The International Routing System scam
I've just had a call from a charming Indian gentlemen telling me he was from the International Routing System and that my computer was generating a lot of traffic which was disrupting the "International Routing Systems".
Apparently he had my phone number because my IP address was creating all this traffic and so he wanted to show me how to cleanup my machine. I thought it could be fun to find out how he was going to try to scam me, so let him continue...
Me: "So what's my IP address?"
IG: "I don't have that in front of me at the moment"
Me: "riigggt... so what would you like me to do to stop all this traffic blocking up the International Routings Systems?"
IG: "Please press the flag key and R on your keyboard"
Me: "OK"
IG: "type the letters 'i', 'n', 'f' - it stands for 'infection'"
Me: "OK, I've done that"
IG: "Now click OK"
Me: "Uh huh"
IG: "What do you see?"
Me: "A list of all the drivers installed on my computer"
IG: "You're wasting my time and your time, now bugger off"... beeeeeeeeeeeep
Unfortunately caller ID only showed he was calling from an "International" number so I couldn't call him back to find out more about his wonderful International Routing System or what other things he was going to get me to do to my computer.
The International Routing System does not exist, and if you receive a call they will try to convince you to install virus-infected software, and probably to give them your credit card details. Either put the phone down immediately, or else laugh at every statement they make as it is pure fiction.
Anyone worried that they have already let these people do something to your computer should run F-Secure's free online scanner and if you don't already have any antivirus software installed on your machine, you should get one, or even try a managed package such as (for UK residents) Dayba Managed Internet Security.
By Theo Gray on July 26, 2010 | Permalink | Comment
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August 18, 2010, DH says:
He or his cousin is still going strong as of August 16. He told me he was from Microsoft, and they had been advised of my computer problem by international routing systems, and I should go to a certain website. I don't know what good stuff awaited me at that website because I said my goodbyes at that point.
Doug, Dallas, TX
August 30, 2010, michael warner says:
Australia - just got very similar from www.techsonline.com
August 30, 2010, Graham L says:
I've just had a similar call from a Stephen Adamson of International Routing Systems, who had a distinctly Indian sound about him. He was apparently responding to Error reports that I had made to Microsoft, and he was to assist me in dealing with the problems on my PC. By coincidence(?) I had recently sent a couple of Error reports to Microsoft, but I was still wary of this call. He implied that IRS acted for Microsoft in dealing with problems on people's computers. Like your experience, he asked me to press the flag and R keys to bring up the Run box, and then to type in "vwr". He didn't explain what that stood for. At this point I decided to check out IRS, and so I asked him to call me back in half-an-hour. He agreed to do so and I rang off. I subsequently found your blog on this scam, for which I thank you. I'm still waiting for Stephen to call me back.
August 31, 2010, J. Davis says:
The criminal is still out there allegedly representing Microsoft Systems. I just now got the warning call, I asked him phone number he was calling from. He gave me 510-722-6000. I told the criminal I'd call him back, but he said that wouldn't be necessary, just go to www.irssupport.net and follow the instructions. I told the criminal I'd check it out. Google Search brought me here. Guess my hunch was right this time, huh??? Incidentally, while on the phone with him I heard a lot of yelling and laughter in background, not like your usual Call Center or Boiler Room type noise.
September 3, 2010, fran says:
well its the same for me some idina dude called n said he wus from the irs n to click live suport so he culd take over n my stupid sister did n then he took over for a lil wile n my sis said nevermind call n a hour n did n we found out it wus a scam thanks to u but wer still worrid about the live support thing cuz she did click on it darn sister
September 6, 2010, Dave says:
I'm from Australia, and I have had two calls like this (both Indian callers, one female, the other male). They both claim to be calling to help with support for Microsoft Windows products (Windows 7 specifically), and the second caller (male) seem to have a fair bit of information about me, name, address, email, phone number, date of birth, etc.. and he claimed that it was all from the International Routing System whenever I click on the Send Error button in Windows. I went along with this guy to lead him on to see where this call would end up...
(bearing in mind I am a qualified computer technician, I use an Apple Mac *dur*, and I know for a fact that NO personal info is passed on to Microsoft when an error is sent)
It ended up me asking him for his phone number, and proof that I am who he claims I am, and he hung up on me!!!
Rather scary that I merely exist at all on the net, yet criminals have a lot of my personal information and could potentially gain access to much unauthorised services and credit claiming to be me!!!
September 6, 2010, tg says:
some dude just called me and i could hear other in the back ground. I thought he said he was from microsoft and that my computer had been sending microsoft alerts about a virus.
I told him my McAffe said I was protected, him"yes, it will because McAffee has been hacked into and it is only scanning about 20%"
I think that then he said something about being from McAffee, when I said I thought you said Microsoft he said yes and said some hubbub, I don't know. Told him I would talk to my comp friend and he gave me same number that someone posted. Told my I had to call back because there was a "deadly virus" that no one on this earth could fix. I said I am just skeptical, Of course he understood :) how do they get away with this?
September 7, 2010, SJ says:
I think they have been calling here for days. Same 'Out of Area' listing appearing on caller ID but I thought it was a solicitor I needed to get rid of. Turns out it is the same scam everyone else has described. I am very concerned about personal information being compromised since they had my name and phone number (which is not available to the public and not listed under my name).
September 13, 2010, Sandy says:
I received a call on 9/9/10, and it was female of indian decent. She said my computer was infected with viruses and sending reports to International Routing System. She said she was calling from Microsoft 35 Global Technical Department. She said she could help fix the problem and asked me to turn on my computer. Then, she said to pull up Internet Explorerer, highlight and delete http://www... and type in www.irssupport.net. I was very sceptical, but once I put in the website, it appeared to be a Micrsoft 35 Global International Routing something or another. She told me to click on live support, but I was hesistant and she kept trying to tell me she was going to help me fix the problem, that she was a certified Microsoft technician or something. I clicked on live support and a box appeared that had and ID number and she asked for the ID number. I told her that I didn't give out personal information over the phone and she kept trying to convice me that she was trying to help me solve the problem. I told her I would have to confirm that she was from Microsoft before I gave her anymore information. The line went dead and then she called back, still trying to convice me. She gave me a phone number of 510-722-6000. I asked her if there was an extension and she said 1000. When I asked her name she said "Linda", but she was certainly not a "Linda". I have contacted Microsoft and was informed that they will never call you on the phone from Microsoft and I did the right thing by not giving them the ID number, that you don't give that number to anyone, that it is the product ID number to your computer's software. Now, though, I am a little concerned about a virus or malicious malware?? How would I know if just by going to that scam of a website if they installed something on my computer?
September 14, 2010, Theo Gray says:
Hello Fran, Sandy & anyone else worried that they have run something they shouldn't,
To be on the safe side I would suggest running F-Secure's free online scanner and if you don't already have any antivirus software installed on your machine, you should get Microsoft Security Essentials which is a free antivirus package from Microsoft.
September 14, 2010, ab says:
I received a call on 11/09/10, initially it was an Indian male who spoke to me and told me that I had a lot of network traffic. He had found out my details from the international routing systems and he was to assist me in dealing with the problems on my PC. He got me to run eventviewer on the PC and then tried to provide a web address for me to go to. I was unable to fully understand what he was saying at which point a woman took over the conversation.
The web address was www.teamviewer.com, I quickly read the web page and explained that I was unhappy for someone who I didn't know to have remote access to my PC. The woman strongly suggested I should do it so they could resolve my problems. At this point I explained that I would be reinstalling Windows and there was little point in continuing. She suggested calling me back once this had been done. I have been called back twice although I was not there at the time - apparently they will be ringing me back tomorrow.
Does anyone know what these people are actually up to?
September 16, 2010, margaret thomas says:
Just had a half hour call I didn't believe anything afte awhile but i'm concerned about my banking details they got into my conputer
you rang me today and tried to steal off me Mayur I told you that stealing is wrong-bad karma I know you believe in karma! repent now and do not steal any more-all of you!! a lot of us in australia are poor we are not all rich only one third of population are rich. I know you read these comments
September 16, 2010, Chris says:
Had this call at 2pm, indian man told me he was in London but the phone number he was calling from showed up on my caller display! 34009054. Told me I had a nasty virus on my pc and he would take me through the steps to get rid of it, to put my computer on and he would let me know what to do! Said he was from microsoft solutions and had my number from the international routing department! Said I did not believe him and he put his "supervisor" on, who was obviously the same man!! I played along for a while, it was his phone bill! Then put the phone down and googled international routing department and came up with this page. Thanks for bringing this to the attention of those who could be scammed by this scum bag.
September 20, 2010, Ron Jones says:
Have just had a call (for the second time) from the Indian "gentleman" already described. He had rang one day last week and been told in no uncertain terms what to do.
Not to be deterred, he rang again and went through the same speil about my emails containing viruses.
When I requested his telephone number he volunteered 02 90372906 and the name Dave King.
I didn't bother calling the number, but I can say by the accent he was certainly no "Dave King".
By the way, I'm from the far North Coast of NSW. The only reason for my contacting you is to let you know he is alive and well in regional Australia.
Yet another call this morning from 34009054. This time the indian man said he was from another computer company, but again mentioned international routing department. I told him I know it is a scam, I have informed the police and stop calling. I shall not answer another number I do not recognise. He got abusive when I said I had informed the police and knew it was a scam.
September 23, 2010, Sue T says:
Had a sus phone call from Indian "gentleman" saying our computer had notified them that we had a virus on our computer. I kept asking how come they had never informed us of viruses before, and we had dealt with them ourselves. Kept on with his spiel, gave me internet site, soon as he said www.irssupport.net, warnings went up, no mention of microsoft in site address. Put son on who asked relevant questions when asked for phone number line went dead!!!
September 23, 2010, Nico says:
Same thing happened to me. I asked how he got my number and he said that he obtained it when I bought the OS. I asked him what my OS was and he didn't know. He wanted me to go to www.irssupport.net and click on the live support button. Didn't do it but said I'd like to check with my contact at Microsoft first, Name he gave was John Atkins (not your typical name for someone from India. Called back on the phone number he gave (510-722-6000), but got a "All Lines are busy" message. Tried the Live Support button later and it tries to download an executable to your pc. Definately not something you want to do! How do we stop these guys?
September 25, 2010, Jeremy says:
Just had one myself, still going.
Kept them on the line for over 7 mins while I fluffed around
September 25, 2010, Peter says:
Juts had one today - Ontario Canada - kept them onlline as long as i could .
September 26, 2010, Warwick says:
I am in Australia and have just been contacted by a friend who has been totally taken by this scam, followed the steps requested, allowed them to take control of his computer for an hour, then purchased the "protection software" offered by the scammer for A$138 using a credit card number. The initial website was www.irssupport.net, followed by ww.onlinerepairworld.com/regiser.php
After contacting his bank he was informed of the scam and the bank confirmed that the $A138 money had been charged to his credit card. Luckily no more had been charged (at this stage) and the bank have now cancelled his credit cards and internet bank accounts etc. The bigger risk, and question, is; does anyone know what they may have installed on the computer, or whether they are after personal details, or installing software to record keystrokes to obtain bank account passwords?
Is running a recognised virus protection softare (McAfee, Nortons etc.) enough to find out, or would you recommend a complete Windows installation?
September 27, 2010, BJC says:
http://www.teche4pc.com/ is scam
September 27, 2010, Don says:
They have been calling me several times, once the lady had me looking at my error log, tonight they had me got to their website and wanted me to download an executable file.
Using the report toll in IE I reported their website as unsafe phising site and called Microsoft, amazingly I was on hold for 5 minutes, I relayed all the information I had about this company stressing the fact that all three times they have called, they start out by saying they are calling from Microsoft an then afterwards almost under their breath they say they are a microsoft certified vendor.
The gentleman I spoke to tonight said they are not on Microsofts vendor list and they are escalating the information I gave them.
September 30, 2010, ms d says:
Its definitely a global scam. Im in the UK, i've had 2 calls from the same guy insisting i needed to visit a website as my computer was infected and it might DIE!!! How funny! My pc is like Fort knox and i knew he was full of bull as soon as he said he was affiliated with Microsoft... he was very persistent and i reckon tons of people fall for this. I only wish id kept him talking for longer!
October 1, 2010, Sarah says:
Today 10/1/2010, i also recieved a call from an indian guy representing from Mircrosoft and that my comp was infected. He says that he got the message from Internaitonal Routing System. So after haering this i told him to give me his name, ( Kenneth Hogg) and his number ( 510-706-5000)..So i googled the international routing system and took me to this page! I'm glad i didn't go through with it!
October 4, 2010, Peter says:
Just looked up whois to see who owns it. Suprise suprise only set up this year and no contact details.BEWARE BOGUS
Domain Name: IRSSUPPORT.NET
Registrar: 1 & 1 INTERNET AG
Whois Server: whois.schlund.info
Referral URL: http://REGISTRAR.SCHLUND.INFO
Name Server: NS51.1AND1.COM
Updated Date: 12-jul-2010
Creation Date: 12-jul-2010
Expiration Date: 12-jul-2011
October 4, 2010, Jon says:
I know its very tempting to prove to these people that they are scamming by trapping them in their own lies, but don't even bother with that. Scammers are very smart, and learn your reactions, and will start learning how to come up with better answers when you try to trap them. Each failed scam attempt makes them smarter for the next attempt.
So if you want to have fun, have fun, and just totally agravate the guy, make small talk, talk fast, talk gibberish, talk about going and getting a cheeseburger, or whatever... when they say to go to irssupport, instead go to irsupport, and talk to them about the locks there.. be sure to totally waste their time, going to the wrong site multiple times. And type slow.. You are getting free entertainment. Start flirting, or anything.. just have fun. I do this with sales monkeys all the time who randomly call. Its fun to see how frustrated you can make them, and see if you can get them to hang up first out of frustration.
October 5, 2010, Trevor Jones says:
Quite a novel scam (I got the same story about being from MS and my computer having a virus). You really only need to have an Indian accent these days to sound like an official MS technician :). I'm from Australia. I kept a woman, and then a man talking for quite a while, as I googled to this site and had a read. They were not very convincing for me; claiming that they knew the IP address of my 'main' computer; I spent some time explaining that none of the computers on the home LAN had a fixed IP address. Eventually the guy got fed up with me, yelled at me for wasting his time. I told him I didn't know how he could sleep at night; and he hung up on me.
Thanks for posting this blog!
October 6, 2010, Damn them says:
Had a call today , canada . Passed from one person to the next.. From a man to a woman. Telling me they were working for Microsoft and that there was an error on my system sending out messages to International Routing System.
Confused by the operating system, what type? they did not knwo , guessed, guessed wrong.. but lets go on and see where this leads.
They had me open Eventvwr and used this to demonstrate a number of warnings and errors. When asked how I fix these I was told to type a web address at the start button. This lead to a messanger window. They asked for a registration number. I saod I did noy have one. They said tehy will provide a temporry one but I should renew it as my ssl has expired and I should buiy a new one. Clearly unreal. I continued. They gave me a passcode number and I entered it. The woman confiormed I had connected and then told me that she will hang up and a technician will call me back. The messanger stated a technician will log in soon. Eventually the technician did arrive and I started typing questions in the chat .Duhhh I gave control pf my machine to them ...kick..
the phone call then arrived.. More questions they showed me the log again but when I said fix them then . I was told it will take an hour to fix and then they will call me back.
At that point I pulled teh plug on the PC power and told them they were full of .. and I will not proceed further with them.
I will continue investigating what they downloaded and what information the gleamed.
Hey unfortunately i semi-fell for the scam, and clicked on the "Live Support" thing. I refused to give her my ID number thing, and she hung up, but i still clicked on the "Start" thing. It said that i am now connected to some ISP number starting with 70.
im scared, how do i "unconnect" myself from them? Ive turned off teh computer, so are they still able to get in??
Oops i mean IP address lol
October 9, 2010, sue says:
I just got a call from Microsoft telling me they were receiving virus threats from my computer etc. The web site she (indian lady) told me to go to was irs.com. I told her that was the internal revenue service. I asked for her pho 510 722 6000 and i would call her back. She rattled some gibberish and I asked to mail me something I can read, since I cant understand her. Pho # does not work. I found this site immediatley.
October 11, 2010, Susanne says:
I'm in Australia and just got a call from a stroppy Indian lady named Mari, with pretty much the same contents as above. I questioned her, asked for her number which she claimed was a number in Sydney but did not give me time to actually note it down as she was quick to hang up. Great to have found this site whilst I was still on the phone to her!
October 11, 2010, vicks says:
I've just taken 3 calls from these people. They were very persistant! Even when I told them I wasn't using Windows but using a Mac OS they didn't stop. The dialogue ended with me being told that in 15 mins max. my computer would become infected.
Dangerous nasty people!
October 13, 2010, Beverley says:
I'm in Australia, I just got a call 5 minutes ago, same story about infections through the router, when asked how she got my number, she hung up, I sent a tweet to The Geelong Advertiser about the scam.
October 14, 2010, David says:
Had the same indian on, had a free hour so I kept him online. He was trying to convince me he was from Melbourne, but he couldn't tell me what time it was there. A lot of car horns in the background, definitely from India.
October 19, 2010, Jonathan says:
This scam is alive and well in the UK. I got a call fitting that description not more than an hour ago.
The fellow was named "Mark" from the IRS, same story, same request. A couple of probing questions and saying that I have a virus scanner installed already resulted in the line being caught off. Clearly "Mark" was up to something. The friendly folks of Twitter filled me in on the details and that's how I found this blog post.
No phone number was available using British Telecom's trace back service, but I will be contacting UK Trading Services in the morning.
October 22, 2010, sarah says:
ca. They are still going strong. was also contacted by an indian male today with very difficult speach to understand. they will ask you to go to the irssupport website and click on chat line and then enter run. Do not it is a scam. I hung up contacted the real irssupport co and they informed me that they had not contacted me. Later after being off the phone i once again pulled up the website and to my suprise it lead me to a different page not the same as the one I had looked up when he was on the phone for me. Crazy
October 24, 2010, margaret thomas says:
they have put "trojans" in my computer why?
November 3, 2010, Wendy B says:
I just received a call from an Indian woman who knew my name and my post code here in Western Australia, and she jabbered on about Internal Routing Systems had contacted her to inform me of malicious things being downloaded into my computer. I asked her if she was selling a product or service when she said no I asked her why she called she then said go and start the computer so she could show me... I hung up on her. I am on a no call register guess that doesnt really work either.
November 6, 2010, Jon says:
Just had call Indian lady in "Brooklyn" - asked her what the time was there and she replied "morning".
"Is the sun shining today?" I asked.
"Oh yes" she replied. Since it was 9.00am here in England I considered this unlikely !
