S C A M - B E W A R E - They take money to fix a virus they upload on your computer. BT is aware of this.

I just had a call from some Indian person in a call centre telling me I had a virus on the computer. He then said to go online and the technician would scan the computer and fix it.
Straight away I rang BT - they know of this scam and what happens is the technician puts a virus on the computer - you then ring up and are charged for fixing it.
Unfortunately they lost money today. Why? I asked what virus I had as they said I had a virus. He would not answer. I asked that since he detected a virus in the past 2 days then I wanted to know as my virus protection was not working. I asked him at least 10 times what his phone number was - he was reluctant then asked my why I needed to know before I went online - I said so I could talk to him if there was problems with the technical service he was passing me onto.
He did admit he was from London (true?) he also said he was from the Online Technical Support Team.
BT was mentioned lots of times so I informed them of this company using them to gain money. BT did not seem to bother too much - I often wonder if this call centre in London could be a fraudulant part of the BT Indian call centre. Seems suspicious to me.

ACTION - keep him talking on the line, he gets fed up after 5 mins and hangs up on you.


BEWARE and REPORT. BT nuisance call number is 0800 661 441.

Thanks for the heads-up. I was thinking of changing my broadband supplier to BT too... I'm not going to now if this is how they treat their customers.

Typical of these types of businesses though, they promise you heaven and earth, then as soon as you sign up to an 18 month contract, they treat you with total contempt.

For example, leaving you in a 'phone queue listening to irritaing classical music for 40 minutes, only for the operator to tell you that they're ONLY responsible for the MAIN socket, which is behind your TV.
How many people have their PC behind their TV?!

I'm not sure if it is actually BT - the Indian man could be bluffing but did accentuate BT all through the conversation. He also mentioned that they work with other providers - Orange, Virgin Media and a few others. There was this same scam in 2010 - I wonder if it coincides with BT using an Indian call centre? - thought!! Just keep talking to these frauds on the phone and they will soon get so pissed off and hang up. I even had the cheek one day to ask what the weather was like in their country!

The last conversation over this scam was for BT to offer help as their own TPS system was failing due to these internation calls, and to ring a company called True Call to report nuisance calls. This I ignored because he also said they were powerless to stop the internation marketing calls. Anyway, at £5 per month it is worth buying a caller display phone and, unfortunately for those companies who with-hold numbers, to not answer if I can't see their number. We need to keep reporting to BT the nuisance calls which they allow through their network.

Its not BT. Im with Sky and I get them all the time, at least a couple a week. Cant stop them . Sometimes I waste their time if I have a bit to spare , but mostly just put the phone down as soon as I hear their voice.

blow a whistle down the phone, will stop them

We have TPS on our phone and after the 5th or 6th call reported it to BT. They said it was from abroad and they were frustrated because they had a lot of complaints and couldn't do anything about it. All they could advise was not to respond.

Not sure if this is the same one but it is similar?

My Uncle Received a Call out the Blue from a Tech Support that wanted to check his computer for virus?

At the time he was having Broad Band issues and Automatically assumed it was from his provider (It was not after checking). So he was either e-mailed or directed to a link which then allowed the technician a remote connection? OMG!

Because my uncle is not computer savvy he said he done a scan on his computer, and showed his a huge list of infected files which showed up in red.

2 Things are wrong with that.
1st he has a good Antivirus program installed.
2nd i'm not aware of any programs (windows programs) Showing a list of Red Icons to indicate "infected Files".

I was told he was doing what he was doing for about an Hour. Yes at this point my jaw was on the floor. Anyway after this guys Hour work he then attempted to charge £250 for the privilege and 12 months protection. Or £400 for 5 years protection. This is where my uncle is Savvy and told his to do one.

He has had a lucky escape as we have an external back up of his system, which only backs up once a week so that was what we done we restored it back to a week previous, knowing that any crap that tech had left on his computer was safely gone.

If this has happend to you

1) You could be infected.
2) your details could have been compromised.
3) your bank details could have been taken.

I suspect that there would have been a program left on the machine to allow them access at anytime. (I cant prove that) but that would be the main goal.

After a virus scan from his Anti Virus Program it found NO viruses after this techy's visit.

