I received a phone call purporting to be from this authorised microsoft dealerwww.onlinetechmate.con trying to sign me up to allegedly clean out my computer system. they pushed this sales pitch for over an hour and even took remote access to my computer. when I refused to sign up for their services without any proof of service guarantee the operative who had identified himself as 'norman' having been passed over from a 'mac' froze my system laughed and told me to 'f*ck off' before slamming down the phone! is anyone aware of this prank organisation and do I now have to sue them through the courts for destroying my computer system? I have asked Microsoft if they are prepared to take responsibility for their authorised dealers actions and am still awaiting their response?1 person got this answerI do too

I have just had the same call from Online Techmate cowboys.When it got to the stage of wanting me to access www.ammyy.com I did a quick google search to see what that page did before opening it. When I saw it was remote access software the alarm bells started to ring even louder than they already were.They asked me to check the Event Viewer in the Computer Management and come out with "Oh my god" when I said there were some errors in there. I would have been more surprised if there hadn't been any. Lol!They had trouble with the concept that I wanted them to proove to me who they said they were. I have caller ID and their number comes "Unavailable". The caller said her name was "Sue". If her name is Sue then mine must be Sanjay or Gupter! They said you can see who we are we have a website. Call our "Toll free number" which starts 0844... (so it's not Toll free at all). They couldn't grasp the concept that they called me with an ID witheld number asking me to look at a random website and load romte access software. They said "you will be able to see what we are doing" which is fair enough, but how do I know they are not downloading saved passwords etc... in the background? Smoke and mirrors come to mind.When I eventually hung up after talking to her "supervisor" after 20 minutes they even called back. If they were genuine, I don't think they wouldn't have bothered as they would have been busy phoning the other 7 million people who use Windows!When it comes to it, do you really think Microsoft would go through the expense of getting someone to call you to sort a problem out?No.They would put out an update patch that automatically sorts it out for you.

I have just had the same call from Online Techmate cowboys.When it got to the stage of wanting me to access www.ammyy.com I did a quick google search to see what that page did before opening it. When I saw it was remote access software the alarm bells started to ring even louder than they already were.They asked me to check the Event Viewer in the Computer Management and come out with "Oh my god" when I said there were some errors in there. I would have been more surprised if there hadn't been any. Lol!They had trouble with the concept that I wanted them to proove to me who they said they were. I have caller ID and their number comes "Unavailable". The caller said her name was "Sue". If her name is Sue then mine must be Sanjay or Gupter! They said you can see who we are we have a website. Call our "Toll free number" which starts 0844... (so it's not Toll free at all). They couldn't grasp the concept that they called me with an ID witheld number asking me to look at a random website and load romte access software. They said "you will be able to see what we are doing" which is fair enough, but how do I know they are not downloading saved passwords etc... in the background? Smoke and mirrors come to mind.When I eventually hung up after talking to her "supervisor" after 20 minutes they even called back. If they were genuine, I don't think they wouldn't have bothered as they would have been busy phoning the other 7 million people who use Windows!When it comes to it, do you really think Microsoft would go through the expense of getting someone to call you to sort a problem out?No.They would put out an update patch that automatically sorts it out for you.This is an ongoing thing and seems to have worsened since the inception of Microsoft's overseas call centers and support. I bet you can guess where these phony support agents are getting your info. I sure can!I don't vote for myself I'm not here for the points. If this post helps you, vote. Visit my forum @ http://repairbotsonline.com/

"MikeMole" wrote in message news:Email removed for privacy...I have just had the same call from Online Techmate cowboys.When it got to the stage of wanting me to access www.ammyy.com I did a quick google search to see what that page did before opening it. When I saw it was remote access software the alarm bells started to ring even louder than they already were.They asked me to check the Event Viewer in the Computer Management and come out with "Oh my god" when I said there were some errors in there. I would have been more surprised if there hadn't been any. Lol!They had trouble with the concept that I wanted them to proove to me who they said they were. I have caller ID and their number comes "Unavailable". The caller said her name was "Sue". If her name is Sue then mine must be Sanjay or Gupter! They said you can see who we are we have a website. Call our "Toll free number" which starts 0844... (so it's not Toll free at all). They couldn't grasp the concept that they called me with an ID witheld number asking me to look at a random website and load romte access software. They said "you will be able to see what we are doing" which is fair enough, but how do I know they are not downloading saved passwords etc... in the background? Smoke and mirrors come to mind.When I eventually hung up after talking to her "supervisor" after 20 minutes they even called back. If they were genuine, I don't think they wouldn't have bothered as they would have been busy phoning the other 7 million people who use Windows!When it comes to it, do you really think Microsoft would go through the expense of getting someone to call you to sort a problem out?No.They would put out an update patch that automatically sorts it out for you.So their "toll-free" number starts with 0844. Readers outside of the UK should understand that calls to those numbers cost 5 pence per minute plus a connection charge. they are more expensive than calls to ordinary landlines.I object to paying a premium on call charges - so I make a point of never calling expensive numbers, unless there really is no alternative.Incidentally, Microsoft also use 0844 numbers in the UK. If you are a tariff that includes cheap or free international calls, it might be cheaper to call Microsoft in the USA or Ireland.