November 8, 2010, Natalie says:
I just had a call from "Al", sounded like he was in a call centre. His accent was very strong and it was difficult to understand him. Managed to keep him on the phone for a good few minutes before he told me to "go to hell". Nice.
November 10, 2010, Nabo says:
So, we have all been called, we dont know how they got our numbers, or what they were planing to do / have done.
What actions are open to us? Do we just forget about it? Does anyone have firewall / security advice to prevent them getting more information? Are there any authorities with resources / jurisdiction to investigate?
November 12, 2010, Jeffrey Brown says:
This scam is still ongoing. My wife got a call from them just a few days ago. Is there a way to make certain this one gets reported more broadly? There are plenty of non-technical people who might fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
November 19, 2010, Bill says:
"Annette" of onlinerepairworld rang today in Australia. Same speel about microsoft saying I've got viruses. Unfortunately very convincing so let her "take over my PC". When I noticed a lot of heavy traffic going on I switched off mid sentence. Hope I've not been compromised.
November 21, 2010, Paul says:
was called yesterday in UK by "asian" male from PCTech saying they had information via IRS - International Routing Systems about virus problems with my computer when I asked him to be more specific he hung up. He knew my name and tel number but I wonder where they are getting this info from hopefullly not the ISP.
November 22, 2010, Sue says:
I have just this second had a call from International Routing Systems informing me I have a serious problem with my computer! Indian guy saying he is going to solve my problems - which I am not having. Informed me that he gets his information directly from Microsoft. Started talking about 'traffic' and carried on doing a very convincing job of 'talking technical'. Wanted me to start running programmes, kept asking 'Aren't you interested in saving your computer - it will die as soon as you switch it on tomorrow'. Started being quirte aggressive.
I am a very sceptical person at the best of times, and as it happens I had my system switched on and googled Int Rout Sys and immediately got this site - read a few and cut him off in his prime saying I wasn't happy with carrying on the conversation. No idea where he got my number from as our home number not on available lists (signed up to Telephone preference) not usually in at this time of day so he obviously got lucky - or unlucky! Where are they getting their info? Very worrying! Extremely bad line so just got him to keep repeating himself to drag call out while I checked. Couldn't catch his name unfortunately as accent too strong. Having read a few of the other entries, must be same people - also mentioned not trying to sell anything to me.
I find this extremely worrying and
Should have said in my last posting that I am in the UK - so obviously a worldwide scam!. Been reading through all of the other postings. Obviously some of the other people are a lot more computer literate than me! He was definitely wanting me to open various links but most of the time I couldn't understand a word he was saying! Did keep mentioning the fact he had direct links to Microsoft and any error reports I had sent - which links in to some of the other postings - but I never sent error reports anyway! Could not trace the call back - number not left. There's a surprise. Worrying that they knew my name and number though.
Thank God for your Blog ! Thank you
November 23, 2010, VJ says:
Same as everyone else here. My caller id only showed 9 digits (normally 10 in the US). I had the lovely Indian gentleman and he spoke very slooow. He said that he was representing the Microsoft Certification department. He spelled out the url extremely slow and while he did that, I googled the website and saw that there were references to a scam. I explained to him that I know nothing about his company and I will not type in the url. End of call.
November 24, 2010, Daeld says:
Australia. Just had a guy from an indian call centre who knew my name. Also claiming to be from the IRS. Said they received a message from my ISP that said that my computer had downloaded "errors and warnings" that could be slowing my computer down. Unfortunately for this fellow, I asked him what operating system he thought that I used and when I this download happened. Naturally, he said that I use Windows XP and that it happened yesterday. Unfortunately for him, I don't use Windows, I use Linux and Mac OS. (LOL) so had a bit of fun and asked him to tell me how these Errors and Warnings were going to do things to my computer. He fumbled a bit and told me it downloaded it to the motherboard (lol). I tried very hard to get him to admit it was a scam, but he was valiant and in-character to the end.
Wow, these guys are really dumb...!
November 25, 2010, bon says:
These guys just keep calling me i keep hanging up on them as our computer had died weeks before and we were saving for a newbie so a complete waste of time to talk to them about computer viruses on my computer!!!! I can see right thru the lies suckers!!!!!
They called again today i was curious to see what they are up to so acted dumb. The Indian man with the name "John" (yeah sure LOL) said "I am from Microsoft and ur comp has all these viruses that are destroying your files" he asked me what system i am running windows 7 or xp or vista i said i have no idea which i dont thats hubbys department. He got cranky with me and kept asking i got cranky back and said I dont know.
He then said to go to a website called "onlinerepairworld" i pretended i couldnt spell it and made him say every letter. I googled it and on our brand new computer with up to date Norton said this website was not tested and could be dangerous. When i told him that he got really cranky. I told him our comp is brand new and we have up to date norton and we cant possibly have viruses he kept talking over the top of me and when he finally listened he said "oh ok" and hung up.
Im in QLD Australia and will be telling all family and friends to be aware of this scam. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY DETAILS OF YOUR COMPUTER THEY WILL PROBABLY DOWNLOAD THEIR OWN VIRUS ON IT!!!!! NEVER GIVE A CALLER OR DOORKNOCKER UR DETAILS EVER!!!!!
November 26, 2010, Mike S says:
Got the call today... Nov 26, 2010. Almosted sounded official invoking the name of Microsoft and some sort of malicious internet traffic. Wanted me to go to their site (WWW.IRSSUPPORT.NET) but instead I did a web search. I told the indian guy it was a scam an hung up. The caller ID showed as "out of area".
November 28, 2010, John A Kidd says:
Got the same scam call here in London 24 November 2010. Indian "gentleman" from the so-called "International Routing Department" told me he had been informed by my ISP that my computer had infected files and he was calling to help. I work in IT and nothing that he said made much sense at all. I asked for his name and company number so that I could call them for authentication. This indian said his name was "Alan Black" and gave me the numbers 18883135119 and 3255153544926. The arrangement was he would call back in 20 mins after I had called his organisation. I didn't call the numbers and he didn't call back. But I did call my ISP who already knew of this indian "gentleman's" reputation and confirmed it was a scam. My ISP said that had things continued the aim of scammers would have been to infect my computer themselves and then charge money to fix it. BEWARE!!! They're still out there!!!
December 2, 2010, artforested says:
What are the risks of identity theft and account security if you took the bait and let them into the computer (not finding this site first like smart people). They got into my computer and used the curser to show me things...but I did not give them a credit card #...I know stupid stupid....he was really polished in his 'presentation'. How do I protect myself after the fact??
December 2, 2010, jath says:
I just had this guy on the phone, kept him goinf or 20-30 minutes. I was surprised at how persistent he was. Apparently the IRS is a 'huge' computer owned by the US military which authorises every net transaction and has the details of every internet user in the world. And yet he couldnt give an IP address for the 'infected' machine and claimed the IP addresses were 'secretinformation'. Eventually got bored and, abused him and hung up.
December 2, 2010, Bet says:
These guys are persistent. I've had the pleasure (cos I love winding them up) of dealing with them on numerous occasions over the last 2 months. All callers appear to be indian and have nice traditional Irish/English names. So far I've spoken to; Paddy, Peter, Dave, Robbie and Shane from Microsoft Support (yeah right!!!) and today I had a call from Tony from Windows Support. Boy did he get annoyed when I wouldn't play ball; shouting and getting all steamed up like a two year old. Anyway, all calls relate to apparent 'error reports' my computer is sending and when questioned about how they got my private number, they've all said that they got their information through my IP Server, which is kinda worrying if it's true.
Hmmm, wonder who'll call tomorrow, bet it won't be Rachid, Hakeem or Indira...............
December 8, 2010, Steph says:
Tonight at around 7:30pm I recieved a phone call from a man, with a very strong Indian accent claiming he was from an International Routing System in Sydney, he was very persistant in getting me to connect to the internet and follow his instructions, I asked him what the company name was and he kept saying International Routing System, I asked him what his name was and he told me Stephen Rozaro which is obviously a European name and thats how I knew he was full of shit, also he pretended he couldnt hear me. Caution: this scam is still happening and some people may not be aware of how serious this is, they will destroy your software system and corrupt all your files and also try to access all your credit card details and rob you of your hard earned money, its disgusting and we have contacted authorities and hope all will do the same that have had this call to STOP these assholes because its a dog act and it has to be stopped they make me sick and have no right to f*** people up this way, tell them to f*** off and get a real job and do things the right way not come to our country and rob us of our hard earned money and f*** us around!
December 8, 2010, emgee says:
Yep, they've decided to focus on Scotland as of December 2010!! Apparently trying to convince us that they're based in 5 Torrance Street, London EC!! 5NN
tel 020 323 94416
Please try to publicise this scam in UK. Concerned that they have my name and phone details
December 9, 2010, TP says:
I think I just hung up on the same dude :P I always answer the landline in a very nasty voice expecting such nonsense because anyone of any importance has our mobile numbers and call those instead. Wish I could kill the landline so I can stop talking to these pricks but need it for internet. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and the convo went much the same way as the ones above - saying the call might be recorded (to make it sound legit or something), did I know my computer is infected with viruses, it has alerted the international routing system or some crap. Seriously. I do feel sorry for anyone who has a good heart and listens/acts on their calls. I know everyone wants to work and earn money but it is shameful that they are doing this to random people. Assholes!!!!!
December 18, 2010, mac says:
I have just a call from our friend from India about error messages he had been phoning all week .This time i answered the call he asked for computer owner ,when i told him i was owner he asked me to go on line ......I hung up 5mins later he called again wife answered this time to say i was out...He hung up
December 22, 2010, Mitch says:
I've had a call this evening from what sounds like a similar guy. I told him I wanted the name of the company he was from and his identification number, plus his phone number. He said his name was Nathan Johnson and that he worked for Secure all PCs and that he got his information from World routing system. He wouldnt give me his contact number or Id number and I told him I needed to check him out before speaking to him. He put his friend on the phone and she tried the same caper. Eventually she hung up as I told her I would not tell her anything without my confirming her identity. I googled and found this website. Looks like the same people. Im from Australia.
December 23, 2010, Bucksta says:
I'm in the US, and I just got the call by some guy who tried to pull this scam also. His deal was that he was with Microsoft also, and that my machine was broadcasting personal information. I couldn't understand half of what he said to a very thick accent. I asked for his name ('Tatric ???'), phone number (510-722-6000), website (www.onlinerepairworld.com), and had my wife call the number back. His deal was that my version of McAfee wasn't compatible with XP (right click on McAfee properties and see what operating systems come up in the dropdown box, XP's not there). He was like, I have to take control of your machine to fix it, and I said you are a jackass and hung up on him.
I'm somewhat in shock - the phishing roullette wheel spun and landed on me...
January 3, 2011, David aka Cosimo says:
I had an Indian guy try to pull this scam on me this morning also. As above, posing as a Microsoft employee. He claimed to have been receiving reports from the International Routing Centre that there were infected files on my PC and he was going to talk me through how to clean them up. Yeah, right! I think this is very dangerous, because these people are yanking people's insecurity chains to get them to let down their guard - seems to be the hacking equivalent of a judo throw!
January 4, 2011, derek says:
I'm in Scotland,
Just had the same scammers on phone for about an hour, the problem is that I do have issues with my laptop being really slow so thought it was a genuine call up to the point when they were going to connect me to a site to update my "windows warranty" which they say is out of date, they wanted £126 for a one year cover, which as soon as I said I had no money they said it was for two year cover to which I still declined, then it went up to £206 for "life cover" for up to 4 pc's ALARM BELLS started at this point I switched on my desk top and googled this forum,kept putting them on hold and asking them for details but the indian guys got more and more agitated, meanwhile I stopped thier access and deleted everything I could had been downloaded to "fix" my pc, they hung up at this point
I HAD ALREADY ALLOWED THEM ACCESS TO MY LAPTOP AM I IN DANGER OF VIRUS/SPYWARE SCAMWARE ???, I have deleted everything they loaded and run AVG 9 which found nothing ,can anyone please advise.
January 5, 2011, Tom says:
I too have received a LOt of calls from about October or November, possibly earlier, sometimes a few a week.TODAY JAN 5 2011. Told them I was calling police and knew of fraud, Tell them you know it is a scam. I argued with him. Indian accent, calling himself albert, claiming to be fro Microsoft, - Online Tagmed ? - claiming to be microsoft certified. asked him for number, He gave me 08442720794. Told him no thanks and would report this fraud act. I hung up.
January 6, 2011, Albert Lewis says:
Pretty much same - "I am calling bc the International Routing Service has advised us that your computer is generating a lot of error messages and I would like to help you eliminate them or your computer will probably bog down and crash" "We will fix any minor things for free but maybe we will find some big important things you must fix and then we might have to charge you" "We are associated with Microsoft (like Best Buy) . . and located in Beacon New York . . we are an International Corporation registered in New York" Tel No 845-440-1800 (which doesn't work . . sounds like an offline Skype number)
Would suggest easiet thing is to take a Telephone Number and ask to call them back -- if they can't do it, they're probably a fraud. (the guy did hang on my hold music for quite a while! . . felt good about that)
January 9, 2011, karen says:
I am from Australia. Received a call from someone by the name of Shawn from India apparently representing some International Windows services, rang my number on a saturaday, 8 Jan 2011, claming my computer is being affected by some viruses that bypassed all antivirus that i may have installed.
Anyway, after a long interrogation process by me I told him to go away. He was diasppointed and threatened that my computer would be damaged if I wont let him.
January 11, 2011, Kechi says:
I used to get this call all the time, and then they stopped. But someone calling himself James Watson called me this morning (I am in England) saying he was from REGY Solutions. a company based in central London, working on behalf of Windows. He wanted me to switch on my computer, click on start, run and type in eventvwr. I played along to see if I could actually find out a bit more but even the telephone number he supplied 02921250387 was not genuine. Is there no way of stopping this wickedness?
January 13, 2011, Wendy says:
Easy fix!
I've now had three calls (that I've been home for) all about the same 'errors' on my computer last time I kept asking were she had gotten my number from And where she was calling from. Idiot actually told me she was calling from India! Then when I kept asking how'd she'd gotten my number she hung up.
This time I was asking the sane questions and didn't get any answer so asked
'what would you say if I told you I didn't have a computer?'
Admittedly had to repeat it a few times till she understood! But then beep beep beep.....
Wonder if I'll get another call?
January 17, 2011, hi me also says:
yep and now New Zealand, an Indian fellow got to me and wanted me to allow remote assistance... I asked him to prove who he is.. he hung up Int. phone no.? to New Zealand 9-1676 nothing else if this helps...
January 19, 2011, Michelle says:
I'm in Ireland and I've been receiving these call for weeks ...no matter how rude I am to them they still ring back ...I now tell them I don't have a computor OR laptop!!!
January 20, 2011, Sarah says:
My Mum had a similar call this morning. (Manchester, UK) Said they were working for Windows Support Service Dept and that warnings re: "Malicious junk files" were being ignored and that this will adversely affect the computer. Luckily Mum is quite Internet savvy and pretended she didn't know how to work a computer, but said she would get me to look at it next time I called round. He gave this dummy number and a false address in London, for me to contact "Martin" when I had chance.
January 21, 2011, Dave S says:
Been getting these scammer calls since early August 2010 - Just keeping winding them up - They told me I had a problem with my Windows, so I told them that I did, because it was covered in Snow - it was about 3 feet deep here at the time - I have also told them I run Windows 3.11, but they are that stupid that they still ring back - I have been working with Computers/PC since 1968 and well aware of scams, so just love winding them up, until I get told I am "Stupid" or to "F....-of" - thats what I call good customer service...
Francis (with an Indian accent) has been on the phone today - I don't have caller ID on phone, but next time they ring I will more than likly be working in a Chinese resteraunt.
January 24, 2011, Yvonne says:
My mother in Australia, just fell for these guys and they remotely accessed her computer and 'cleaned' it up for her and charged her A195 for the job and 2 years membership. What now? What are they after and who do you report it to? Concerned for her as she is not very computer savvy and I am in the UK and cant help.
January 25, 2011, bob says:
My mother went as far as to give them her computer software ID and connect to them before i could get her to stop are there any implications? I am worried that they installed some keystroke reporting program. Is there any chance of that?
January 26, 2011, Huron S says:
Just got a call from Alan Peter and when I asked for his real name I got David Baptastist. "I'm a Christian." and a Microsoft certified technician, he said. An Indian accent, I'd say, and he purported to show me that I was having troubles with my computer. Right-click computer, then computer management | windows logs | Application, and he did show me a yellow "warning". However, the event was eight days old and there had been nothing since, so I was skeptical that my computer was about to crash and I would have to go out and buy a new computer. The site he mentioned was onlinerepairworld.com.
My advice? If you are in the service area of Best Buy, double-check with the Geek Squad to verify that you might be having a computer issue. I have no stock in and am not affiliated with that company.
January 29, 2011, Mark says:
I got the call today but she soon hung up when I said they was no such thing as a International Routing System? All those who have had there credit card debited, speak to your Bank and tell them to "chargeback" the transaction to the merchant. The banks are very interested in these scams and they may be able to trace the source merchant. To any Australians who have lost money contact the ACCC who have a reporting website where you can get assistance here: www.scamwatch.gov.au they may be able to give you some advice on checking your PC. TELL YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY.
February 2, 2011, chris Kendrick says:
just had them on to me very odd, they said they were in southern California..I am in Australia
I had 3 of them talking to me..I couldn't understand their accents
February 8, 2011, Grant says:
Still scamming as on 8/2/11!
February 11, 2011, Kevin says:
I had a call about 1 hr ago. I'm in Western Australia. Some Indian Chik claiming that shes from Australia. She said she was from microsoft International routing system, blah blah blah. I knew it was a scam so I acted stupid. she got quite agressive on the phone wanting me to type ""evenct"' or something in my run box. she kept telling me that there was a problem with my computer. No way am I doing that. I understand about remote desktop. anyway after having my fun with her I hung up. she was very Indian and very rude. I told her that I think she was scaming me and she told me I was being rude.
February 11, 2011, Phil says:
Im in the UK, got a call from "Microsoft 35 Technical Department", for some reason trying to direct me to a www.support.me website. Was very sceptical so decided to google. Dont fall for it.
February 12, 2011, Ginny says:
Were any of you given www.secure allpc.com website to go to? I just told them I would call them back after I checked it out...not sure what the deal was with this...if it was legit or not...but sure sounds familiar although didnt get the same website address....he did say he was from Microsoft systems and he neeeded to fix my computer because they have been getting alot of calls from my area which leads them to believe my computer might be at risk...and it was an Indian with a very heavy accent...
