Up until that time the original Microsoft scam warning article was being viewed about 30 times a month. In May, it was viewed 152 times, in June 395 times, in July 757 times and in August 2,264 times. Since then the number of views has hovered around the 1,700 mark.

Since the blog article was published there have been 49 comments made by people from across the globe. Conflict International would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to the blog. Your comments have really helped people avoid becoming victims and have helped raise awareness of this particular scam.

It should be said that the blog article Conflict International wrote was also targeted by the scammers responsible for this. After seeing a particularly detailed blog comment by a George Walker on the 23rd of November the scammers posed as him by adding another comment under his name saying how he had been refunded and that this is no scam. Needless to say this didn’t stay under the radar for very long at all and the post was removed.

However it also demonstrates that the scammer’s cage has been rattled. They resorted to a desperate attempt to misinform our readers and anyone searching for information on this topic. This is because over time the blog article climbed up Google rankings to appear high on the first page for a variety of keywords and phrases around the scam.

It is now December 2011 and from our understanding the scam is continuing and there has been little change in the way they carry it out. You receive the call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft Global Tech Support, or something similar. You are then informed of having malware on your computer, at which point you may be passed on to another ‘department’ or a tech guy. You will then find out that for just a few hundred pounds the problem can be fixed.

We want to stress that although we do describe the scammers as quite the amateur bunch, this is not the case. They are a well organised group who have successfully conned who knows how many people out of who knows how much money. Underestimating the people behind this scam would be foolish.

As it stands this scam will continue and it is unlikely that any one person or organisation will bring it to an end. It is therefore vital that people share their experience in order to educate and prevent others becoming victims. With this in mind, Conflict International would again like to thank all our readers and the people who have commented on this topic. It is really appreciated and you have helped people become innocent victims of a global scam.