I have had ame experience this aftenoon. He told me he was from microsoft technical support and they were going to help me sort out my error reporting. he sounded very plausible and he did have some of my details. Regretably i did alow him access to my computer. He told me my Norton anti virus was not working against Malware? After an hour when he asked for my date of birth and tried to sell me a software package, which he denied he was selling. He asked me for my date of birth and was unhappy I would not give it to him, I became suspicious and told him I wanted him off my computer. He would not hang up from the telephone. i said i would use my mobile to ring trading standards and he said his legal department would come to my door in half and hour. he knew my address, yet I had not given it to him. How is this? I spoke to trading standards at my local council. They advised I speak to Norton, apparently there are many scams like this using foreign telephone exchanges. Norton have taken 90 minutes to clean my computer but I still have 2 progeammes I think they put on Bonjour and ammyy. Beware all

I have had ame experience this aftenoon. He told me he was from microsoft technical support and they were going to help me sort out my error reporting. he sounded very plausible and he did have some of my details. Regretably i did alow him access to my computer. He told me my Norton anti virus was not working against Malware? After an hour when he asked for my date of birth and tried to sell me a software package, which he denied he was selling. He asked me for my date of birth and was unhappy I would not give it to him, I became suspicious and told him I wanted him off my computer. He would not hang up from the telephone. i said i would use my mobile to ring trading standards and he said his legal department would come to my door in half and hour. he knew my address, yet I had not given it to him. How is this? I spoke to trading standards at my local council. They advised I speak to Norton, apparently there are many scams like this using foreign telephone exchanges. Norton have taken 90 minutes to clean my computer but I still have 2 progeammes I think they put on Bonjour and ammyy. Beware allBojour is legitimate. Ammy isn't. Read my post above as to my opinion of how they are getting peoples info. Although, some such info is not very difficult to obtain, the timing of the inception of this scam is very strange to me. Moreover, some of the info they posses could only come from inside. I don't vote for myself I'm not here for the points. If this post helps you, vote. Visit my forum @ http://repairbotsonline.com/

hi i need help badly. i live in the uk and my dad got a call from www.onlinetechmate.com saying the laptop has a virus and that microsoft will give him 3 bits of software ( CCleaner, Malware and microsoft security essentials) for free to make it run faster but would have to pay £150 for 2 year support service. i was away and didnt know about it till i got in but the point is my dad fell for it and gave them card details. what do we do because i have looked on the internet and other people have been scammed to :(

hi i need help badly. i live in the uk and my dad got a call from www.onlinetechmate.com saying the laptop has a virus and that microsoft will give him 3 bits of software ( CCleaner, Malware and microsoft security essentials) for free to make it run faster but would have to pay £150 for 2 year support service. i was away and didnt know about it till i got in but the point is my dad fell for it and gave them card details. what do we do because i have looked on the internet and other people have been scammed to :(Personally, I would stop payment and cancel the card. I don't vote for myself I'm not here for the points. If this post helps you, vote. Visit my forum @ http://repairbotsonline.com/

The same thing just happened to me this week. Exactly as described they took control of my computer until (stupidly ) I paid up!

thank god i am not alone how much did you pay?

I have also had several calls now from someone called "Jack"who was supposedly from Windows security centre telling me that they had been receiving error messages from my pc over the last few days, again they wanted me to go onto various things msconfig, prefetch, eventvwr, normally I would have told them to sod off straight away but I had only just woken up and he did sound very plausible, anyway after all the Oh my God moments he wanted me to allow their Microsoft Certified engineers to fix the problem and then I could pay £140 for a warranty for another 3 years for the software, I made excuses that I had no time as I was going to work and asked him to phone again, I ignored the next day calls but did note that each time it came up as an unavailable number. on the next day after the 3rd call I asked him for his name, who he worked for and I wanted a contact number, He was still Jack but now he worked for Windows service centre, he was extremely reluctant to give a contact number, but eventually gave me this number 02030513051993, I haven't tried it but no doubt it wont go through to anyone.The only thing that worries me is that he had my details and even though I didn't give him access to my pc the last thing he said to me were that my pc would "crash" within 6 months, is it possible that during my original conversation with him that he could have somehow infected my pc and somewhere in the background a little timebomb is ticking away?.

The only thing that worries me is that he had my details and even though I didn't give him access to my pc the last thing he said to me were that my pc would "crash" within 6 months, is it possible that during my original conversation with him that he could have somehow infected my pc and somewhere in the background a little timebomb is ticking away?. Is it possible? Perhaps but, very unlikely unless you gave him access to your computer or he requested you visit a specific website which you in turn done. If that is the case it is more plausible. To be certain scan your computer with Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. Update the scanners prior to scanning. Perform full scans.Malwarebytes.orgSUPERAntiSpyware.com | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!I don't vote for myself I'm not here for the points. If this post helps you, vote. Visit my forum @ http://repairbotsonline.com/

Contact your bank/card provider and stop the payment (and any future ones they may try to take). Not sure your local police will be interested but report this to http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/ to ensure it is reported and recorded and maybe some concerted action can be taken if enough people do. Run system recovery to 'rewind' your system to a point in time prior to their intervention to ensure nothing they installed is left. Then install and run Malwarebytes as the other posters mention.

I too have been scammed What worries me is that my computer will not let me do a system restore they seemed to have put an undo tab on yesterdays date. Anybody got any ideas I have taken off what they put on but i am worried.