February 15, 2011, Regents says:
A client had a similar call to give access plus their home address etc. Fortunately they couldn't follow the instructions properly and hung up in frustration. I reminded them never to follow instructions from unknown people on the phone - one was offering a free mobile phone! www.regentsriskadvisory.com
February 17, 2011, Richard says:
online repiar world is scam runningallover
February 24, 2011, BJDJ says:
Insistent buggers.
Indian girl said she was from microsoft and I did what she wanted thinking i was being helped.
i was passed on to a technition and I began to realize i was being dooped when they gained control of my computer.
It was going to cost $135.
I pretended a blackout and couldn't get back on the computer.
Later the computer was infected and worsening at every restart.
I reinstalled the O/S but again it became infected. I believe they knew the IP and just reinfected. I ahve been called three or four times by them since.
To solve the problem I got another computer going and am using it. No probs but they are still calling wanting me to reveal my details doesn't matter what you say insistant buggers.
February 24, 2011, Julie says:
I just received a call from one these people a few minutes ago. We went through the whole process. He told me he was from Microsoft and I said how do I know you are from Microsoft. He said vehemently I am from Microsoft. I pulled up the run button on start - enter this enventwr, now press start again, enter tec, etc. Then read off the files--He kept saying my computer was infected. It was when he said go to www.tech34pc that I said thank you very much. I have my own IT person and I will have him look at it.
The thing that bothers me is that I just checked my Norton Anti-Virus. Everything came up clear. He insisted that the virus was smooth and bypasses the Norton.
My husband just said nothing gets by me because I'm a little mean to these guys. Try very mean honey...
February 26, 2011, sean says:
this is the message I wrote to my social network to warn them.
Warning! Telephone scammers trying to get remote access to your computer!!!
Just got a call from a company stating that they work for Microsoft and that they had observed that I have viruses and malicious software on my computer coming from the "International Routing System." They then told me that they would help me free of charge get these off my system and that I should go to their website, (teche4pc.com <--don't go there). The guy obviously had an indian accent and said his name was "John Miller" and he was calling from New York. I laughed out loud when he told me his name, but he still went on to try and scam me. Don't know where they got our number from but he called me Mr. Lavender. I asked for a phone number to call him back, and for a legit site that started with www.microsoft.com, he quickly punted me to his "manager" This guy was so much smoother and had only a little bit of an indian accent. His name was "Dave" and went on to tell me that if I thought this was a scam to go to their website. He continued to try and explain he was only trying to help and that it was because my computer was sending to much web traffic to the "International Routing System" At this point I had found (http://www.theogray.com/blog/2010/07/international-routing-system) and told him that I knew this was a scam and would be reporting them to the Canadian Authorities. No lie, the guy laughed the most evil laugh I've ever heard and said "go right ahead, there is nothing they can do" Sorry for making this so long but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. If I didn't know a lot about computers, there is a good chance I would have fallen for this because they sounded so professional. here is another link:
http://ca.topmodel.yahoo.com/s/14022011/79/central-opp-warn-computer-scam.html
March 1, 2011, Benny says:
I've been gettin the same phone calls all week, the funniest thing is im running kubuntu and they say they do work for microsoft lol. I just say im armish and dont own a phone then laugh and hang up :-) ps. from Australia
March 3, 2011, Two Dogs says:
Same routine, same packdrill in Australia using www.onlinerepairworld.com/live_support.php and pointing me to an exe called AMMYY_Admin.exe to click on. Strangely I didn't click and never got what they were offering.
I can see non-techies and the older members of the community being confused and there must be enough reward in this scam for it continue.
Thanks for the article and if it saves a few then very well done.
March 4, 2011, Cathy Hunter says:
I just got the same type of call. Indian guy saying he was from Microsoft and he was calling to help me with security problems on my computer. Same deal - lots of noise in the background, the other scammers. I annoyed him so much he finally hung up on me!
Q. How did you get my phone #
A. I can't tell you that maam.
Q. How do you know my computer has problems?
A. International Routing System.
Q. What the heck is International Routing System
A. Something at Microsoft
Q. I have more than one computer, which one are you talking about?
A. he hung up. I guess I was too much trouble LOL
This is disgusting - I've never heard of this new scam but thank goodness distrust anyone I don't know who wants at my computer. I can't believe the nerve - people actually speaking to you trying to scam you live.
March 10, 2011, RIKKI says:
Caught by this scam and had my laptop wrecked.
March 15, 2011, Theo Gray says:
It seems they've decided to try and start phoning me again this week with eight calls in three days, usually with "Unavailable" numbers but with two from 02957-287100.
Slightly annoying, but at least it has let me try a few different approaches.
Nothing new in what they're trying to get me to do compared to all the other comments above. They start off trying to tell you that they have been receiving lots of error messages via the International Routing System, and then go on to show that you have "infections" by taking you to a system folder (e.g. inf) that they infer shows infections and then ask how many items you see in there, proceeding to say that all the listed items are infections and they need to clean up.
They then go on to try and have you connect to a technician via either hacked or free trial accounts of perfectly legitimate services such as LogMeIn Rescue. If you let this process happen then they will infect your machine in some way and probably try to then charge you money for the privilege.
These people are most definitely based in India, as a number of them have tried to comment on this and other posts from IP addresses hosted in India to say how great their services are and how you should just let them do their job.
It appears that this scam is at least getting more widely publicised in the UK, including some local police forces mentioning similar scams in their bulletins.
March 21, 2011, Jennifer says:
I had a very similar call this afternoon. The man had an Indian accent and said he was with Microsoft. He knew the type of computer I used. He seemed knowledgeable and acted as though he was a rep. He told me to go to teche4pc web site though. I navigated, but my computer would not let anything run. Thank the Lord.
March 24, 2011, Robyn says:
Australia - Have had 3 calls in last 3 days. Two from indian man, one from a lady with an accent. They are persistant. Said from "Security Centre for Windows" and were being asked by International Routing Systems to contact me because my computer was corrupted from bad downloads. I asked how he could know that as it is illegal to "tap into" private computers. He denied this was illegal. When I asked him why my friend's mother had received a call from them and she wasn't even connected to the net, he didn't really answer. When he offered to put me thru to his supervisor to explain exactly what was wrong with my comuter, the line suddenly (but not surprisingly) went dead. Maybe they'll wipe my number from their list now. If they call back I plan to tell them I have an iMac.
March 24, 2011, Sarah says:
This is the third time this Indian Guy from 'International Routing Systems' has called.....this week! My kids answered the previous calls & said that i wasn't in. My Husband (who is PC knowledgable) answered the latest call & demanded to know how he knew that our computer is 'running slow'....Indian guy said that he knew through the International Router & could he switch the computer on. My Husband asked which computer.....& the Guy said your home computer....(the fact that we have 4 computers in this house seemed to go unknowledged). Husband asked him what type of computer we have if he knows so much about it....the Guy said we have a Mac.......WRONG! My Husband promptly hung up the phone! We are in Ontario, Canada.
March 26, 2011, derek says:
I HAVE HAD DEALINGS WITH THIS MOB TO.SINCE THE 23/3/11 THEY HAVE NOT STOPPED RINGING ME ALSO.THEY ARE VERY PERSISTENT;THEY ALSO SHOWED ME THINGS WITH THEIR CURSOR & ALL THE INFECTIONS I SUPPOSED TO HAVE I'M RUNNING FULL ANTIVIRUS FROM MCAFEE THE LADY WHOSE NAME IS SARAH PARKER SAID I NEED AN UPDATED VERSION OR PAY THEM $200. FOR THEM TO FIX IT BUT THE FIRST 12MONTHS WAS FREE.ANDAFTER PAYING IT WAS A LIFTIME GUARENTEE . SO ANYWAY I PUT IN A FAKE CREDIT CARD NO. &TWICE IT WAS DENIED OK. SO SHE GOT HER SUPERVISER AND HE SAID TO TRY IT AGAIN WHEN THAT DIDNOT HAPPEN HE SAID HE WOULD GIVE ME HIS ACCOUNT NO. AND FOR ME TO GO TO THE BANK &DEPOSITE THE MONEY;I REFUSED TO DO THAT BUT HE KEPT INSISTING SO I HUNG UP. FRIDAY 25/3 THEY MUST OF RANG AT LEAST 12 TIMES VERY ANNOYING INDEED. I'VE BEEN IN TOUCH WITH MCAFEE & MY BANK.I FOR GOT TO MENTION THA I AM FROM AUSTRALIA
March 28, 2011, Tony Dixon says:
Just had a woman phone with the same scam. Couldn't tell me my IP address either. As a Mac user, I'm highly unlikely to have a virus.
March 31, 2011, *WARNING* teche4pc.com is a SCAM says:
I just got a call from them ( 31/03/2011 ) and claimed they where from south melbourne Australia, though the speaker was from india and the vioce was far and not clear in any way.Should of been crisp,very shonky.After telling me that MICROSOFT ESSENTIALS was the programme that was downloading all the viruses on my computer and so called showed me where in my system they where.They then directed me to go to their flimsy sight at teche4pc.com to download garbage to put into my system where I blatantly refused and then decided to tell him where to stick it. * WARNING, You have to be a fool to Download anything these monkeys tell you.They got my number and name correctly and so they should be prosecuted for stealing info: period. I have just send this information to Australias Scam watch to deal with the site.
April 6, 2011, grenadierca says:
They seem to be working Canada now...we get a call every day or two and mess about with them until they hang up.
Next time I think I'll greet them like an old friend and ask if they're annoyed with me or something because they haven't called for a couple of days. How's the wife & kids? And so on...waste their time without letting them get a word in edgewise while giggling to myself the whole time.
April 8, 2011, nicola says:
Thank you for this blog! I just received a call, no number on my call display, stating to be from the International Routing Dept. from Windows. Similar story to the above blogs with an Indian accent. He gave me a telephone number of 315-352-0902. He knew that I had had a virus a few days ago and had my phone number...which is concerning. He wanted me to go into the computer. Very skeptical, I hung up and then found this blog. Thanks again
April 8, 2011, Johnnychicago says:
They are hitting chicago now. He wanted me to go to www.Ammyy.com This is a software to control your computer remotely. I kept him busy with real dumb questions and I had him spell everything he said. Then I asked him if I could call him back. He reluctantly gave me this phone #847-531-9241 and they answered technical service. I hung up. Now when the phone rings out of area. I answer microsoft 32 insted of 35. Lol
April 9, 2011, Isobell Parkin says:
I just received my 3rd call..I was suspicious so gave them no info. This is the Georgean Bay areaa..Thanks for being here.
April 14, 2011, tami says:
Australia. i just had a call from Anna Wilson 0261008129 is their number who put me on hold to transfer me to speak to their experienced technicial Mark, one of a hundred of their technicials, actually she just put the phone down on the desk and he wandered over. Incidently, he is also the guy who answers the phone if you call that number. Lucky I found your blog. I was afraid my hard drive would be wiped in 24 hours. They were very specific about my time frame
April 19, 2011, ron says:
I am north of Toronto canada. just got the call from what sounded like India. he got me all the way to some Icon within www.teche4pc.com when I finally had enough and told him to call me back in 20 minutes. like Gump says.. shit happens
April 20, 2011, Ernie says:
The real Ernie is 86 years old and these people had her on the phone for 2 hours last night attempting to get credit card numbers, online banking usernames and passwords, etc. When she did not know her online banking password, she called me and that is when I discovered she had been had. Anybody know for sure what we should look for on her computer to remove?
April 21, 2011, Carol says:
They are still scamming in Australia. I had a call today telling me I had a ''polymorphic virus' in my computer ... something to do with HP Windows via an International routing System.
April 21, 2011, Amanda says:
They're definitely busy in Australia. Just had a call from them; Indian man couldn't explain how he could tell my computer ( 1 of 4 in the house) was downloading all these malicious files, except that the International Routing System was picking it up. I could hardly understand what he was saying so hung up. What intrigues me is that I had a similar call from an Indian lady a few weeks ago, with exactly the same spiel, except she was trying to direct me to a company called "computerservicing.com", which looks legit, except for the comment on the top of the page which says the domain is for sale. I just hate that they can suck unsuspecting people into parting with their money, and jeopardising their computer security.
April 21, 2011, Michael Foster says:
I just had a call this evening from these guys. They wanted me to install "Ammyy Admin" software from "https://www.onlinerepairworld.com/live_support.php" to allow remote access to my PC.
Or go to irssupport.net to "prove" my PC was infected as shown via the bogus "international routing system".
They initially claimed microsoft affiliation but backed off from that.
They had me go into the event log and verify there was an error as proof my PC was infected.
They couldn't name my IP address, didn't know what OS I was running nor that I had multiple machines running different OSes. They also tried having me run assoc and then offer the fact that compressed files are associated correctly:
.zfsendtotarget=CLSID\{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062}
as proof of a virus install.
Loosers...
Random calls claimed to be from virus vendors should be hung up on. If you have an issue call your AV provider or your PC provider (Dell, HP etc) or if you built your own PC, Microsoft (assuming you purchased a retail copy of Windows).
These guys are annoying as they sometimes trap older people with these scams.
April 26, 2011, Mezaial says:
Just thought I'd let you know these scumbags are alive and well (unfortunately) and currently working the UK.
I have already created a detailed post about my interactions with them earlier today at whocallsme.com.
If anyone's really interested in how I managed to annoy them they can check out my post at http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01611569823
Just look for the post by 'Mezaial', you cant miss it, it's massive.
April 30, 2011, cameron says:
I'm in Australia and I just had a call from a lady (indian accent) from ".....microsoft....." informing me of the grave danger my computer was in. I had been flagged by international routing.... I asked what the ip address was that had been provided and was informed that only my phone number had been passed on to her in the service department. All sounded a bit suspicious so I googled international routing and found this forum. I stalled for time and was considering taking a few steps to gather information, as I was curious and thought it could be a bit of fun to see what they would try to do but decided to just leave it alone as I figured being only semi computer savvy I would soon be over my head. A bit frustrated at the cheek of these scam artists but thankful to those of you who took the time to post.
April 30, 2011, Tom Larsen says:
So a friend of mine received a call like this...
Out of interest, has anyone been given a website address to visit by these scammers? It would be a good idea to run a trace. http://www.irssupport.net, which someone mentioned earlier, is down.
May 3, 2011, Brian says:
Just had the call. Same MO. Female first then the bloke. Said the usual bullshit. My pc was actually off, not plugged in or anything. "I see you are currently surfing the net" ...."no I am not"....oh....."did you recently surf the net?"......."no I was asleep!!" more crap followed, an attempt of him trying to tech speak me....no good I hung up!
May 4, 2011, Carol says:
Same story here and the web address they gave me was onlinerepairworld.com...this indian lady was pushy and insistent and when I put my tech savvy son on, she was quick to hang up!
May 4, 2011, Rebel Rodriguez says:
I live in Colorado and had a similar thing happpen to me with the same www.onlinerepairworld.com My fellas name was "James" and the Senior System Engineer was "Sam." They also led me to believe my computer was infected with a horrible virus and everyone in the world could hack in and see it. The call back # they gave me was 847-531-9241 and they also mentioned they were from Microsoft 35 Technical Department. Now that you have all this information you won't have to talk to them in person; unless YOU want to talk to them. Have a nice day!
May 4, 2011, Felex says:
I just received call from "Dave" from Int. Routing Sys.trying to get me to cooperate with him and do what he was asking me to do...as he was talking I did a search and found this page. I mentioned he was trying to hack into my computer and he said no just trying to help. 'Trust me,' he says, I laughed. He was getting upset with me as I was asking all kinds of questions; about his company and him & how would he know if my computer wasn't on, and me telling him he just wants to hack into it if I did press the buttons etc..When I mentioned hacking he says I didn't know how (guess he misunderstood me as he asked me How..) That's when I told 'Dave' to go fly....! Put a smile on my face as I stopped him in his tracks. Darn, he hung up on me. Cheers,and be careful out there. :)
May 5, 2011, Michelle says:
I am from Australia. I have just had a call from a lady with a strong Indian accent asking for the person who mainly uses the computer. She said she was from the Microsoft 35 Technical department and that we had a virus problem. I told her my husband would be back tomorrow so she said she would call again. We won't be taking the call - she was obviously taking such rubbish!
May 5, 2011, L says:
I'm in UK, Indian guy called Justin Caro called me from online pc solutions, spouting the same rubbish about 'international routing system' noticing that my PC was creating a lot of traffic and they were working for Microsoft to help me. I was highly suspicious, but even more so as my laptop crashed yesterday and was worried about a virus. No idea how they got my phone number, address and surname - but he said it was linked to my int.rou.number - obviously lies - I told him he was trying to scam me, and read out what was on the website (this business is closed, DO NOT accept calls from them) but he just laughed it off and told me that I was a bad person for calling other people spammers - 'how do it think it makes them feel?' he said. I just hung up.
What horrible people. Anyone know who to report this to in the UK?
May 7, 2011, Cheryl says:
Australia- had the call from Alvin. He said he was in Melbourne when my caller ID stated overseas. He got my surname right but had my old address. When I told him my details were incorrect he called me a liar and said I was hacking into someone else's computer- he said he was going to report me!!! He said he was calling from Microsoft 35 and international routing system told him to call me. 5 mins later he called me again n said his name was Sam! Tossers!!!
May 7, 2011, Deryck says:
7 May 2011 Internatonal Routing Dept called - a guy with a heavy Indian accent asking me to go through and check my "infections" and to save my PC - hence found this page whilst I was on the call with him. I put the phone down on him and the cheeky bugger phone straight back !
May 9, 2011, julie says:
I live in London UK. I frequently receive " International calls". Sometimes several a day. If it is from Microsoft I either say I haven't a computer, am 90 years old or that I use a Mac. All callers have Indian accents. But others call about what utility companies I use or that they are from a research company asking lifestyle questions. I have great fun sometimes and tell them I work for the fraud squad or that they've phoned a royal palace. Sometimes I say a rude word and put the phone down. But still they call.
May 9, 2011, Toni says:
They are now calling California. I just received a call from a man with an Indian accent. He said he was from "World Routing System" and worked with Microsoft. Same stuff...he stated he had received several error messages from Microsoft and my computer would crash at any moment. I continued to ask him how he got my info...while I looked up the name of his company. Thank you for the previous posts.
May 11, 2011, Kim says:
Just got the same call he said that he got my husbands name from the errors that my computer was generating to the international router and under some law they had to contact us!! He asked me to run some commands on my computer after referring me to a website (www.jktech.com) The commands were prefetch & eventvwr these showed a list of errors and warnings and then asked me to run mstsc, this was a remote desktop connection!! This is when I finally told him to take a hike and he hung up on me. Like I should have done to him!!
