There is a diary on the rec list right now entitled "Anatomy of an Attempted Scam - Don't Fall for This!"
My fiancees parents, my fiancee, and I have all had run ins with these scammers. My fiancee and I currently live at her parents house, and their house phone gets several telemarketing, scamming, and phishing phone calls a day. The most prolific of these is the so called "Virus Scam"
A relatively nice write up of the phenomenon can be found here. From the article:
I just received a scam phone call, and I want to warn you so you don't fall for it. The scammer pretends to be from Microsoft or some other legitimate company to trick you.
Even if you wouldn't be fooled, please warn friends and relatives (especially elderly ones) who might not be aware of scams like this. Victims of this fraud could suffer anything from identity theft to having their computer hijacked and used to send spam or viruses without their knowledge.
And this is how every telephone call with these mysterious scammers goes. Someone calls pretending to be from Microsoft, calling to inform you that you have a computer virus. Now, we have several Windows computers in our homes, but in my experience Windows doesn't call someone out of the blue to tell them they have a virus. My computer I got second hand, the phone number at my fiancee's house isn't even remotely connected to my computer. Everyone else who lives here who has a windows computer, same story: they all have cell phones, their computer is connected to their cell phone and not their house phone.
At any rate, it is obvious that it is not legitimate. This is disregarding the fact that they call from different numbers, blocked numbers, private numbers. No legitimate business operates in that fashion.
Getting back to the story, these scammers call our house five or six times a day, all from different numbers. We have asked several times to be put on their do not call list, and they ignore it, of course. We have confronted them with this cursory exam of the logic surrounding the circumstances of their call, and yet they still insist that they can "see" our computer, and that it, indeed has viruses.
I thought that these calls were relatively benign until a couple of days ago when my future sister-in-law answered another call from these scammers. The conversation went as every other did with the supposed microsoft tech support, she challenged them surrounding the shady circumstances of their call, informed them that there is no way possible that they could have that information nor the house phone number, informed them that microsoft doesn't call people when they have a virus, it just happens (its happened several times to all of us...actually, to anybody who has ever owned a windows computer, ever). She asked several times to be placed on the do not call list. Finally, she got exasperated and told them never to call us again.
As she hung up the call, she looked surprised..."He said that they would hack our computer tomorrow anyway, and then I hung up", she said. That sealed the deal. These people are malicious, and will stop at nothing to attain either information, or money, or both from any unsuspecting victim.
I started researching a little deeper and found a statement microsoft has put out themselves:
Cybercriminals don't just send fraudulent email messages and set up fake websites. They might also call you on the telephone and claim to be from Microsoft. They might offer to help solve your computer problems or sell you a software license. Once they have access to your computer, they can do the following:
Trick you into installing malicious software that could capture sensitive data, such as online banking user names and passwords. They might also then charge you to remove this software.
Take control of your computer remotely and adjust settings to leave your computer vulnerable.
Request credit card information so they can bill you for phony services.
Direct you to fraudulent websites and ask you to enter credit card and other personal or financial information there.
Neither Microsoft nor our partners make unsolicited phone calls (also known as cold calls) to charge you for computer security or software fixes.
link here
Microsoft themselves says that they will never make unsolicited calls to charge you for computer security fixes.
The take-away to this story is that there is absolutely no reason at all for microsoft to call you pertaining to your computer's security. They never make unsolicited calls. Please, if you have relatives or friends that are particularly susceptible to this type of scam, send them the link to the microsoft statement regarding the virus scam, linked above in the block quote. Let them know that there is no reason why anyone from microsoft should ever call them about their computer security. If the call is unsolicited its a scam, and giving these people intimate access to their PC is absolutely a mistake and could cost them their money and their identity.