Unfortunately, many of us will cross paths with people who have malicious intent. They may lie, commit a crime such as embezzlement, or otherwise take advantage of those who believe in honesty.
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.