May 13, 2011, Christine says:
just got called today, this is the second time, again funny timing, I have been sending error messages to Microsoft, once I saw it was share remote access told him to go away - how do they get our info?? I am in Dublin, Ireland - they gave me same uk number as others have got, tried to to phone back but engaged all the time
May 15, 2011, Mike says:
Again one scam company support-master.com, these guys think we are fool
May 18, 2011, Margaret Teggart says:
Was nearly duped today! Call from Kenneth with a strong Indian accent. He gained access to my computer however I was unaware of it at the time. I did become suspicious when asked for my paypal account information. I told him I would need to speak with my family first and he said he'd call back. Thought I was rid of him, but sure enough he called back. He got my daughter this time who played dumb, gathered all the information she could and then gave him an earful down the phone!!! The website address they're punting their scam from is http://www.iglobals.net/
Again, like other 'victims', I am now worried about what the implications are of allowing them access to my computer. I'm 73 years of age and hadn't ever heard of someone gaining remote access to a computer!
May 18, 2011, James says:
Comment from India - see below
What you guys are talking about, But as far as I know I had a good experience with them. I was having a lot of problem with my PC and this gentleman called up from nowhere and I believed him and give him an access to my PC and go ahead with him. I even end up paying him for the next six months and they really did help me.
And after two months I saw this blog. And fearing to lose my personal information, I called a software engineer from a nearby store and get him check my PC and he didnt find anything wrong with my PC and it was absolutely fine. And I mean I dont know whether its a scam or not but I am having a perfect PC after I subscribed with their service.
May 18, 2011, jaana says:
Ha hahahhahhahhahaha
No one is foolish enough to spend a lot of money making an international call to dupe you. I mean I can go ahead and make a lot of friend from a social networking site and provide people with a phishing virus link and get all your information if I want. And dupe you of your hard earned money..... And within a day I deactivate my account. NOW WHAT CAN YOU DO AFTER THAT?
YOU WILL SIT AT THE CORNER OF YOUR HOME SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD..
HAHAHHAHAHAHHA
HAHHAHHA
THE ONLY INFO YOU HAVE ?
MY COUNTRY.
I AM A DECENT INDIAN AND I WOULD NEVER DO THAT.
THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE HOW I COULD GO AHEAD.
NOW I TELL YOU DONT BLAME US IF YOU DONT KNOW WHO YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.
May 18, 2011, Theo Gray says:
"James" and "jaana" (from the previous 3 comments) are both writing messages from the same IP address which is based, not suprisingly, in India.
Other comments obviously posted from India by the scammers and their friends, like the ones from "James", have been removed in the past, but I thought I'd leave these ones up here for a laugh.
The person who has left the above three comments is connecting via Tulip Telecom in the 110.234.20.0/23 TulipConnect network.
May 20, 2011, Najangko says:
Hi mr gray.
I mean u hv a very gud blog. People sharing their experience.
May 29, 2011, Suzannah says:
They just called Ontario, Canada yesterday evening. My father answered the phone (although he thought the person had an Asian accent). He heard the same spiel described by everyone above, i.e. International Router Association calling about his computer being infected with a virus, can he go and sit in front of the computer and do xyz. But I've trained my father enough on computers and modern day scams to not fall for this, so he instantly said 'This is a scam and I'm notifying the police' and then hung up :) Lol. A good rule of thumb: when in doubt, hang up immediately, independently look up the telephone number of the company in question (in this case Microsoft), and then call them and verify. Big companies like this more or less never call consumers. . about anything. And if it has something to do with your computer, home security or banking, always double check! Cheers.
June 3, 2011, Nicole says:
We also just received one of these calls, my partner knew it was scam straight away so just kept them talking asking them lots of questions. The caller was Indian, said her name was Racheal Cee, she said she was from a company from Support PC who worked for microsoft and that our computer was sending them virus messages. The phone number she gave for call back was a mobile number. After about 15 minutes my partner told her he was going to put her on to the IT expert in our house and handed the phone over to our three year old son who just loves having a chat on the phone.....
June 3, 2011, liz says:
I got hassled in the 'deepfarsouth' of Tasmania a week or so ago, wanting my details and telling me my computer was about to crash. He was opening and closing my files, without me being anywhere near the mouse. Outfit is called 'Online Repair World'. Can anyone comment please.
June 6, 2011, Krystal says:
I have had many calls from these people and I stuff with them every time. Things like asking for the IP address and getting given my phone number instead or being told they can not disclose that for security reasons. For a time my only internet computer was a Linux based one and that used to get them to hang up. Tried chatting them up a few times for laughs. Best one was when my SSD failed and they called and I asked them how they could help me, what sort of data recovery I could use and any other ways to get it to work with out having to to a complete reinstall.
As far as I know we haven't had a call since that last one. Might of finally got them to piss off.
June 6, 2011, Myke Gonzalese says:
Even these callers asks to open the internet browser with MAC and tries to show some problems which I even cannot understand being a computer engineer. They 'r I think specially trained callers but not the technicians.
June 9, 2011, Rob says:
Had a call from someone who claimed to have obtained my name and number from International Routing. The call was from 01231231566 (UK)
June 14, 2011, von says:
yep same as had lots of calls telling me micro soft will shut my little lap top down if i dont give him imformation from it. as it is causing big
international routing problems. tasmania australia.
June 14, 2011, Don says:
IDEA! I read in an earlier post, some guy gave out a fake Credit card number (playing along) and the scammer offered a bank account number for the funds to be deposited directly. Next time you get a call from these guys, do the same thing (give a fake credit card number) and try to get them to give you the bank account number! If the bank account number is legit, it might be a potential way to find the owner of the account, where the account is located, and have the authorities in 'said jurisdiction' investigate the owner of the bank account. At least getting the real name of the account holder would be a helpful lead for the authorities in tracking these assholes and shutting them down.
June 14, 2011, Bruce says:
well I am glad I felt a scam and told him because I had the information on how to get 100 Miles per gallon and the oil companies were probably attacking me and he had me going and went to teche4pc site until he wanted to download and exe file and I told him no fn way I was downloading an exe file then he shuffeled me to the manager who insisted it was fine and was going to give me his micro soft number and all reassurances but I stated that only after I talked to my tech was anything going to happen and then I thought to search it out and brought me here so
thank you Theo Gray
if any air breathers out there care check out www.himacresearch.com or www.byronwine.com or www.fuelvapors.com
June 16, 2011, steve lee says:
had a call today saying my system was infected with loads of virus's and malware which i know it is not so i hung up and was not to bothered, what does concern me is the fact that he knew my name and also that i had a pc. this got me to thinking about where the information was obtained and because of this i wondered if there could be any link through our internet service providers that could help shed some light on the matter as someone with that sort of access would know details of names and phone numbers and also that we obviously have computers. i am with pipex internet part of talk talk group, if any future posters could just provide there isp in there posting we may be able to either establish a link or rule out the possibility of a link and explore other avenues, also may be a good idea to put a warning on your facebook or other social networking page to warn friends and family. " please note that i am only asking a question and not accusing any isp of any wrong doing"
June 20, 2011, Cc 1991 says:
haha just got a call from an indian guy saying the same thing but trying to get me to install a programme from a site called ammyy.com. He kept asking me 'what do you see?' and i lied and said nothing was coming up and told him i couldn't talk right now and to call later. Definitely won't be answering the phone for a while now, ha. Sounded dodgy from the start. Even worse he asked me what age i was and i said 19 to which he replied, oh reali you look alot younger!:O Creepy.
June 21, 2011, Emma says:
First thank you for all the posts on this blog - I am not alone. UK's turn today. Was called by these people this afternoon stating that the computer had been infected and they could sort it out for me. Was hoping that they would go away after I answered the phone and asked to speak with "Mrs .....". My directory listing doesn't state sex and usually when I say no to the "Mrs" (stubbornly keeping my title of "Miss") they go away. The heavy indian accent made it really hard to understand and so that I could understand what was happening (not the most up to date with computing and how it all works) had to ask him to slow down and spell the words. He stated that the problem was flagged up through the International Routing System. When I asked him how he got my telephone number he said that my father had given it to him. This set the alarm bells ringing knowing that my father wouldn't do this (he has a good relationship with his local computer fixer for getting rid of the viruses). After trying to get the address of the company and a telephone number to call to verify the company the caller told me to "Go to Hell"!
Have subsequently called BT to find out more. Nice man said they have more than likely got the telephone number from Online Directory so have now got BT to remove me from there. Hopefully this will stop some of these calls. If I get them again I will let you know!
June 23, 2011, John J says:
Try calling 1-847-531-9241 and tell them you are from the FCC and that you have been receiving complaints and legal action is being taken.
Try getting an address to send legal paperwork to and they will tell you that they are in Pakistan in a cow shed next to the oil fields.
June 27, 2011, makysha says:
John thats the same number I was given. I got a simialr call about a Global Networking system. Microssoft would not call my house. Besides when i got the computer I did not have that number. I hung up, and the guy called back, He was very vague answering questions. WHen I hung up the second time he never called back.
June 30, 2011, Belinda Brown says:
Same call here to Australia at 12:30 today, indian man told me he was from iglobal and that they had reports from "the international routing system" that my hard drive had many errors. Interesting as I have just had apple support fix some problems for me. Would he have retrieved my details this way? Then wanted to get me to locate the "files and folders" that are affected so he could "fix" them. I told him that I didn't know how to use the computer and would he please call my husband later? Ah, joy at the thought of the waste of this mans precious time by my husband as he acts concerned while this man tries to scam us.
June 30, 2011, Dave says:
Just had the same call - in Brisbane 3:30pm!! Pretty funny - said my computer was infected with a virus that was sending error messages to the "international Routing System" and he wanted to help me fix it.
I asked him how he got my ph number and he said from when I bought my computer and registered Windows - FAIL - I only own Macs and no windows products!! Called him a liar and hung up :)
June 30, 2011, Brendon says:
Just got a call now from an Indian claiming to be from Microsoft and the same blurb above - my machine is infected and sending loads of traffic out. I'm from South Africa and happen to be a pc engineer. I knew this was impossible. He said it had got through my firewall and anti-virus and I must wait on hold to speak to some Microsoft Certified System Engineers to help me get rid of the problem. Said my phone wasn't by my machine etc and asked him how did he know this/get my details? He said international routing systems picked it up etc. So put the phone down and googled and voila - I find this site.
July 4, 2011, John says:
They are still at it on July 4 and had the usual blurb. I Googled the details whilst i answered the questions - lo and behold - SCAM
We Aussies must be a gullible lot otherwise they wouldn't be getting these calls
Lets help educate those who are not so tech savvy so as we can get rid of these pests
July 4, 2011, Dave says:
I got a call from these scammers on Saturday, decided to string them along, also managed to record the last 8 minutes of there call.
I've written a blog post about the call and also included the recordings - lakeuk.blogspot.com
July 7, 2011, Trevor says:
Had the 'standard' call from 'Microsoft' today. It was quite funny, he was really struggling to convince me he was legitimate! He gave me a serial number for my PC which was wrong! and did not know what OS I was running, did not know IP or MAC address. He gave me a Sydney number (02 9037 2906) to authenticate the caller. So kept him waiting for a while while I made a cup of tea while I was pretending to call the Sydney number.
I have called the Sydney number back several times now (my number is a VoIP number so number is always withheld) and have given them some very loud music over the phone! They have now got fed up answering the number and have made it permanently engaged!!! ;-)
July 7, 2011, Patti says:
Got the same Indian caller today from the IRS saying my computer was filled with viruses and that he could fix it for me. I am in the states so they are definitely upping their game. Thanks for the posts. He had me really scared till then.
July 11, 2011, Vanessa says:
I can't believe this scam is still going, I think they call me at least twice a week, I've tried hanging up, swearing, telling them I know that they're a scam...it died off for a couple of months and I thought that was the end of it, until a female indian called me tonight. I kept stalling about why I didn't need her to 'help fix my computer' so she kept repeating the same things over and over, and then she said 'maam do you want me to SAVE your computer or not?' Then eventually she hung up. After reading a lot of these comments I am going to go nuts at them next time they call me!
July 11, 2011, Michelle says:
They just called my 16 yr old son and tried to get him to give them a credit card number. Luckily, he knew something was up and the next time they called he called me on three-way. I informed them that this conversation was being recorded and they acted like it was ok...until I started asking questions about who owned their company. What was the exact address of headquarters and just how were you able to tie my 16 yr old son's cell phone number to an IP address unless they were the one's hacking into PC's. I'm so done with the scams from India! I'm buying my son a Macbook..ASAP!
July 12, 2011, Melissa says:
Perth-Australia
Thanks for info everyone. Yes, had all of the above happen...too many times. Every night at about 7pm for about 2 months at last address. Just moved house 4 weeks ago and got a silent number to stop all of this and they STILL found me! What the hell is going on??
Not only have they called and called, I have been threatened when I have asked too many questions of them. One Indian guy had both my name and my husbands names. He told me he was going to "find out where I lived and..." I had to hang up before I got really upset. I'd like to "find out where HE lives" and give him a good bollicking. I'm not even on the electoral role. Anyone got a clue?
July 12, 2011, Andy P says:
July 12th 2011. In UK Just finished a call from indian sounding guy called Jeff Anthony from PC Tech Support about my computer being full of infected files, he was a technician who would solve the problem and I have to type in INF into run box.Asked for phone number which I was given. A uk number with lady answer machine. Will leave message next. Asked him to ring back in 2 hours. Not done anything but string it along. Any safe way to get more details from these folks
July 12, 2011, Dude says:
Sydney here, Same happened to my mate but this Indian guy left the number for my mate to call back. He is the number 02 8518 1263. I have been ringing them many times and waste their time to the stage they had to hang up LOL.
so if you're in OZ ring that number and annoy the shit out of them lol
July 14, 2011, Don't Taliban me!! says:
Got a call here in Saskatchewan this am. Guy said his name was Dave Johnson from "_____ Technology". Same story as above: "... the international router had indicated my computer was badly infected with a virus..." Guy said he was from US but he sounded East Indian.
I dislike having these taliban or alqaeda types trying to get this credit card info. Its not just about the money they can get out of us, but also that these credit cards can then be potentially used to transfer illegitimate funds (ie terrorist financing type transactions).
I didn't have time to engage properly b/c I had to leave. But here are some things I've tried in the past with these telemarketing scum:
1. say just a minute and then go vacum, wash dishes; come back every few minutes and ask them some dumb question to keep them on the line and use their money.
2. go to another phone and call your telephone company. Ask them to trace the number to block it. This is criminal activity and the companies don't want their lines used in this way.
3. if you are a tekkie, set up a honey pot and see if you can mess with them that way.
4. just hang up and inform the telephone co. you've received this type of call.
I hate crooked bastards and these taliban types
July 24, 2011, Bruce says:
Thanks very much for your original post and continuing to host comments from other individuals similarly affected by this epidemic.
I am getting an average of one to two calls a week despite being on the Australian 'Do Not Call' register. The script is always the same and the phrase 'International Routing Server' is about where my patience runs out.
I have more than a passing understanding of PCs, networking, and the Internet, and have worked in tech support.
Once the Scammers catch wind of that, they hang up very quickly.
I'm sorry to see how much money people have lost to these low life thieves, and I hope that there will be some way to bring the perpetrators to account for their crimes.
July 27, 2011, Idiot says:
I actually downloaded the program they asked me to download and pressed run but not the second time when my computer asked me if I'm sure. I found this website right after that so i hanged up. How much trouble did I put myself into?
July 29, 2011, Deb says:
They have been called me today wanting to gain access to my computer using ammyy.com. I refused to give them access to my computer so he finally started to explain what I had to do to find the "problems" my computer was having. I got bored of the bs & finally revealed that I was a computer tech. It's amazing how fast he hung up. We need to spread the word so others don't get taken in. Under no circumstances allow someone remote access to your computer!!!
August 1, 2011, not a dumbass says:
Just got one of these calls...the guy's an idiot...again from india, telling me about my computer sending red signals, i wasn't on my computer and live with 4 others so how would he know it was mine?! he said if i turned on my computer and followed his instructions he could work out which computer it was.....scam....i left him on hold until he got the idea that I'm not an idiot!
August 3, 2011, I. Harriott says:
I live just east of Toronto in Canada. A guy with an Indian accent called me again. The first time he called I hung up because I thought he was trying to sell me something.
He called back again, and because I was having some issues with my computer I followed his instructions to a website. It was a website that dealt with giving remote access of your computer to someone else.
I hung up at that point. I googled to see if this was actually legit.
Warning flags were going off in my head. Why would microsoft contact me? I'm not related to Bill Gates. Anything that needs to be done should be done through updates.
These criminals should be arrested, expelled and starved.
August 3, 2011, lou says:
They are still at it. I had a call from an Indian-sounding gentleman today. I let him talk on and established that he was able to verify that I had a computer running windows and was an internet user because he got my name and phone number from what he called the 'international routing system based in California. I asked him what he would like me to do and he very kindly offered to direct me to several sites which he said would clean up my computer. I told him he was a dog shit and that terminated the conversation.
August 4, 2011, Mark says:
I work for a very, very large computer manufacturer/I.T. support division, and we get regular calls in from end users who have taken these calls. Some of the agents have also personally taken these calls at their personal residences...it's astounding how these people operate.
What gets me is large corporations do not actually call out random people and seek to log into their machines. It's all about warranty - its profoundly cost prohibitive to just to engage in calling people, so 99.99% of all support departments worldwide will be 'inbound' call centres, not 'outbound'. Software and Hardware manufacturers wait for end users to call them, not the other way around. Additionally, as a lot of I.T. support is based on remote log-in procedures, these people really give us a bad name.
The best advice I can give is to explain to them that you have paid for remote support already with another company, and they will treat any technical problems accordingly and that you do not require their service.
That usually puts them off as they realise there is no money in the pot for them.
August 11, 2011, Gisela says:
I just spent 10 minutes on the phone listening to his scare tactics. Finally told him to add my name to the Do Not Call list. When I asked how he got my number he said from Microsoft Windows. He wanted me to turn on my computer. I said not likely and hung up on him.
August 12, 2011, Nicki says:
I've received 3 of these calls in the last 24 hours, all from an man with an Indian accent. The first (yesterday, on my voicemail) was indecipherable, the 2 calls today were I think from the same man. In the first call I kept asking what company he was from and where he'd got my details - he said he was from ACME Vision Electronics and I laughed and said that from my memories of Looney Tunes ACME wasn't generally the name of a company to trust! The second phone call was of a more threatening tone, so I responded in the same way and told them not to ring anymore and that it was none of their business whether or not I had a computer. One thing that disturbs me so - it may have just been coincidence, but they claimed to be from Liverpool UK - I've lived abroad for 10 years, but lived there until I was 30, and my family live there and I have a bank account with a bank in Liverpool - does anyone know if I need to tighten up my email or banking security? any advice is appreciated...
