I received this in a thread on a Microsoft Forum. The thread has tp do with a plan MS really does offer, “Assure.” Assure offers several things but the biggest of these is over the online support. That part has never worked well but now it appears someone is taking advantage by offering a FAUX plan as a scam.,
MICROSOFT ASSURE PLAN – A SCAM??
I too purchased this plan, and my credit card called me immediately saying it was being billed outside of the United States, saying Microsoft was an American company within American borders. They were calling to ask me to be sure this was the REAL Microsoft company. I said I felt like it, but now questioned it, seeing this was the only time my credit card company ever called me, interrupting a sale, being flagged by them as a SCAM.
I went ahead of the transaction, over the next year. Then I paid again for a second year. But although I had some doubts, was confused as I called the real Microsoft in America, who only found this online… warning on internet search ‘it could be a SCAM’. So they said they felt they may be recommending the Microsoft Assure Plan and selling it as a product not theirs. And this company talked me in to purchasing another program called TREND MICRO MAXIMUM SECURITY as an anti virus program. When you call the Microsoft program, they even recommend it, but say it is not “theirs” but what they recommend and what they are selling right now. That raised a red flag with me too. Why would they sell a product not theirs?
Late last year, a man called me (all heavy accents) saying I was on a list for this program, and if I did not pay I would immediately get several viruses on my computer, as my subscription ran out. I record all my calls and warned whoever this is, he was committing a crime in attempts to threaten me to give him money, or else attack my computer (or lie with that threat). I told him not to call me again.
The man got mad and said he refused to stop calling me as I said he was a SCAMMER. I said it is true, he is a scammer if he is demanding money “or else he would put my computer email on a list in order to intentionally get viruses.” He then called me 5 times in the hour. I recorded the calls and called police. The police man laughed at the man, saying HE WAS A SCAMMER, and put it in his report in the event I should get my identity stolen.
The “Assure Plan” did work and clean up my computer, better than two American big box store computer places I took my computer to (which deleted my photos and everything was lost on my computer). But who do we believe, when people write in saying this is a scam, then others write in saying it is a real Microsoft service??
I don’t know if any of these are related to Microsoft, or how the scam man got my name, phone number, and email address. But I really question it all now, when my computer is not working. Could this be some country looking for not only personal info, but government secrets, like what Hillary Clinton found out sending her government server to a private company to manage?
I found out the real Microsoft was recommending this, but did not know anything about it, and when they ‘googled it’ found the words SCAM related to it. So what do we believe when Microsoft does not know what their employees are recommending?
AND SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE US THE REAL MICROSOFT CUSTOMER SERVICE TELEPHONE NUMBER?
thank you for your much needed help!
Reply:
Roger, I have the Answertech Chat icon on my Start window (WIN 10) so any time I click on it, the chat window titled ‘Contact Support’ pops up. There, I choose Services and apps and sooner or later get to chat. They rarely disappoint but they could be a bit faster verifying a subscription. I might add that there are others that do imitate the Answserdesk service.
I really want to vent something out too since this is long overdue. What’s interesting is that this happened to me, yeah, AFTER I had already payed for the Assure service, weird huh? Look I really am grateful for the dude at Microsoft for helping me restore my laptop while retaining all my files ( I had no back up hard drive that’s what the problem was), but what happened after that was something quite peculiar indeed, check this out folks, can’t believe I’m only mentioning this crucial part of the story now..
So basically what happened to me is what’s in that article I shared above ^ Somehow some random guy/caller (from UAE, (or at least that’s what his accent sounded like) called me really early the next morning claiming to be from Microsoft, you bet your **** I believed it was MS, I had just got my entire hard-drive backed up from the day before!
yada yada yada, caller tells me to turn on my computer ’cause there’s a “problem” that needs fixing, and that I’d need to give him my credit card details etc etc, would you believe I almost fell for it? Told him I’d just gone through an entire process the day before AND payed for the Assure plan for a year, he then told me he’d look into that, never got back to me, obviously. Unfortunately it did get to the stage where I gave him access to the computer (showmypc.com) which was really annoying ’cause I had to ring the police to track the number, of course to no avail with it being foreign, and rang the bank too – who told me I’d need to get my computer “professionally cleaned”. Like… I had just gone through such a process, not doing it again, and haven’t since.
So just where did this guy get my number from anyway? Is it a coincidence that this happened the DAY AFTER giving my number to an official MS tech support? I mean at this stage my mind was going absolutely bat s**t crazy paranoid with the possibilities of what could’ve happened, literally causing me to think that my number was deliberately shared from one MS tech guy to another “MS tech guy”.
The fact that I’m talking about such a conspiracy on an official MS forum/site along with reading everyone else’s stories and NO ONE seems to bat a eyelid, it’s like reality is forever separate from the internet. On the one hand I feel like a mad man, on the other I feel really gullible. Anyone else experiencing this? Looking at the sheer lack of any real help and response from anyone is really disappointing, and rather confusing indeed.
More from MS forum
Hello SeattleJew,
A thread that you are following on Microsoft Community has received a reply from Roger T.Yokubaitis.
Title: talk to a live representative, i have assure plan
Reply:
@Meslissa Sounds like this happened to you (and me) http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/beware-the-tech-support-scam-092513.html
I really want to vent something out too since this is long overdue. What’s interesting is that this happened to me, yeah, AFTER I had already payed for the Assure service, weird huh? Look I really am grateful for the dude at Microsoft for helping me restore my laptop while retaining all my files ( I had no back up hard drive that’s what the problem was), but what happened after that was something quite peculiar indeed, check this out folks, can’t believe I’m only mentioning this crucial part of the story now..
So basically what happened to me is what’s in that article I shared above ^ Somehow some random guy/caller (from UAE, (or at least that’s what his accent sounded like) called me really early the next morning claiming to be from Microsoft, you bet your **** I believed it was MS, I had just got my entire hard-drive backed up from the day before!
yada yada yada, caller tells me to turn on my computer ’cause there’s a “problem” that needs fixing, and that I’d need to give him my credit card details etc etc, would you believe I almost fell for it? Told him I’d just gone through an entire process the day before AND payed for the Assure plan for a year, he then told me he’d look into that, never got back to me, obviously. Unfortunately it did get to the stage where I gave him access to the computer (showmypc.com) which was really annoying ’cause I had to ring the police to track the number, of course to no avail with it being foreign, and rang the bank too – who told me I’d need to get my computer “professionally cleaned”. Like… I had just gone through such a process, not doing it again, and haven’t since.
So just where did this guy get my number from anyway? Is it a coincidence that this happened the DAY AFTER giving my number to an official MS tech support? I mean at this stage my mind was going absolutely bat s**t crazy paranoid with the possibilities of what could’ve happened, literally causing me to think that my number was deliberately shared from one MS tech guy to another “MS tech guy”.
The fact that I’m talking about such a conspiracy on an official MS forum/site along while reading everyone else’s stories and NO ONE seems to bat a eyelid, it’s like reality is forever separate from the internet. On the one hand I feel like a mad man, on the other I feel really gullible. Anyone else experiencing this? Looking at the sheer lack of any real help and response from anyone is really disappointing, and rather confusing indeed.
I receive calls from phony Microsoft people often and I know of no correlation between my many calls to actual Microsoft people and the calls from the phony people. You have described what is simply quite a coincidence and I would place the chances of there being any violation of the cahoots doctrine at precisely zero.
Read this reply on Microsoft Community.