If its happened to you, you really need to re-install from scratch or use a un compromised Backup (Full Image Backup).

I know the details are vague about what happened on the computer, i just wish i was there. He did leave a call back number which we cant find (Too many scraps of paper).

This was a Scam and fortunately my uncle got away with it this time.

I hope the above helps someone else too.

Its a blatent scam. Dont waste your time and energy on them and just hang up. If you want to play with them, tell them you dont have a computer and they will just hang up on you.

ignore those type of calls and keep your anti virus programme running sweetly. Happy computing

I've had BT for years and never any bother. When I've had snags and got in touch with their Techies they sorted things out. Not particularly beating drum for BT but thought I'd mention it. If anyone phones saying you've got a virus they are obviously talking crap because they have no access to your computer unless you authorise them via remoting. Just unfortunate that some people are a bit gullible or not computer savvy.

I get the call from a ''foreign'' gent every couple of times every week lol and now when they say ''hello this is Adam or Andrew from windows support i just tell them that I am the queen of Sheba and what can i do to help them and they soon hang up!!

An older friend of mine was explaining this very thing happened to her a few months ago. She said she got in such a panic when they called her that she went along with it and she paid them 96 pounds to fix the 'non existent' fault. It was only after speakin to her brother he told her it was a scam...it upset her as she is not usually that careless.

Beware peeps!

I'm in Australia and I get these calls too. This one was quite funy tho'. He told me it had been reported that I had a virus on my computer. I told him I don't have a computer because I'm an old age pensioner and wouldn't know how to use one. He argued a bit that I did have a computer, then said "well Ma'am could you just send me $80" I said "what for" he then said "because I'm very poor". I replied that I had just told him I am an O.A.P. and so I'm very poor too. He hung up and I haven't heard from him since. How's that for blatant cheek?

While this topic on scams is up, can I add about maybe another possible one. A few days ago, I received a call asking me to take part in a survey. I think we all know if the caller is from a foreign part or not by now. There is a certain tone to the call, that our ears tell us it's not a call from the uk. Apart from that, her accent was from possibly India or Asia somewhere. My immediate thought was they will be getting more information to target us and try the latest scam with, and so declined. It's always a give away if you do 1471 after the call. 'We do not have the callers number'. That means it is from outside the uk.
So I suggest, don't take part in any telephone surveys

Not strictly true granny. Anyone can withold a number. As stated, you can tell by the noises that it is overseas usually with a slight satellite delay.

I've had some fun with these people when I have the time. Had one on for ages once because I told him I had five computers and which one had the virus? Totally baffled him.

There was one guy who I told that I knew it was a scam, pee off and don't bother. He got quite arrogant and told me he would call me anytime he wanted. He never!

The answer is for everyone who is a bit savvy to inform those that aren't about the scam. If someone suggests a virus then get someone who knows to check it out. Xenophobe I may be but I have never had an British person phone to try and scam me. That is a fact!

The best scam I had was "you have won a brand new kitchen" if you give us your address we will deliver, usual warning bells went up so I said not a problem you give me your address and I will get my friends to pick it up, they put the phone down quite quickly.

Not being 'pickie' Helles, this is just to clarify.

Re: 1471 - what's the difference re. recorded messages.Options

Withheld - Somewhere in the UK

We Do Not Have The Number - Overseas.

lots of people i know are receiving these calls even with tps is there anything we can do to stop this calls, these indian call centres are plaguing us constantly

its alarming how many scams and nuisance calls we are now receiving,and its mainly indian centres responsible.

Unfortunately TPS only applies to Britain. If you do get one of these calls from Britain and you tell them that you're TPS registered they may say "When did you register?" and then try to tell you that you need to re-register every year. This is NOT true, you only need to do it once.

My mum & dad are also plagued by these calls so their new tactic when they see 'Number Withheld' 'Out of area' etc, is to pick up the phone and not speak. The callers normally put the phone down within 5-10 seconds.

I've just had one of these guys phone up saying about a virus on my pc, so I thought I'll waste his time as well as taking the Micky out of him. I told him the person who deals with the pc's was in the garden and I would go get them, I then kept him on speaker phone for 5 mins until I got round to speaking to "Steve"

Warning contains some strong sexual references

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orFfZO7wss&sns=em