August 16, 2011, Vicki says:
I just got a call - same deal, Indian man telling me he was from IRS and represented all Windows systems. I work in IT Services so I knew this was a wrought. When I questioned him about the validity of his claim he was very quiet - when I asked him what he wanted to do he told me to check my computer's error message. I'm in the US and here's the number he called from (253)802-0308. Thanks for putting this blog - obviously a long-standing scam.
August 16, 2011, John says:
I got one of these calls yesterday. They said they were calling from Micro PC Soft, and had information from International Routing Systems that the computer was infected with many viruses.
They didn't know which computer, couldn't give me the IP address they were saying they had and denied being a scam. These idiots need to be locked up...
August 17, 2011, MJ says:
These people are alive and well. He told me he was from TECHE4PC. Just received similar call that my computer is messing up international routing system. He was Indian, named Semi, wanted to take control of my computer to find out where it was coming from. Obviously ---- THEM. Whatever you do, don't do it!!!!!
August 18, 2011, James says:
Just discovered this run of comments; had the very same call from an Indian chap (I live in Canada) last evening, so the outfit is going strong. I asked for a call back number, haven't tried to use it yet, sounds like a load of BS. Cheers,James
August 20, 2011, Joanne says:
These con artists called me three times today, aswell as a couple of months ago.
The first caller got told where to go and that I knew it was a scam.
Then after reading a blog from another recipient of these bogus calls I decided to see if I could get a bank account from them the next time they called me.
Second call (same day) I was told the same old garbage about how my computer was infected and was I aware how bad it was. I said yes and that I was glad they had called because I wanted all the support they could give me. (my daughter was laughing so much). Sam was very keen to help and asked me to go switch the computer on and he would talk me thro what I had to do. I told him the computer wasn't here as my daughter had taken it to the library. Oh when will she be back? I don't know I said. Oh came the reply. At that point I said I don't have a credit card, do you have they bank details so that I can make the payment direct to to? Oh you don't have a credit card? No I replied. Can you give me your bank details? I asked. Oh do you have a debit card? No, I replied. Almost in a squeal he said "oh my god you don't have any plastic". No again I replied, why can't I just have your bank details? Trying to remain calm. Sam said he needed to get his senior technician to call me since I didn't have any plastic. He will call you back in 20 minutes. OK I said, I really need the support my PC is really sick I said.
Less than 5 minutes pass and I get another phone call from someone who said my computer is sending error messages and was I aware. I told him of my conversation with Sam and that I was waiting for the senior technician to call me back with the bank details so I could make the transfer. The response was, " don't you have any plastic you can pay us with"
The cheek of it. Anyway he soon hung up because I said I was waiting for the bank details.
Sure enough after about 20minutes the senior technician called me and asked me to go and switch the computer on. I told them again it was at the library with my daughter who was really sat with me on the sofa. Anyway after again explaining I didn't have any plastic cards I could pay with he proceeded to say I could not use my bank to make the transfer and that I would have to go to a Western Union branch and pay someone called SHAHZEB, and the fee would be $395 for life time support. I kept asking if they wanted CAD or US $. It took several minutes for them to tell me it was CAD. I told the caller that I found it strange that a multi billion dollar company like Microsoft would only accept payments thro a Western Union office and the recipients name was SHAHZEB and that it was to go to India. Yes! Yes! The caller kept saying. "it's our sister company". I don't know how I kept my cool because he then went on to ask what time was it with me. I told him it was 1 O' clock but didn't say whether that was morning or afternoon. I was really 4pm (I'm a UK citizen living in Saskatchewan). I asked where he was, he said he was calling from their head office, in London UK.
Well after I kept insisting my preference to pay via my bank he kept saying I couldn't. Again I said it was strange that I was having to send money to India, to which he replied well I find it strange you don't have any plastic. Again keeping my cool I said that there was too many scams going about and too many people being ripped off to trust anyone with credit or debit card details anymore. The caller disconnected the call. I wonder why!
Im not sure what Western Union can do with this information but I sure hope they can do something.
August 20, 2011, Beverly says:
Hi Theo and all others! Yes I have also just recieved a phone call, first a female who led me to the log summary in event viewer, where I could see the history of warnings and error reports. Then Jamal /Jason came on the line to help me `fix` these issues. He obviously could not answer any of my questions, so I politely put down the phone, looked up International Routing Service - and HEY PRESTO!!
August 22, 2011, james fingleton wild says:
monday the 22nd of August 2011 at 1 pm Brisbane Australia.
Just finished call form P C help and suipport who in an Indian accent told me the International routing system had informed me of my infected computer.
saterday the 20th at 7pm brisbane time I had a call from microsoft saying they could fix my infected computer. The voice sounded the same as the latter caller.
I asked how he knew my computer was infected and he said it was from the error reports sent at start up. I played him for a while and he directed me to ammii.com a site hosted by bigdaddy. I then told him that I had turned off my error reports so he was lying to say they were sent. He quickly said the error reports were coming from other computers who had been infected by my machine, and to prove it he gave me my computer number.
August 22, 2011, Anon says:
Had the same call today. Said my computer was infected and to turn it on so she could show me what was wrong. Woman had a very strong Indian accent, hard to understand, call display showed up as 999-910-0238
August 23, 2011, AJ says:
I got a similar call from an indian guy who claimed he is from microsoft and calling me regarding info received from the IRS because my comp was generating a lot of traffic and is currently dowloading programs that will cause my comp to crash....... very harmful virus will take over, so he is there to help. Ironically, that same morning I was having trouble connecting to my internet so his initial argument sounded legit..... but I got really paranoid when I began to ask where he got my info and how exactly he is going to fix the problem..... he tried to ignore my questions and when I insisted on calling him back because this did not sound very legit, he gave me a UK phone# even though he said he was calling from North America..... He sounded indian but the name was spanish...... He wanted me to run "eventvwr" in order to stop the downloads and prevent virus...... Thank God for my paranoia
August 24, 2011, Tim says:
The Indian guy just called me too- Trying to do the same thing Aug 24 2011. I asked him for a call back number and googled the 'International Routing System' while I was on the phone with him and saw it was a scam so the number he gave me to call back was; 647-9311-746 (trying to tell me its a 10 digit number) HAh Someone should hack this Basterd
OH yea and he said his name was 'Mark William' (But he was wicked Indian ahahaha)
August 25, 2011, Ann Woodgate says:
Thank you, thank you for this site. I am in Saskatchewan and the Indian gentlement is alive and well in this neck of the woods today. Same story as the rest except that we never got as far as mentioning money because I kept querying his claims that my computer was infected and refused to go online with him. He is supposedly going to call me back tomorrow after I have 'checked with Microsoft' that he is legit. Googled International Routing System and voila, here I am. Still undecided whether to torment him some or just denounce him as a fraud and hang up. He thought I was very tech savvy so I didn't disillusion him by telling him I was a great grandmother but not a complete idiot.
I got another two phone calls again today. I played along for the 1st caller and said that I had sent the cash as they had requested the other day. (I hadn't). The Indian said good all you need to do is now pay another $200 to complete the set up charge for the life time support. I told him I couldn't afford any more money and low and behold he hung up.
The second phone call I swore at him and hung up. I really hope that they don't call again but I have a feeling they will.
I have spoken to quite a few people about the growing problem, it's quite widespread here in Saskatchewan at the moment.
August 25, 2011, Psycho says:
I just had something similar and recorded it. If you want to skip to the funny part go to 7:50.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ1wSabP9kM
August 26, 2011, cc says:
Just got this call. What a scam. Somehow he knew I had Windows 7, but only on one computer, and I haven't even turned it on in 5 days. As soon as I said that, he hung up. I asked for his number, and he gave 760-429-2887,which never connects nor rings to anything. Said he was from "Windows". Idiots.
August 26, 2011, JM says:
Rung twice today, countless times yesterday and a few times before that, but it's always silent on the other end of the line as if nobody's there.
Call comes from 01611569823. Why these guys are still operating is mindboggling.
September 2, 2011, Indian Death says:
09/01/2011 - similar scam caller.
Indian named Brad, representing Microsoft. The "Global Routing System" yada yada, broadcasting traffic, yada yada.
TOTAL SCAM. Ringing CO residents from (comcast *69) 052147252
September 7, 2011, aubrey says:
I had someone call and tell me they were from the "Repair Zone", and that there was a virus on my computer. She was insistent that she wasn't trying to sell me anything, but couldn't seem to explain why she had my phone number. She also clearly said that she knew we were on the 'do not call list', which I can't imagine would be cross-referenced to any sort of International Routing System. Calling from a blocked number.
September 8, 2011, Nicole says:
This scam is still going strong! I'm in Canada. Caller said he was responding to error reports I'd made to Microsoft. He had me look at some windows logs on my computer and said they showed I had many viruses on my computer and that my computer was liable to crash at any moment. I expressed scepticism about the veracity of his claims and he said to go to teche4pc.com. Instead I googled teche4pc and found this article and another one claiming it was a scam. I told him so and of course he denied it. I said if it's true you can email me about it, I'm hanging up now. He says he doesn't have my email address! Says he has my name and phone number and computer ID number all everything else but no email. So I give him the email I use for junk, on the off chance he's legit. What bull, though!
September 16, 2011, Aky says:
I had some random indian chick tell me she can fix all the harmfull stuff in my cumputer too, i told her no and she threatened me saying i have your number and email address and started yelling at me and stuff.
September 16, 2011, George F. Wreford says:
I told the lady I knew she was a scammer and she replied she was not a beggar and didn't want my credit card details. I said "Why are you ringing me up then?" but the line went dead. These activities achieved headlines in our local paper (Windsor Express).
September 16, 2011, Mike says:
I had a cold call from someone from (apparently) ibsoft services claiming that the International Routing System had informed them that many items of spam were building up in my computer and would definitely cause it to crash in a few days. I could hardly understand the first person on the line so he put me on to his supervisor, 'Sandy Watson' (both had Indian accents: after I probed a bit he said, 'I can tell you are not believing me.' He gave a phone nyumber, asked me to think about what he had said and then to phone back. I have not done so.
September 19, 2011, Kira says:
Same story - I got angry at the guy because he wouldn't give me his manager, couldn't give a phone number and couldn't even tell me what kind of computer I had or operating system. Very agitating.
September 20, 2011, Dennis says:
I received 3 calls from these scumbags yesterday (9-18). It was an obvious scam from the very beginning. I finally ended the call and just hung up. So, today (9-19), I get a call from the same #, which, by the way is 253-802-0308. When I told the moron I knew what he was up to and to stop calling my house, he told me to f*** off. Unbelievably, he called back a minute later. I again told him to stop calling me, that I knew he was a scam artist and then I blocked the #.
Almost forgot. I called the # and got a recording from the FTC advising of the phishing scam.
September 20, 2011, Carolyn says:
Just got off the phone with Steve Richerd....(Indian accent) calling from IRS...working for 'windows'...I said you work for Microsoft?....he said no...lol. He insisted I have a dangerous virus that is going to crash my computer and he wants to show me how to prevent it...By this time I am very wary...I ask where he is calling from He said he was calling from Delaware...I ask for the phone number ..gives a 631 area code...(Delaware is 302...have a friend there)..he keeps saying go to My Computer on the desk top...right click and go to manage....etc etc....I finally got tired of the game and told him to go jump off a bridge....and ya!! ...how can this still be going on...can't someone catch these guys....geeezzz. And how do they get the phone #'s....I am in Canada. I wonder how many hapless people fall for this scam.
September 21, 2011, Ayesha says:
I got a call right now... From the so called ELITE IT company... LMAO...Internation Routers... I have received atleast 10-15 calls in past several months. Usually I just ask them to shut up and hang up. Today, this so called smart ass lady named Nancy...claimed she is super shot engineer and with her screwed up broken english tried to sell some silly product. When I asked her how she got my contact details... Her answer was IP Address..I couldnt stop laughing... I asked her to shut up...and told her i have caller id and if i ever recieve a call from her...I will file an official complaint with NZ Police... LOL And she hung up... with a big THUD.... LOL Hilarious. I am surprised that this scam is still on and the dimwits still keep calling the same people... idiots !!!
September 21, 2011, Susan says:
I just received a call from "Patrick" from the "Windows Service Center" and I could hardly understand what he was saying because of his accent (sounded like Indian accent). He was very insistent that his job is to help me get rid of the corrupted files on my Windows machine; he also invoked the International Routing System. I kept telling him I need to verify his authenticity and I don't download programs because of a phone call. I finally hung up. Thanks for posting this scam.
September 27, 2011, Rose says:
Just got a call from a fellow with an Indian accent that said he was from the International Routing system and that my computer was infected with a virus and that they could help me out with cleaning it up. I thought to myself "what kind of scam is this guy trying to pull off". I just got my computer cleaned, de-virused and an antivirus software put on my computer less than 24 hours ago. So I asked him how he knew that I had a virus on my computer and he said through the Microsoft and the International Routing System. And he tried to explain to me what this was and I told he was full of it because I had just got my computer cleaned and new antivirus installed. I just hung up. Thought I would research it on the net and found this link. Thanks for posting this scam.
September 28, 2011, Karen says:
I see that this has been going on a long time. I had a call 6 months ago from a lady with an Indian accent. I told her I did not have error reports. Then I hung up. She called me back and said I did. I told her not to call me back. I contacted Microsoft itself and asked if they ever had anyone in their department running this scam. Especially from Microsoft 35. They told me no, could I please let my friends know that this is truly a scam. So I did.
Now today, I received a telephone call from an Indian gentleman from Microsoft35. Well, I just kept asking him where he was calling from and how did he know about any problems. You see, I do not download from the internet unless I have purchased something. He hung up on me.
My sister inlaw from England had the same thing happen to her father. Get this, he does not even own a computer.
September 29, 2011, Wes says:
Same scam here in Canada today.
I wan't fooled and hung-up. She was very persistant.
thanks for this web site!
September 30, 2011, Marco says:
Same here in Ontario, Canada!
Called from 618-462-3632, said he worked with Microsoft and on behalf of International routing system, wanted me to go to www.ammyy.com and a tech would fix it right now. I laughed at him when he said his name was Steve Jones, and I asked him to spell the last name and he paused, hummed and haaaed. They need to be stopped and I will help any authority to get it done...
September 30, 2011, Matthias says:
Got a call from the Gentleman today (here in Switzerland).
September 30, 2011, Kathleen says:
Same here in BC, Canada!
The person, "Michael Warne" (Indian accent) claimed to be from MicroAssist and/or Soft Info Tech and gave an actual call-back number 213-438-9748.
In Canada, please register this or other fraud complaints with Canadian Anti Fraud RCMP at 1-888-495-8501. They will follow up
September 30, 2011, Gigi says:
Suspicious from beginning.They were not able to answer specific questions finally they tried to say we were downloading virus' and illegal software! I asked on which computer, they said microsoft...I said, Wrong! I am reporting you.
called from 999-910-0238 said Techie4PC and International routing system. Call back number given was 1-631-456-4455. I have called family and friends to warn about this scam. THANK YOU!
October 5, 2011, P Klimstra says:
2 calls in the last week from this outfit. I suspect from the accents they're East African. I've amused myself for 5-10 minutes with both "gentlemen"...less time for them to prey on the gullible. The first I told to F Off, the second hung up on me as I shouted "IRS?!? I PAY MY TAXES WHY YOU CALL ME?!?" over and over again.
October 11, 2011, NotAsleep says:
Similar story to above. Reached me in San Francisco, CA 10 am Oct. 11 2011. Nice Indian sounding chap who said his name is Dennis Foster. Wanted me to go to www.AMMYY.com and run MEadmin.exe. Gave call back numbers 1-847-537-9241 and 1-510-962-4561. Got to wonder how something this big can continue for so long.
October 12, 2011, Stacey says:
I just received a similar call...Called me three times to see if I called the management to verify the validity of his call. When I did call the number he gave me it was not in service. Thanks for this post! It seems ridiculous to me that a scam like this has such longevity. What I don't understand is how he knew information about my computer...had me run a command called assoc and verified (I did not tell him anything) the 3rd last line of the output (clsid????) not sure what that is...
I live in Victoria BC
October 12, 2011, Vlad says:
Just had an identical call. SCAM!!!!!!
October 13, 2011, Richard says:
2nd call of this kind in 2 months!
1st time played the `What is a computer` sketch,and they hung up,today felt bit more like doing some fishing..
so went along wtih their instructions,funny that ,they said I had Windows XP,and I am running Windows 7...
anyway, they told me this and that,and after listing file associations in a command window,claimed that
.zfsendtotarget=CLSID\{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062} was a unique value only I and they would know...
Its not..BTW :-)
I got bored then and had to go...
dont be caught out!
I am in the UK.
October 16, 2011, Meg says:
In Ontario, 6th call in a week. I kept them on the phone to get as much info as possible. One guy got so aggressive, he was shouting obscenities at me. I had other people over and they took over the phone and he went on and on. We'd hang up, he'd call back. After the 6th call, I phoned the police and while on the phone with them he proceeded to fill up my voice mail. Terrifying. Now I run a trace on the call - in Ontario *57. After 5 calls, you can open a police complaint. Awful scam.
October 17, 2011, Raman Singh(india) says:
Hi i would like to tell all of u about such a company.. They had there script ready for all Saying the Global routing system is causing lot off traffic and so you need to buy there services....Maven infotech is such a company who calls users in australian names and tells them stories about sydney and uk offices(actually its all in india)..and then they warn about viruses for which you need to buy there useless services..ifixyrpc and onlinetechsupport r 2 of the many fake websites that they will lead you to and start making all nonsense promises..so beware next time when u get such a call next time..
October 17, 2011, Han Solo says:
Could you believe this...I just got a call from IRS...in Germany. Pure luck that I am half South African, but bad luck for them I am too German not to be suspicious :-). Internet Crime has gone glocal.
October 19, 2011, toobizee says:
Aha! I just got a call too - scam is still going strong I suppose. My caller said he was from Microsft 35 Technical Team and my computer has a virus and is uploading all my personal files to the Internet. He tried the same things ... wanted me to go to certain address, etc. When I said I'd call him right back, I needed the ph number the call terminated...
October 25, 2011, Jenny says:
Still at it as October 24, 2011. I was at home, just up from a nap and they called on my mobile phone. Same spiel.
But I didn't quite catch quickly enough. I had a small amount in paypal and noticed that it was for a person named Gupta. They had begun to "fix" my computer, but I had closed the session about 5 minutes in. I immediately contacted security on paypal. If they had called one hour later, I would have been fully awake. I did not give any cc info out. Contacted my bank to give the heads up.
