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I often do remote support in the job I am in.
I work for an antivirus company & remove malware from systems, collect samples for the lab from the infected machines & fix the damage the malware done, do research and so on.
This can be done via email instructions, phone instructions or if the customer needs -- remote assistance.
Just a FYI about all this remote stuff --
Generally the customer first needs to contact some kind of support site/email/phone. (no matter really wether it is AV, other software, hardware, whatever have you)
Normally you are presented with a form (or questioned on phone for details) to fill out with contact details, issue description, etc.
You fill that out & you are emailed/called back with a support ticket number. If emailed normally you are asked for more details & asked to upload diagniostic logs from whatever program causing issue.
Tech gets back with further instructions etc...or it gets escelated to a higher level tech.
Then continues from there.
If it is me calling someone I state my name, who I am working for, their ticket number & the general issue. This way they know who it is since all the info I just gave matches all the stuff in our previous emails.

my point being is you will never ever get called by someone requesting remote, etc unless you initiated the event in the first place by going through a bunch of stuff above.
The closest you may ever come to anything like this is your ISP emailing you informing you about virus traffic coming from your account sending massive spam or whatever & will get cut off unless its fixed.
They usually provide some helpful(ish) links and so on for getting AV software etc.

Microsoft nothing is going to call you to tell you that you have computer issues. EVER.
They also won't email you with "patches/updates" to install unless you went through their support page requesting a specific patch.

Only way MS will call is if you already have a support ticket open with them in the first place.
And even then -- an appointment is normally set up etc.
AND they should be able to recite your ticket number :)

So no --- don't do stuff someone on the phone tells you to unless YOU initiated the support routine in the first place.
If the call is "out of the blue" -- its scum call.
The scumbags are using scare tactics to get you to fall for their game.

I have come across this scam recently through members of computer training groups which I run locally. This is currently a common scam in the UK.  I live in a rural area with an older than average age population, and know of at least three people who have fallen for it.

The routine is largely as described above, the first objective being to secure remote access to your computer to correct the alleged problems.  You are then directed to a part of your machine, usually within your system files, which contains 'corrupt' or 'infected' files. As these are actually regular files in your system, the caller is not surprisingly able to confirm what they are - namely 'infected files which are slowing down your machine, and need cleaning'.  It just so happens that the caller can provide an annual maintenance service which will fix the problem immediately, and keep your computer clean.  All you have to do is provide your credit card details.....

In one case the caller (Indian-sounding, and claiming either to work for, or on behalf of Microsoft), guided the recipient into opening a PayPal account on the spot.  Of course he helped his 'customer' by inputting all the data required by PayPal.  

Fortunately, in all cases I have come across,  the 'customer' smelt a rat, and eventually secured a refund from their credit card provider.  One individual had signed up for 2 years, and paid over £300 sterling.

Be warned :>)

I've received two such calls. Both were from people whose voices identified tham as being of Indian sub-continent origin.
The first was a woman, but the line was breaking up so badly she said she'd call again, and hung up.
Next day a man called. he said I'd been clicking on messages to report my computer was running at times slowly or having some other problems (true, occasionally!), and in future he would be available whenever I needed to resolve anything - but I told him I wasn't happy to give him access to my computer.
Both times they initially made themselves out to be representing Microsoft then backtracked under questioning, denying they'd actually said they were from Microsoft. Suspicious, or what?!
End result; I politely but firmly told the chap he wasn't getting access to my computer by simply phoning me, and I ended his call.

This scam is also widespread here in australia...they have a fake website they refer you to as well. I have been called several times, both at work and at home. The scam has made our local paper a few times, as some people have gone along far enough to provide them access to banking details, and then have lost money. I was called several times after it broke as a scam, and the callers stayed on the phone trying to get me to do what they wanted, despite me constantly saying I knew it was a scam and it was in our press. Took them several phone calls to eventually give up.

I just had a call from an indian lady named vivian george stating that my pc or laptop had errors and she was calling to fix them and i needed to access it asap. my son was crying in the background and i told her it was not a good time but she was very pushy. I asked her for all her details but fired a whole heap of q's at me instead. when I asked her for a phone number she replied saying that i can only call if I have warranty with them. I said to her that if she knows all about me, my errors, and my computer, then how did she not know that I have warranty on my computer. after a few more fired Q's at her Vivian George hung up

i get calls everyday...from different places and most time they ask for a name i cant pronounce...today my phone supplier said we can have call baring. £2.00 a month..WHY should we have pay? told them if 1000 people all do this then theyre on a good profit.so i told them instead of earning out of us they can lose as i will have the phone disconected...as i am sick of these calls...i typed my own phone number in the google search and there i am ...put on their by YES my own supplier....maybe they are all in it together? Dont pay...just get rid of your house phone and kill two birds with one stone...yeah the greedy phone supplier and the cold callers....