Checked the log and it only noted that either something was corrupt on the local computer or terminated. Gupta was noted in the log. I don't think they succeeded becauseI kept receieving frantic calls from "Jason in tech support." I couldn't believe I was so stupid. As I said, I wasn't fully functioning and connecting the dots.
A few weeks ago, there was something going on that would generate a CAPTCHa from Google and some message about me generating a lot of Internet activity. Which is impossible. Others received the same info. This was linked to my gmail account.
An update to my recent remarks...paypal's resolution of the case was swift! A new wrinkle on this is that they may be targeting paypal accounts. I just wish that I had found this first.
Ran my machine in safe mode and could find no evidence of any of the programs. Fingers crossed. Still searching for a good safe program to remove malware.
Many thanks again for this.
October 26, 2011, Robert LaFortune says:
Canada, got the call 2 days ago from 999-910-0103. Windows....ltsof background noise so I knew, it was fishy. Stated my pc was sending virus code to Microsoft's servers. Yeah right. When she asked me to turn on my computer, I hung up....it was on as I was speaking.
October 26, 2011, Spencer says:
In canada here. Received a call from 19999100103. An indian man on the line. I told him I was doing everything he asked but was actually playing videogames. Haha, He got very upset with me. He kept telling me to hang up but I wouldnt. He eventually did. What a douche.
November 1, 2011, Dany says:
Just got the 2nd phone call. Telling me that I am "at high risk of losing my computer". Both times, I took down the number and said I would call them back. Is there any way to stop these phone calls?
November 10, 2011, Tony says:
Yep he called me too - 8am... told I told him couldn't understand him, asked if anyone was there could speak English properly, so then he passed me to two of his 'cousins'... told them I couldn't understand them either... until the inevitable "bugger off" from them ended the call... nice people, not!
November 15, 2011, Michael says:
Got a call about few days ago. Not knowing about this scam, so i did what she told me to do ( alredy thinking microsoft doesnt call you 4 a problem you call them XD) so she told me to press windows key + r and type in eventvwr. And she told me all the error i saw was making my pc slow and giving me windown error blue screen so i went along with it. And when she asked me to download this 1 program cant remember now like tiemviewer. I PUT ON THE BRAKES gave my one friend a call. And told him about this he sayd he searched goodle and saw it was a scam so WE decided to mess with them XD i cept her on the phone for atleast 15 min telling her im on dial up and my internet is slow so its gona take a while when we figured out how to mess with them i sayd hello and a guy was talking just a i was talking crap he say ok now listen carefull this is what you need to do BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP !!!
November 24, 2011, Daniela says:
They called me (Switzerland)today.Wa s first worried, because I had (being a user with little knowledge) in the past days downloaded several programms I was not so sure whether I could trust them. The Indian told me to type eventvwr. Then asked me to go on www.ammyy.com. I told him to identify himself per email and then stopped the call.
November 26, 2011, Dave Twigg says:
He called today in Kingston, Ontario Canada, from 1-630-859-9364 claiming to be from Microsoft35. He had my name, address and phone number (easy to get) but I did not get far enough to find out if he had my IP address (that would make me nervous!). Didn't bother to tell him that Microsoft would not take the time or make the effort to call me, no matter what problems I had, so long as I keep using their products. He kept putting me on hold and I finally got tired of trying to get more info from him and hung up. From this thread it looks like no one (police, banks & credit card companies, etc) is trying to do anything to stop them. If you have time make up a 'form' complaint and copy and paste it into as many scam complaint sites you can find - FBI, RCMP, Australian equivalent, local police fraud squad, bank and credit card complaint sections, etc. Claim that they were hacking your computer and asking for credit card info. Maybe someone will finally try to stop them!
December 5, 2011, LB says:
Scam is still active. Definitely a person of Indian descent claiming to be from Microsoft. Claims he is calling because my computer is downloading virus infected files without my knowledge. When asked where he received my phone number he indicated that it was from the International Routing Service. Told him I would take care of it and hung up. Be aware
December 7, 2011, Ian says:
yep, me too, same scammers keep phoning from an undisclosed INTERNATIONAL number.
Today I said, "sorry, we know all about this scam."
The scammer replied in a heavy indian accent, "oh don't say 'SCAM' ...you dirty f*cking b*rstard!"
I swore back and hung up. (mistake)
10 minutes later another international call, this time an Indian accented female, who started screaming at me, I simply hung up.
15 minutes later another international call so I left it to answering machine. An indian accented man left an foul and abusive message and saying he will phone me "day by day" and "f you" and "f your mother" etc.
Going to get the number changed and in future we will simply leave ALL international calls to the answer machine.
Don't think scammers will bother with first-time answering machines?
Welcome callers will leave message and we can even pick up when they start bto speak if it's someone we know.
December 12, 2011, JK says:
Had a call this afternoon. My internet connection was down so I couldn't google "International Routing System" while he was on the call, but I've dealt with some of these scammers through work before. I finally told him I'm not going to talk to him any longer, and hung up and he called back! Persistent apparently. I'm in Western Canada.
December 13, 2011, Jules says:
I kept getting these calls and found this forum, so they just called again and said about my computer and that they're from microsoft blah blah, I said "comp....pu...puter...? No I'm sorry I don't know that word, hang on let me get my dictionary.... *waits*..... oh yes I see, one of these new fangled things....ah, how modern!" they hung up! Sense of humour bypass methinks. W***ers, can't believe they've been going this long though.
December 20, 2011, steele says:
HAHAHA...I just had some random ring me too..lucky i have some idea about computers.
I strung him on for 25mins giving him false names,numbers and pretending to be very concerned and i needed his help and how grateful i was of it. He told me my cc #'s didn't exist so i asked for his...When he wouldn't give it to me i asked for a bank account to deposit $5000 in for him n his company for doing such great work. I got the western union spiel so i then told him i was just playing him for the last half hour and i knew exactly what he was up too. I laughed so hard..he lost it and started yelling some Indian crap at me..I reverse ip'd the website he gave me and it was registered in the uk to a fictitious person..surprise surprise...
December 22, 2011, Peter says:
he is still out there. Told me he was calling about my computer that was connected to the international routing server. Said he would help me get it fixed. I asked if it was showing now, he oh yes, told him that was very interesting since it was not even on. I asked him just how stupid he thought I was and how many innocent people he tried to scam today, he babbeld on and I told him gotcha you bastard dont ever call me again trying to steal my data. He hung up ...
January 2, 2012, Geof says:
SamE happened to me today. Unfortunately for him, my pc did get a nasty Trojan this morning and I was rebuilding it when he called!
January 3, 2012, Kyla says:
I just received a similar call. The man with a heavy Indian accent told me he was calling from Virtual Global Solutions and that my computer had been sending error messages to the international routing system. He wanted me to sit down in front of it and let him walk me through how to fix it. I requested to speak to a manager and got put on the phone with a "Kevin Richards". He said that my computer was infected with malware but wouldn't give me any other details. I requested a call back number and after we hung up I tried calling it only to hear a "you have no balance remaining" automated message. How'd these bastards get my number?
January 6, 2012, Carol says:
Just received call from Microsoft 35 ingenial, Virtual Global Solutions, about an international routing system problem on my computer. I have over 1000!! viruses on my computer & unless I get on my computer immediately I will be spending $1000 for a new computer! My Internet explorer is throwing out many error messages (many people laughing, talking in the background). LOL I played along for a few minutes, why didn't norton catch this? Oh, according to him, norton doesn't catch international viruses!
I told Mr India, who said his name was Jack Lee, He was full of bull! I didn't believe a word he was saying! He was scamming me! But this guy just kept on, turn on your computer, I'll show you. You'll be glad you did. I hung up.
Sad thing, some people will believe this.....
January 9, 2012, Theresa says:
Hello all, I have been receiving calls from this/these groups of people for weeks now. I never give them any information I just listen to them tell me their plot line and then I respond with many different things.
1.) Holy smokes you guys are so good you are letting me know my computer is infected and they respond yes and then I say well this will be an easy fix and they say yes and I say I know I am just going to take this computer back to the store to which they say oh there is no need we can help you fix it and I say but why fix something that is still in the box. CLICK.
2.) Hello you have reach (name) at Microsofts technical support and we realize that you are phoning to let us know that our computer is infected but guess what I actually run a MAC. CLICK
Hopefully someday these calls will stop but in the meantime I will play my games with them.
January 24, 2012, Elke says:
Someone just called me with an Indian accent purporting to be from Global Routing Systems giving me a unique serial number and informed me my computer had infected files, which he would help me to remove.
I smelled a rat and asked him how he was able to associate my telephone number with my computer. I got an unlikely story and when I told him that I did not believe him, he passed me on to his supervisor - a man by the name of Stuart Lewis.
Lewis said he worked for Microsoft 35 Technical Department who was working with Windows Global Routing Systems, and that this company had been hired by Microsoft to take care of Windows global servers.
He said he needed to remove virus infected files and critical error programs from my computer otherwise he would send a report to the GRS Department who would give me 24 hours to remove the files. If I did not remove the files I would receive a fine and in case I did not pay the fine, the matter would be passed on to the legal department who would pursue me through the courts.
Although my phone showed that the call came from abroad, after some prompting he gave me his contact number as 0844 800 2400, and his address as Victoria Street, London!
January 25, 2012, shad budda says:
he has called me 8 times since 1/1/12 and though I singed his ears the first 5 times on the 6th I played with him, I told him my computer was a TRS 80 but it was in the basement. Then I asked him how I could plug it into the modem if he was on the phone with me. When I asked how a computer which was not on and not connected to the internet could be causing all these problems he told me I never logged out properly when I visited those illegal download sites and Microsoft asked him to fix that for me. At this point I blastred him making any sailors within a mile blush. And hung up. 20 minutes later i got another call and he started like nothing happened (same guy, same name), I blasted again told him I would find him. I hung up, He called back immediately to tell me to stop using bad words!! 192159.10 is the number on caller ID. Any ideas on how to track and crack this scammer?
February 8, 2012, Steve says:
Ive been receiving calls from these guys over the last couple of days and I knew right away that it was a scam. I was annoyed to say the least but they took the biscuit this morning ringing really early and waking the entire house up!!! I can't wait for them to try and ring back so I can give them a proper piece of my mind
February 9, 2012, Florinos says:
Just got a phone call from them and started to play along...
I.G. Push the start button
Me . I see no start button
I.G. In the left corner of you screen.
Me. repeating start...start...start...i see no start button
I.g On your keyboard...push window key
me...window ? i only have one window and it's closed at the time do you want me to open it...?
After a while i got too frustrated and let him have it...
A bunch of low life pakis....
February 27, 2012, Dantheman says:
I have just managed to hold them on the phone for a new record of 11 minuets and 30 seconds before they hung up on me, lol.
I used to hang the phone up on the right away now I just play the game with them and try to get to hold on for as long as possible and waist just as long as I can.
March 1, 2012, John says:
I have been receiving missed calls from Seattle Wa. for nearly 3 weeks until 2 nights ago. The caller had my name and choice of operating system. I prompted him very harshly for what he wanted, after a couple of minutes he said F*** Y** and hung up on me. Thought I had got rid of them.....wrong. Tonite i received another call so I played along all the way upto typing a command into the cmd prompt of my computer. he got mad and hung up on me again. also I had him on line for over 15 minutes questioning him about who he is working for and why he is calling me.
March 2, 2012, Julian says:
Earlier comments are all too familiar. Just now I have found out that apparently, according to the global routing network, my computer is infected with all sorts of viruses and the hard disk is about to break there are that many errors(lol). Also, I was taken on a ride through the Windows EVENTVWR where there are heaps of messages (but sir, DO NOT open the messages) as evidence that I am about to have a computer catastrophe. They hung up after the women got stroppy and put me onto some bloke who wanted me to put ifixyrpc.com into the run command. All a bit freaky, however they could identify the CSLID, why would that be?
March 2, 2012, J.B.Kennedy says:
I too received a call ('international' in my handset display) from man with a strong asian accent who was difficult to understand, he gave me the 'spiel' and I pressed the flag key and the R key but then he said he could not continue and would call me back another day.
Now a couple of days prior to him calling and because my PC has been running very slowly and freezing recently, I paid for and installed a programme from 'PC-Speed-up' who advertise on SKY. So when he first called I was interested because I know my system needs a clean up, but with him cutting his call short I have had time to ask about 'him' and found this forum. He called again today and I told him to go fourth and multiply. Does anyone think there could be a link from him to PC Speed-up ?
Incidentally my PC system is no better for installing the 'Speed-Up' programme.
March 3, 2012, C. Vaughn says:
Thank you so much for this posting. I, too have been contacted with the same crap. I now know what to do if this individual calls me again. Click!
March 11, 2012, Cindy says:
Hello from Canada.I received call today March 10th 2012. A male with Indian accent wanting computer info. Gave me several instructions on where to go on my computer. He wanted to KNOW or "verify" certain numbers to protect my computer from crashing. I told him the only time my computer crashes is when I drop it down the stairs. He asked me If I was "joking him" I said no. He then turned nasty and said he hoped I would crash and called me a f%&*Bast&*d. Be careful folks! Sincerely Cindy from Canada
March 11, 2012, Ronaldo says:
I investigated this fraud and here is what I found. A bullpen of "Microsoft Certified" Telemarketers in India (and perhaps elsewhere), call homes looking for "the owner of the household PC". They misrepresent themselves as being affiliated with Microsoft. They are actually with a company called "IFixYrPC" (and perhaps others). They use the name Microsoft to give themselves legitimacy and then they try to scare people into buying their service by telling them that they have a lot of viruses and other Mal-ware on their computers. They get the worried PC owner to install a program on their computers which allows IFixYrPC to gain remote access into their systems. Once they have had a look around at your software and data, they want you to give them a credit card number. They say they will use your credit card number to pay for one year of remote PC maintenance. Then they give you their "help desk" number of 510-962-4561, and say you can also e-mail their support staff at [email protected]
March 12, 2012, ron jackson says:
they try to scam me but they work in my computer and working very good i am very happy...
March 22, 2012, Lisa says:
This man with an Indian accent just called my cell phone -- repeat -- cell phone and tried to explain to me that he got my phone number from the international routing system. He was going to help me with my pc. I informed him that I was not interested in his help and to please not call my cell phone again. Thanks for posting this as other people need to know.
March 29, 2012, CanadianGal says:
Yes, he is alive and well. Received a call from him today... and probably once a week for the last 6 months. Always given him the same response, I'm not interested, please put me on your 'Do not call list' (which is a strict law in Canada). Today, I finally turned nasty and asked for a supervisor... So Jim and Peter... and Don or whatever other Canadian name he choses, was very obviously from the middle east and has multiple personalities. When things started going sour, he got nasty and ended by 'I'm hacking into your computer right now and getting all your banking information'. Obviously, he knew nothing of my computer as I shut down their call each and everytime... but he wasn't very nice about it. Looks like it's us Canadians now... not just Australia. This guy gets around!
March 30, 2012, Kassie says:
This literally just happened to me not 15 minutes ago. An Indian man called and told me my computer was in danger of crashing due to all of the "corrupted" files on my computer. When I asked how he got my number he said simply "I'm from the International Routing Company." I told him that if my computer crashed it was my problem, but thatnk you very much. DO NOT OPEN YOUR COMPUTER FOR THIS MAN! I had enough sense to hang up, you should as well.
April 2, 2012, JIMMY says:
Just happened to my wife. Do not be dumb and give these dolts any information.
April 3, 2012, Ben says:
I'm in Australia and just got off the phone after this guy called with the Indian accent. I asked him how he got my number and he said he got it from the international routing system and he was apparently calling on behalf of Microsoft International. I told him it sounded like bs and he got very protective and said that just because I hadn't heard about it didn't mean I should talk like that! I told him not to call me again and hung up.
April 5, 2012, Cam says:
Yes the group is alive and well...unfortunately I was caught at a moment of weakness...ligitimate computer problems and let the guy in. They left my computer totally N/S. At that point I realized it was a scam and proceded to cover all banking info. He (Tom) had the gaul to call back the next day to see if all was ok!!! Also I received a call from 'Mary' in California with ' GLOBAL TECH SUPPORT INC., which had issued a receipt, asking if all was ok. She offered to refund fee if I sent email. Tom also called back offering to continue to fix computer problem and was undeterred by my insistance that he was operation a scam! He called back 3 times!
April 13, 2012, John Smith says:
thanks so much, i googled the company and this blog can up so after playing around for a little i hung up
April 14, 2012, lou says:
Unreal... same crap was said, # from seattle WA, international routing system, blah blah blah. I had the mind to grab my wife's smartphone and googled "IRS computer system calls" and this blog came up... i started to tell him (the indian dude) what i was reading and he eventually hung up without prophane language. Thank you to everyone that has posted!!! Now im returning the favor.
April 27, 2012, anthony says:
LOL i just got the same thing here, only difference is i called my local FBI office and reported the number he had called from 1-206-456-0661 any one who gets this please report it to your local FBI or homeland security office
May 2, 2012, Ann says:
Just got a call from "Mike" with very strong indian accent telling me I've got huge problems with my computer. Seems there are some serious malware being sent to my computer and that his company can fix. He tells me there are some really clever web people out there. I hung up, end of. Nobody scams me!
May 3, 2012, Margarita says:
Just got the same call-Came in blocked 3x's so I figured I'd answer. WHen I started telling him he wqas full of... he hung up! International Routing System-Yeah right!!
May 10, 2012, Barbara McKay says:
I had a phone call tonight at 5pm Queensland time. A woman with an accent spoke first and then a man who said his name was Richard Smith. Both had accents and Richard said he was an engineer level 5 35. He knew a lot about the seven important aspects of the computer. I was tired but because they said they were from Microsoft technical support, and my daughter had left the PC on, I became hooked.
The man told me all about the viruses and infection in the PC, highlighting them for me. They gave me the 6 digit number and I accepted. Then they wanted money. I was a little suspicious and expressed my concern about trusting total strangers.
My phone number is silent, so I don't know how they got my number.
My husband was too busy and tried to tell me to get off the phone. He was also trying to get a rest. I stayed on the phone thinking I was getting very genuine advice.
Then they talked about payment..one year or four years..life time technical support. I very wisely said ...I want to ring a friend..they said ..."eave your computer on..it will only take an hour". . My IT friend said " turn off your computer immediately. It is a scam"
I turned it off and now I am too scared to turn it on again!
This situation made me feel a complete and vulnerable fool.ninth man called Richard Smith was very convincing, expressing incredibly serious concern about the infection and viruses that played my PC ...in the hundreds and thousands. I tried to pretend I understood...apparently, they must go to different towns..this is the locker valley..I understand they were in the Toowoomba area earlier this year.
Fancy wasting almost 90 mins. Talking to a criminal.
May 11, 2012, Kiwi says:
In New Zealand. Being rung a few times. I sometimes ask them 'Why not get a job that helps people?' - they then hang up. They have used profane language once.
(Thanks for doing this site)
May 14, 2012, DH says:
I'm up in Canada.
Just got off the phone with 'James' said he was calling from the 'Windows Services Center' and that my PC was downloading junk onto the net. Wanted me to goto teche4pc.com (or tech4pc.com), hard to tell with that Indian accent.
tried to get his phone# (wouldn't give it). Asked how he got my number (couldn't/wouldn't tell).
Informed him I am MCITP (he had not clue what that means).
Told him to stop committing fraud and hung-up.
May 14, 2012, Lisa says:
I'm in NYC, just received a call from indian accent James. Tel # showed up as 999-910-0353. He said he is in Florida so I googled the company right away and found this site. He wanted me to left click on START and type in some letters, which I did not do or pay attention to because I was too busy googling the company name - Internal Routing System (IRS).
These people never cease to amaze me. I am sending a blast email right now to all my family and friends alerting them of this new scam!
May 17, 2012, Pauline says:
I'm afraid I'm one of the suckers that has been scammed by these people, they wear you down. Going on and on about corrupt files/software, how they can clean up your computer saying they are Microsoft Engineers?. I have just put a stop on the payment, however they have had access to all of my information on my Computer?
May 19, 2012, ana says:
www.onlinerepairworld.com
teche4pc.com
203A Lake Town Block "A",
May 22, 2012, Liz says:
I just got off the phone with this dolt. My first question was - how did you get my number? He kept avoiding that - Just kept on repeating how my computer was spewing out corrupt files to the international bla bedy bla... I too heard all the back ground noise sounds like a room full of about 30 Indians all talking at the same time.
I hate scammers - thanks for the site... I will FB it to warn my friends :)
June 1, 2012, Imran says:
My mom had a call from them earlier this day. She diligently installed the ammyy program but luckily did not provide credit card details. That Indian fella got pissed and threatened that if we did not purchase the USD99 software, the "IRS" would 'block' my comp.
I rushed home from work, restored my computer an hour before the software installation, checked my registry and ran anti-virus, anti-malware and every other software a paranoid person would have.
I hope it is safe, for now. Will look up for 'AMMYY service admin' and delete the exe later.
For those who had inadvertently installed AMMYY and provided card details, do check out the following website - www.ammyy.com/en/admin_mu.html
It has further details on what to do in such a situation. FYI, AMMYY is a legit software. Hope this helps.
June 4, 2012, Warren says:
How did they get our phone number to call us? Do they dial random into the world?
The same voice called me today, on my Mom's telephone line. She has Altzheimers and does not own a computer. So I told him to get lost.
June 10, 2012, Sam says:
Just got the call. Phone number is: 347-348-0788. Awesome.
June 15, 2012, Vanessa says:
I too received a call today (06/14/12) at 2:04pm EST from a foreign guy named Chris who said that he was from Microsoft to alert me that my Computer has a "Virus". I questioned him about the complete name of his company and he said, "Microsoft 35 Tech Department". I asked him whether he was calling within the United States and then he hesitated for a while, so I asked him what City and State that he was calling from and he said Washington, DC (his accent sounded like he was from India). I asked him next to give me his company's address and he gave me a street name that is not even located in the DC area. I can tell that I was frustrasting him with my questions. So, he hurried and said, I need your Computer's address so that he could assit me with the Virus (which I was not about to give him) I attempted to ask him another question as to how he got my home telephone number, then he hung-up on me! By the way, my Computer does not even have a so called "Virus". People, please beware of Scammers of this nature trying to hack into your Computers and steal your information! Do, like I did and ask them 100 Questions as to the nature of their call (it frustrates the you know what out of them :)
June 21, 2012, Tim says:
Microsoft 35 contacted me today. I allowed him to use teamviewer to take control of my computer. The guy kept wanting me to talk to a senior tech about getting some service. According to the Indian guy on the phone, my computer had 829 viruses. I want to know if he got my personal information from being hooked up to my computer. If anyone knows, please tell me what to do. I am using F-secure online scan right now.
June 22, 2012, Erik says:
Got a call from a the "Technical Department" (presented without company name) to me in Sweden, concerning the presence of malware in my computer. He first "convinced" me that we are talking about the same machine by reading aloud the zfsendtotarget number from the command line 'assoc', which was indeed correct. (Note: the same number shows up in the older computer next to it)
Then he asked me to open 'eventvwr' which also seemed ok. Asked me to look for red circles in the Windows program log. I confirmed the existence of red circles as well as yellow triangles, after which he put me through to a technician to help me solve my problem.
The new guy wanted me to run www.logmein123.com from the run menu, and at this point I had to start asking questions about why he would take over my computer and what exactly was the name of the company behind the "Technical department". He didn't hang up yet. He actually was willing to give me the company name, TechE4PC, allegedly taking care of parts of Microsoft's customer support, since MS do not have time to place calls to all customers. After I had convinced the guy that I really didn't want to let him take over control of my computer because I thought it was phishy, finally he hung up.
June 30, 2012, Rosemary says:
I received a call from a man from India on Tuesday afternoon, June 27. I live in California. He said he was calling from Microsoft Support Windows Operating Center. He told me that my security license has expired and I would need to pay a fee of $89 for 1 year; $149 for two years; and $299 for unlimited support. He also said that I had errors in my registery. I have had problems with my PC and it takes awhile to boot up. He scared me into letting him take control of my computer to delete the problem files; this was a Microsoft 35 technician. I think his name was Matel Tray. He also wanted money for the security license. He told me I would lose my internet connections if I didn't pay the money. I told him I would take the 2 year license, just to get him off the phone (I was on the phone with him and other persons for over 2 hours!). I gave him my credit card information but the transaction did not go through. Then he directed me to a Western Union Screen. I created an account and put in my credit card information. I was so upset by the time I got off the phone that my blood presssure went sky high. I thought the payment went through on Tuesday, but I received an e-mail from Western Union that the payment did not go through and requested me to make payment. I dodged a bullet for paying the money; I don't know if the credit card company blocked the payment. I immediately ran "SPYBOT" and other programs to see if he installed any programs on my computer. I also ran the program that Theo Gray recommended. I don't think he downloaded any programs. He did delete the error files. I should have googled "Microsoft 35 Technician" before I let him take control of my computer. I called Verizon to block all incoming/outgoing calls from overseas. Someone has called my house again on Tuesday and Thursday nights but they hung up when someone else answered the phone. Hopefully, they won't be calling again soon. I think I talked to someone last year about this scam but hung up after a few minutes. Thank's to all of you who posted comments on this SCAM. I greatly appreciate them.
July 2, 2012, Theo Gray says:
Just had "Lite Help Technical Department" from "Victoria in London" phone this morning with the same script about them getting messages from the International Routing System.
Didn't have time to string them along, so asked the guy to Google "International Routing System" and tell me what the first result said. He said the words "It's a scam, ok bye bye"... and he sounded really disappointed.
As the comments above show, this scam is still going strong with phone calls to me always coming up with "Unavailable" as the Caller ID. Keep spreading the word to all your friends so that people like Rosemary aren't caught out anymore.
Today the "Windows department" called me up and as it was lunchtime I let them talk.
The current script took them through Event Viewer (eventvwr), then onto showing me that they really did know my computer by telling me the CLSID associated with .zfsendtotarget by getting me to run assoc from a Command Prompt (cmd). 888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062 is (not surprisingly) the same for all Windows XP/Server 2003, Vista and Windows 7/Server 2008 computers!
Having "convinced" me that they knew who I was they then took me to www.logmein123.com (the real front end for connecting to a technician using LogMeIn Rescue) and gave me the important 6 digit code, which I'm reliably informed is of use to LogMeIn in tracking these people down.
So if you can string them along and they decide to use LogMeIn Rescue to take over your computer, get as far as writing down the code and the current time of day, then cut the caller off and submit a support ticket to LogMeIn with the code and time that it was created.
As a further note, Webologist has a good writeup of their experiences and a few further tips.
August 9, 2012, Richard Milne says:
They're still at it - but from three angles: (1) Telephone call. Adam from India claims he's based in London: 'Teche4PC is closing down and we are Western Union UK who want to give back the $200 (£120) you paid to T4 in March 2012.' Teche4's own website says it does not accept payment from WU. Phone down. (2) Apparently they're still in business because a phone call from another Indian caller saying he's based in London - with an English name - tells me 'We have reason to believe your computer has been affected and we are the support team you paid for to put it right. Please turn on your computer.' Meaning give them remote access - and more money?
(3) Indian again - English name - 'Your cover has run out and you need to renew' (after six months?)
All calls, I suspect, from the same room/Indian call centre.
It's a scam, all right and the calls are now coming several times a week.
Just hang up - as I should have done.
August 14, 2012, Robert Andrews says:
Yes they are still at it; we got a return phone number from them, (209) 676-4447. They phoned three times, played dumb like one of the previous posters, until they clued in.
Yes they are still at it; we got a return phone number from them, (209) 676-4447. They phoned three times, played dumb like one of the previous posters, until they clued in. They also went by the name ZANEKIBRIYA007.
August 17, 2012, Barbara Lorraine says:
Got the same call today. They called several times and I finally answered it. I fell for it until they asked for money at which point I knew it was a scam. The name I was given was: Ron Melvine Murray, however since every person I talked to had an Indian accent, I doubt the name was real. The phone number is the same as the above post.
August 20, 2012, Vince says:
best thing for this international routing server is to upload a virus of your own and have it accept your upload prior to your machine accepting theirs and after your virus completes, cut connection...that would be great, screw up their entire phone system... :-)
I had call from them today also and informed them that I was "info Tech Specialist" and before I could accept their instruction on how to repair my computer that he had to take a toaster and plug it in and hold it while he turns on water to make a good antenna connection since i was wireless.. yeah, they hung up..
August 21, 2012, Theo Gray says:
Good to see LogMeIn have now updated their landing page so that if a technician is using a trial version of LogMeIn then the user is presented with a big warning before allowing the technician to access their machine.
Presumably this will push these scammers to either use other similar websites instead, or they will just buy a few subscriptions to LogMeIn Rescue (so that the warning message is not displayed).
September 5, 2012, Jack Burns says:
I have gone through your website and seen many member comments. I know how you guys feel. It's funny i am textin you coz i work for a company who just doesn't seem to stop scamming people in the name of technical support.We are told to give jazz about the IRS. They are scammers and you guy's should get them. The company name is Ceylon Infotech and they are located at Delta 1, Sixth floor,Ceylon Infotech, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Any one having the number of microsoft should call them and provide them the COMPANY information so the defaulters could be put to task. N yes! Would love if my name would not be mentioned coz i sure dont want to get into trouble with these guys.
September 8, 2012, ChefKthy says:
I was at home and got a call from an out of area call. Man with india acscent said he was call from the international rounting system. That he was a helpdesk for PC. His name was Austin and he was calling from Wilmington Deleware. I played along with him after I quickly closed everything and shut my computer down. He wanted me to go to a www.ammyy.com I played along. He gave me a telephone #. I pretended I lost hime then called the #. you could tell it was a cell #. He called me back. When I expressed my curiosity that no one from such a big company would answer a phone he said I must mave called the wrong #. Later on I called it again and a guy answered it. Then about 10 minutes later a female called the house saying she was with the company and to call if I wanted them to help me.I got the city, the telephone #. the site he wanted me to go to. All that info and I can't stop this_____ from doing this to someone else that is eldely or is too young to know better. i am SO mad kat
September 11, 2012, Kiote says:
Aloha.....I live on the Big Island of Hawaii and I received the phone call last night. Very unprofessional and sounded like an Hispanic accent to me...this woman gave the name of Sam...saying she was representing Microsoft and that I had too much junk being sent to my computer and that she would talk me thru how to remove it. I said, no way and hung up. She called me right back..unbelievable! I asked for her phone number...209 676-4447
and company name which she said was Coastal Computing out of California....I told her I'd check them out on Yelp and hung up again. After putting the telephone number in google, this site came up. Thank you for having it. Mahalo!
September 19, 2012, Tenzing says:
Lmfao I was sleeping and this indian dude calls me..abt error report being send to microsoft as far as i know my pc is clean and nothing of that sort is happening. He tries to tell me what to do then I just tell him I will just reformat my pc if needed. He goes but blah blah error report again got tired of it and told him I will just disable the automatic error report lol then i check google i see this hahaha man going for 2 years epic how cna this guy be doing it still?
September 22, 2012, Dave says:
I do tech support for a living. Happened to be at a client's house when he got a call from "Microsoft" letting him know that his computer was infected and that he'd help him clean it up. My client just handed me the phone. I had the bugger going for 45 full minutes, pretending to be a complete oaf. My client was laughing so hard, after 10 minutes, he started feeding me beer, so the call just got funnier. When these morons call, keep them on the line for as long as you can. Maybe when they start losing time/money they'll go find something else to do.
September 29, 2012, Richard Masey says:
Australia. Adelaide.
I have been called by these scammers several times a week over the last few months. The first time I was a little shaken because it was so plausible. I didn't let them take control of my computer though so was safe.
Now if I am busy, I just hang up but if I have some time to spare, I pretend to go for it.
After the usual spiel, I quiz them to validate their credentials, (they have answers for everything & tell lots of lies.)
During this process I note their tone of voice as they become frustrated with my dumbness, I then interrupt their spiel & ask them(with a very pleasant manner) if they have had a bad day because they don't sound very happy, then I ask if they are getting enough sleep.
Ignoring what they say in reply I ask if their conscience is bothering them as the bad Karma of telling so many lies & trying to cheat people is most likely making them very sick & that they should see a Dr. ASAP before they drop dead & are reincarnated as an insect.
This usually totally throws them & before they have time to finish protesting, I hit them with the punch line :-
I know you are an evil cheating bastard because I don't own a computer, I have an android tablet & everything you have told me is absolute garbage.
If you have thin skin hang up because the above usually invokes a tirade of abuse that reveals the true nature of these idiots.
If you are thick skinned then have a good laugh at the person going nuts!
So if you have the time to waste, go for it, play dumb, make them repeat every thing over & over until they lose it. The longer you keep them, the less chance they have to scam some one else.
In summary there is no such thing as the IRS so that is lie no1.
Your computer does not send out error messages apart from software crashes that get sent to Microsoft if you have Error reporting enabled.
The event log that they get you to look at always has errors & warnings even on a computer that has never connected to the internet.
This is normal & nothing to worry about.
Do not let them persuade you to connect to any website or run a program to control your computer.
They will trash your computer & steal your private info.
Thanks to the author of this blog for helping so many avoid this scam. A true Hero.
October 3, 2012, Seb says:
Had one today too - strung them along as long as possible.
He asked me to Run "inf hhackingfiles" and press Enter.
Talking to the manager, I obediently followed his request to good the International Router Department before informing him that Google lists it as a scam. He rung off mid-sentence.
October 3, 2012, Heather says:
Just got off a similar phone call about 10 minutes ago. Indian male calling up and telling me he was responding to the error reports my computer sent out due to a recent software installation. Just enough truth to catch my attention, as a recent update in an MMORPG I play was causing some odd crashes and I'd sent out a few error reports as a result.
I'm not really a computer person. But my best friend IS. Whenever I have a computer issue, he's the first one I call. So when this guy called up and started giving me the weirdest instructions (starting with press the flag key + R at the same time), I started asking questions.
"What is that going to do?" (I already knew)
"Why do you want me to do that?" ("I'm trying to help you fix the problem")
"Which problem?" ("The problem with your software"
"Which software?" ("The ones that keep sending out error reports.")
"Yes, you said that. But which software, specifically, are you trying to fix?" (Your antivirus software.)
"What antivirus software?" (The one interfering with Windows)
By this time, I'd not only texted my computer friend, I had him on Skype, listening to me talk to this guy. He was laughing his butt off in one ear, while the Indian man was getting frustrated with me in another.
"Ok, but specifically, which antivirus software?" (YOUR antivirus software)
"Yes, so you've said. Surely you KNOW which antivirus software I use, though, since it's apparently sending you error messages." (Ma'am, do you wish me to help you or not? Because I am trying to help you solve the errors in your software)
"And as soon as you tell me exactly which antivirus software programs you're wanting to fix, I will be more than happy to cooperate with you." (Nortan Antivirus)
"Um.... I don't HAVE Nortan Antivirus. You seem to have been misinformed by the error reporting system." (According to our error reports, Norton Antivirus is causing the problems with your computer software.)
"Ok, tell you what... I know I've never installed Norton on my computer. Now I'm going to let you talk to the man who built the computer and installed most of the software for me. HE'll tell you how he never installed Norton, either. While you're doing this, I'm going to be calling the authorities and reporting the number on my callerID...
... he hung up.
October 26, 2012, Morris says:
They called my senior aged father last night. The call first started with an Indian female and she passed the call to the Indian male and my fathers recollection of the conversation sounds identical to the steps they have given everyone. Problem he followed them up to the point of filling out the form and entering his credit card info before he called me when I had him shut off his computer immediately.
October 31, 2012, Helen says:
I get these guys every now and again on my ex-directory home number. I work for a software company and we only use macs, so I generally have a laugh with them, unless I'm busy. Usually I ask them for their name, the name of their company, to repeat everything, to spell it for me and then I say "Wait a minute while I get a pen". At this point they usually put the phone down.
November 6, 2012, Michael Young says:
Hi & Hello All
Just thought I'd add a post here as I was approached by these guys at the "International Routing System" I originally posted here..eatonbray.com/news/2010/07/international-routing-system-scam its quite a long post submitted on the 24 Sep 2012 and another on 20 oct 2012. I wnted to pass this info around to as many sites as I could.
Here is the original post...