Just had two fraud marketing calls. First one was a quick "survey" where they were fishing for information.
The second was a "virus check" stating all windows PCs were crashing. Wanted to remote in.
I am in Australia, both these calls were from India. I work in the call centre industry "not an operator", and can promise you these calls are not genuine.

These scummy scammer pricks should be stopped, but who really can they be reported to for an effective outcome with all the bureaucracy?

what is the windows vista business avtivation product key ?

They are still at it. Indian guy claiming to be from Service Centre for Windows Operating System. I was feeling bored and fancied some entertainment so was intrigued to see how they would try to scare me. He got me to count the errors and warnings in event viewer. Apparently every one of those is an infected file. Then he directed me to the Windows Inf folder and gave many tuts and exclamations at the number of .pnf files in there, lol. He then wanted to pass me on to a technical colleague who would explain how they could fix it all and would connect to my pc to help me.

At this point I then read back to him everything he had asked me to look at explaining what all the "infected files" really were. I then asked him how many people really fell for this scam. I think he was a bit bemused at the deviation from his script and could do nothing more than stammer at me that I really should let there tech guy fix my pc. I hung up at that point.

I really wish there was a way we could properly identify these scumbags and shut them down. It wouldn't work against anyone with even a little knowledge but I could see how people like my elderly parents could be taken in.

Its a scam
Read the full story here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres

i also received so many calls but i judge one of call they provide me good service thats it....

Got a call from this person who called himself Sam Rogers from PC Tech Support, and commented that his computer was constantly receiving the red cross error messages being transmitted from MY PC and offered to help me fix my PC. When I started to ask for authentication, he got really angry and said that he has got all the details of my PC and can crash it from his end if he wants to. He then asked me to go into the event logger and check if there were any red crosses in the log, which there were ( all PC's will have red crosses at some stage in the event logger). As he asked me to go deeper into the system, I got really suspicious and asked him to give me a phone number, his full name and company number for verification. He gave me a number and said his Company was based in Auckland and that I should call this number for verification. I hung up and called Directory Assistance with the Company name and number- they said the company could not be identified, the number was not of Auckland but an international number, probably in Brisbane Australia. I never called the number, and he has not called back so far.

I keep getting calls from "microsoft" saying my PC is infected and needs saving (i dont think that microsoft would use these terms) They were tring to get me to press the windows button and r to bring up the run box and type some script in which allows then to remote access your computer. I kept asking the nameless man if they were going to remote access my computer and he said no he wasnt going to but insisted that i type in ipconfig (which lets them access your computer)

i asked him what his company was called and how i knew he was calling from microsoft - he claimed that his company which was first SP3, then SF3 he finally settled on SB3 was accredited by microsoft and that if i went to microsofts website then I would see that. I asked where the company was based and he said New Jersey but he sounded african to me. He initially told me this would be free if I had a warranty on my software and if not I would need to pay to upgrade but he could do that over the phone with my card details - yeh right fella, jog on.

After some ranting and raving, alot of him calling me darling and telling me to calm down he finally went because he was wasting his time and he needed to call his next customer.

I called my brother who is quite high in IT services and he said that Microsoft would NOT cold call you if call you at all. THIS IS A SCAM! if you google the company it unsuprisingly doesnt come up with anything, there was no number avalible to return the call. Please hang up on them and DO NOT press anything that bring up a run box!!!

Just had the same scenario.

First spoke with angela,   who said she was working for orange and from the windows service centre  in Melbourne Australia I asked to speak to a manager so she put on a man who identified himself as “Mr David".

I asked this Mr David what his company was he said that it was the Windows server centre that he was an IT technician that he worked for Microsoft and that the business was based in Sydney. I also ask him for his ABN to which he seemed confused, and instead said “my registration number?".

He gave me the number 888DC860STOS118FOF0020  as his “registration number" to which returns no Google results.

Both operators had thick Indian accents and continually asked me to press my windows key on my keyboard. The first person on the phone did not realise that I was on a Macintosh and I did not have a Windows key.

Undoubtably scammers, as they are calling outside of business hours, will not inform you of any fixed address contact number or ABN.

Be very wary of unsolicited calls orange Microsoft or any associated company would never cold call customers.

WATCH OUT