"Well looks like these guys are realy busy. I reside in Australia and I have been taken in by these guys to. It cost me about 125.00 AUD for my subscription. These guys came across as genuine. They have a fully functional website and support sevices.It was very convincing. I only subcribed to this as I travel a lot and I needed to set up something for my wife. I didn't reserch this properly!I am quite fluent with a computer and many of the things you do to keep a machine secure. I get a regular call from these guys and I let them successfully fix my machine ONCE and they did a pretty good job too, but after that they would blank out the screens and hide what they were doing.I shut them down twice after that by turning off the Router. They ask questions like how many machines use this network. They tell me I have viruses and get me to run the inf directory or the event viewer. They once tried to convince me that my IP address was compromised and tried to sell me a new one! Beware of this as this has to be a scam. I had them on the conection sharing when I was being told that these error messages were "Hacking Files" and "viruses" so I proceeded to do a virus check on the file whilst she watched she managed to stop me from running a scan on the file and subsequent directory I turned off the router, She passed the phone to her "Supevisor". During one of these sessions after I told them that they would only be permitted access to my machine if I could see every move they make. they agreed I allowed access. The Tech then ran the Command promt. I noticed that MSE had been disabled and he proceeded to ping other computers I took control and shut down the router. I received another call from them about 2 hours ago trying the same stunt with someone different. I again refused access to the machine. He asked me to run thr INF command so I went outside for a cigarette. I told him I was following his directions. He said all the files in that directory were infected. "Oh realy I said,Ive just run a scan on these files whilst talking to you. They are clean. I then told him I'd spoken with Microsoft's Tech Support and they DO NOT CONTRACT OUT THEIR TECH SERVICES. They do it all themselves (this realy makes sense when you think about it!). I then asked him to send me proof that they are a Microsoft accredited sevice agent so I could varify the information with Microsoft AUST. He politely said goodbye and hung up. I have found mention of these clowns on the IC3 website and left a similar comment there. I went to GRC.COM and run some external scans for peace of mind.I ran another external scan and also ran the resident security software as a precaution. These people do provide the service they sell however I am sure they are stealing personal information, software keys, passwords etc. I also discovered that they cant see a split screen I run 2 screens with indipendant windows.(Not in Extended screen mode, They couldn't view the secondary screen.This was quite handy to know. I could move things around such as the ICS command window ans ome of the other crap they would attempt to install and run.All this and more has happened in about 4 sessions and I have deliberately made it dificult because from the second session they started doing things I wouln't expect from a sevice here in Australia to do. Unfortunately there are no laws in this country at present to prosecute a Tech for copying your info on your drives whilst doing authorised repair and maitenancehence. So AUSTRALIANS BEWARE YOU ARE NOT LEGALLY PROTECTED.The crime is if they use the info without permission. They can even steal your photo collections according to Channel Seven Current Affairs. I could continue but read some of the posts you dont need to read to many before you get the idea.Put in the teche4pc.com address at the IC3 website and your search will provide you with all the answers you need if you doubt the posts here. Mum always said "Where there is smoke there is fire" Something is not quite right with this Tech Spt buisiness,so buyer beware."
The following is particularly for Australians as I reside Iin Adelaide and this site is ".com.au"
Should be good general info for all for those that are interested. I located some interesting info at the following site
Windows Event Viewer phishing scam remains active........
Microsoft at a loss over Event Viewer scam....
Try these its a good read
December 6, 2012, Jacques says:
It's 6 December 2012 and they're still at it! Received a call from an Indian speaking gentleman (Paul) yesterday and thereafter was handed to a Mr Matthews who wanted me to give them remote access to my pc. My big concern is that a few hours before I actually placed a call with my ISP regarding a problem with my router. Where did they get my number as it is not listed in the telephone directory?
After asking Mr Matthews the name of the company and the IP address of the computer generating the errors on the international routing service, the line just went dead.
January 5, 2013, Charles says:
Today, 05 January 2013, had a phone call from a man named Sam with Indian English, trying to tell me he was from the Intrenational Routing Department and that I have infections on my computer and if I don't delete them the computer may crash. He told me to turn on the computer and he would help me with getting rid of the infectiones. Being very suspicious I said I don't have time right now. He said he is going to ring back tomorrow. Good luck, I will tell him to bugger off and hang up. I live in Ausrtralia.
January 21, 2013, Lucas Scheffold says:
I have also been called up by a indian lady a cupple of times the last days. First time she called her self Sandra Thopsen and to day her name was Linda (but the same voice) She works for a company called Univeral IT Helpdesc. To day I asked her how she tracked me but she coldn't answer, she just told med she got the information from "International Routing System" She said I hade to talk with one of the technisians but no one was avalible. I told her that I've been shecking out the registrer information about her company an d tha that I will contact the swedish police about they are trying to hack my computer. She was calling from a computer ant the call was interuped. Ishecked out the information about universalhelpdesk.com on a site called who.is (name.com) and the site is ovned by Abhinav Singh, 70 Saklia School Road, Hovrah, West Bengal 711107. Phone: +91 9007646700 and E-mail adress is: [email protected]
Maybe I will contact the swedish police but anyway the storry looks just the same as yours so the hacking attemps seems to continiue. This was Lucas Scheffold from Sweden
I just called international IT helpdask.com in Bengal. A man was answering and first he told me that he did not know anything about the company but after a while he told me that he was the person. I told him the story and that i will contact the police. Then i answered "No wait, no problem, we will send the money back to you. I asked him "How, do you got my account information?" "No, but the transferring company still got it" he said" "It will just take 24 to 28 hours" Then the call was interrupted. The point is I never send them any money or gave them any account number. Quite interesting, is n't it?
Lucas Scheffold, Sweden
I just received a call from an Indian man with the phone number only displayed as being overseas saying he was from Celon and the International Routing System had sent them information that my computer was sending messages to Microsoft advising that there were errors in my computer and it wasn't able to update. He wanted me to type something into my search bar and that would allow him to see my IP address. I told him that I had not received any errors whilst using the computer and if it wasn't being updated then I didn't really care. I did not enter the code, so I hope that means they have not been able to access any information. When I asked where he got my phone number from he said it was from the International routing system - it all seemed a bit strange to me. Im on the Central Coast, NSW and hope that no-one else falls victim to these hackers.
February 15, 2013, Rick says:
Called by "Ceylon Technical Support" today and yesterday. They said my computer was generating errors when applying errors from Microsoft. I asked where this is being reported and he said "Microsoft International Routing Server" (IRS). He gave me his number so I could call him back: 855-888-8158. I told him I would have to call Microsoft to verify his information before I could talk to him anymore. He went away until someone else called the next day about the same exact thing. GEEZ! I guess if I can keep them on the phone it's less other people they have time to call but my time is worth something to me. I'm sure they'll call tomorrow and I'll tell them that I called Microsoft and they said their company is a scam. We'll see what they say.
February 28, 2013, Butch Duryea says:
I received a similar call from a woman,sounded perhaps Indian, who identified herself as an employee of Microsoft. No caller ID #. She showed me a list of error messages on my computer, and offered to correct the problem simply by connecting to my computer. I asked her for an email address, which she gave as: windowsg[email protected] When she asked if I was ready to connect, I asked her for a phone#, which she dodged by stressing the urgency of my situation. I then indicated that I would contact the email address and get back to her. She immediately terminated the call. When I googled the email address, I was directed to your site. Thanks!
March 20, 2013, Victoria Riegel says:
I recently recieved a call from them. They claimed to be my office max support team, that i had just bought w/ my new laptop month ago! after finding that they we NOT I quickly ended the call & contacted office max & Toshiba & got my problem fixed! My concern is while thinking they were office max & allowing them into my computer could they have been hacking into it themselves? Stealing information? Is there anyway to make a formal complaint w/ possibilities of consequences to them? I am so freaked out that they & anyone else was in my computer & I have recently purchased a lot on a credit card & applied for credit cards on my computer. How do i check if any of that info was taken??
March 25, 2013, Soras says:
Hitting up the Kern County area of Bakersfield Ca as we speak. Who the flip calls on a Sunday night. I allowed them access to my comp and I am making Changes as we speak. I hung up before I fell for the scam part after my fiancé called me and told me that it happened to his mom a few days ago. Avoid Microsoft 35 Technical Support of India. She got pretty pissy with me. I'm kind of scared right now. Haha
326-172-0000 Avoid it.
April 22, 2013, Colin says:
Wales, UK. 'Daniel' called 10 minutes ago regarding the traffic I'm disrupting. A very strong Indian accent. Although I understood him perfectly, I kept getting him to repeat various words. He got more and more agitated the longer I strung him out. He eventually screamed that I'm a 'bullshit person' then hung up. Looks like Daniel and I won't be swapping birthday cards!
May 29, 2013, N says:
I just received a call from a "Private Number" (on caller ID) from a couple of different people who sounded of Indian descent telling me they were from Windows security team and that they've been receiving messages from my computer saying it's been hacked. They wanted me to Type the Windows key with the R key (for the Run window). Then they wanted to me type www.msn4u.tk. I have no idea what this is but wanted to warn other people (then I found this blog from the Window security site so I see it's happened to many.) I told the guy he was crazy if he thought I was actually going to do this. Then he told me to "shut up". Despicable but really stupid hacker people. It's disgusting that such people are in this world trying to hurt other people
June 12, 2013, Gina M. says:
Well, he is still busy trying to scam folks down here in Memphis Tennessee USA. Indian man saying that he's from Microsoft and I had a problem with my Computer. I told him "yeah , I got a problem alright, cause I don't have a computer" Ha! I do but it's a Mac , lol. These people are SO sneaky but they better be careful down south. Don't piss off the rednecks:)
July 1, 2013, Kiroshen Govender says:
Hi, I just got a call from these people today! Claiming they are a division of windows and even knew what operating system I'm running. This indian guy asked me to run eventsvwr and showed off a few errors and then asked me to run a website. But luckily my internet was disconnected. I asked how do I know they aren't going to be the 'threat' on my computer. The indian guy got a bit pissed so I quickly googled the company's name and found this blog. And he hung up! So thank you Theo Gray! :D
July 18, 2013, Tara says:
My 86 yr. old mother just received a call from these people. Luckily she asked me to take the call because she couldn't understand what he was saying. He was Indian and claimed to be a certified Microsoft Technician working with Indigo. I asked him why he was getting error messages from MY computer. He gave me some round about answer. Then I asked him several times if it was from a computer at the address of the phone number he had called and he said yes. I told him he had called an 86 year old woman and she doesn't even own a computer. He asked a couple of times, "There's NO computer?" And when I told him no every time, he hung up. I'm so glad my mother doesn't have a computer because she is exactly the kind of person who would fall for this. As it was, she was very confused and upset. Grrrr.
August 14, 2013, Michael Young says:
Just a quick follow up on the last post I made. They are now trying anything and everything to get at my machine. They are now targeting my wife. I've wiped the hard drive changed security software. I was using Microsoft security essentials and changed back to zone alarm. Killed the CC and am about to change the Ph number. Rang the Aussie FEDS and they are aware of the scam and unable to assist, but that was another scam I think these curry munchers are running.
Go here to see some of what's going on http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900.
Talk to your ISP they may be able to help. Another one now is to pose as an officer of the ATO and wanting to pay back some of your taxes . I had to laugh at that the federal Aust govt handing out cash ...yeah right our pollies are to busy filling their pockets to have time for their constituents! but this character wanted $299.00 first then the ATO would refund $4288 in a tax refund. HA! Had to go to the car park at Craigmore Shopping centre in Sth Aust then ring a Canberra number to let them know I was there. When I questioned him about what dept or office he was in he hung up and refused to take my calls. I am sure it is the same guys running the computer scams talked about here. If its not one Idea they try another. Just thought you should Know
September 18, 2013, Steve says:
Got the call from "steve" tonight in California. 10 PM too. Same stuff. wouldn't give me his phone number. Came up as 326-172-0000 just hung up on him after he refused to share his number with me.
September 28, 2013, Tony says:
Got the same call tonight. Private name, private number. He was trying to tell me that my area routing department was the issue and that they were calling everyone in my neighbourhood. Sheesh, I sure hope my neighbours don't fall for it. Crazy thing is, when we chatted about how "the internet gets into my home" he said that it was my local router. When I suggested that I could just replace my router, he went back to the cause being the area routing department. Not too smart, that guy!!
same... i JUST got this call... 2 idiot pakistanis... gave me a load of bull and guided me to a site... a legit (albeit Russian) site where u can give permission for any dumbass to access your desktop.... computer....
I played stupid and kept them on the line for about 25 mins, before i started 'reading' things on my desktop about his promiscuous Mother, and elephantsexual dad.
It took him 5 more minutes to call me a name before he hung up.
I encourage all to try this... it was FUN!!
Here is the note i left at the 'legit' RU desktop-sharing site.
www.ammyy.com/en/index.
pakistanis using your site to gain access to my computer
i got a call informing me of virus and trojans in my computer.
these morons (2 of them) led me to your site to get me to grant them access to my system, but they were a little too stupid.
Your site is being used by idiot thieves.
my cousins are from RU... maybe they have friends nearby who can stop by and inquire further. I will get back to you on this.
December 5, 2013, Alex says:
I just had this happen. The same number called my house three times and so I decided to answer the third time.
An E.Indian lady was on the other end and it was very difficult to hear her. Same speech and everything.
I don't know a lot about computers but I thought it was odd that they were calling me...To get any help ever you have to call someone and wait on the phone for an hour.
Each time I told her that I did not trust her she would come up wit another story that didn't fully match the first one.
So I said goodbye - I am curious if anyone will try to call again...
January 9, 2014, chris says:
When I am browsing on Safari,a pop -up sometimes splits my screen saying that the state police is protecting my computer and that all the info.is being directed to them. I am unable to remove the warning or safari so I shutdown my computer manually and restart. I have an imac. I have had calls twice from the same source. Is this the same situation?
January 25, 2014, Mick Young says:
Just thought I'd add to my previous submission regarding the Indian Scam. We moved house to be closer to the kids schools. New address and a new Phone number (Unpublished), New credit card. We got one phone call from them. I complained to the Feds again, The telecommunications Ombudsmans office and to Optus, all done in writing. Not a peep in months. Something worked. The characters had a setup in Canberra, something to do with territory laws. Its all quiet on the Southern Front so far so lets hope it stays that way! Just continue to Ignore them (or antagonise them) the seem to lose interest after a while!
Cheers and good luck
February 28, 2014, Tom S says:
The caller ID said 'asterisk' and I knew about this scam already so I thought I'd have a little fun at their expense.
The woman said she was from Microsoft 35 Global Technical Department and my computer was sending viruses and malicious malwares through the GRS (Global Routing System). I asked her what my IP address and computer name was but she didn't know. I asked how she knew it was my computer sending the malicious malwares and she didn't know. She said my phone number was what had tipped them off. I said my phone isn't connected to my computer.
Every time we strayed from the script she seemed to stumble. I felt sorry for her but I was hoping someone higher up the food chain would get on the phone.
She had me run event viewer and try to delete one of the administrative events (looks pretty bad since it only shows errors and warnings). She tried to convince me that she had my Windows license number by reading the last 12 digits of the CLSID for the 'ZFSendToTarget' file extension.
When she had me open the browser and go to their website (www.onlinerepairworld.com\a3), I told her my computer had crashed (it had not). She said I should go to the store to buy another one and hung up.
I kept her and several 'tech supervisors' busy for 30 minutes so at least they weren't calling other people that might fall for the scam.
March 4, 2014, Fonzzy says:
So I get this call, from this middle eastern guy stating that my computer had malicious malware and was sending reports to " The International Routing System". I was about to hang up, but since i was already using my laptop, if figured lets look this up. So while Talking to him I keep on asking him where he is from and how is the weather out there ( while I was getting ready for my computer to load). So he keeps on insisting to do what he tells me, and I tell him " Whats the rush buddy? Is it almost time for you to clock out?" I guess he caught on to that I knew it was a scam and he just clicked on me.
This is not the first time I get calls like this, i've gotten clls where some random family member is stranded in Mexico and they need money. Of course I didnt bought that. Also, one where they are from the electric company and that they are going to come and cut off my service because I havent payed. Hope this little paragraphs help people out there so they wont fall for this scams.
Have a blessed day everybody!!
March 8, 2014, Dekyrob says:
Just had a charming guy says his name was Rajah Wilson and he was from the international routing server Microsoft and that my pc was about to crash and i said really give me your number and i will call you back he gave a number 861020235 and i said where is that mate he says Sydney Australia I know that is not the area code for Sydney these guys are persistent they have rang me 4 times in the past two days don't give any info to these people
April 11, 2014, Hassan says:
I got a phone call from an Indian man who supposedly said I had a nasty virus on my computer. I went along with it for awhile as he kept saying he was from the GRS or something like that. When he asked me to download this anti virus thing, I was really skeptical. I googled it and found that a lot of other people were getting the same. These guys have nothing better to do with their life. I just hope they don't have any of our information
April 11, 2014, Ashleigh says:
Just had the same thing happen to me. The usual your computer is sending error messages to the "international Routing System" googled it and of course was a scam, idian lady that rang didn't sound very pleased after I practically yelled at her and told her what I thought of her.
May 14, 2014, Ray says:
This is quite a group of folks. I got a phone call from man sounded like India accent. He told me The IRS(Internal Router Systems) informed his company (which he never would name) my computer had a virus or something worse. It is really quite a coincidence; my computer will not even boot up. I am on netbook now searching for a solution. I have not more than 2 months been on wireless broadband. Never had this problem on dialup.
Anyway he was talking like he was wanting to sell me computer software/ computer. I told him , I wasn't interested, I have 2 more computers I have to use while I get this other one fixed. He then wanted to know if I wanted to talk to his Supervisor. I said no. He was dissapointed (Sound in his voice), I hung up.
the caller ID showed 9 digits
412245685 no gaps between numbers.
May 19, 2014, Rob says:
This is a fun thread. 5/19/2014, guy just called. Said much of what you all listed above. I asked most of the same fun questions. I had to. The conversation had a high humor quotient. Partially because I work at MS. Searching http://www.Bing.com after the call ended found this blog at the top of the answers list. Thanks, everyone. This was fun.
May 28, 2014, LYNN says:
At 9:22pm I received a call from an Indian lady stating she was from Global routing Systems in London UK. Her number showed a Michigan number. She said the same thing as what you all have said, being from Microsoft. I wasted her time for about ten minutes. She wanted me to close all my browsers and I said no. She was pretty persistent.
July 1, 2014, Bill Pitts says:
I had the same experience as all of the above. I insisted on getting a call back number. The women persisted on pushing her spiel. I persisted on getting a call back number. Eventually,
she gave in. The number she gave was (888) 577-4003. I hung up and called this number. I got a different person who wanted to push the same spiel.
July 15, 2014, T Lowe says:
Same deal here. I played with them for a while. They threatened to call the FBI on me because I was being mean and rude, but they continued to call back. I asked for a call back number and they gave me 888-771-6962 which I'm sure is routed right back to their queue.
August 19, 2014, Tamyeh says:
I knew it was a scam when I heard the background noise, not a typical call center atmosphere. Anyhow, I'm always skeptical when people contact me first attempting to offer me a service out of "concern". He just assumed I had Microsoft, which I didn't. Just bought a new Mac, so yeah scam all the way. I don't know why these scammers call with an identifiable number i.e. Texas directory assistance.
August 25, 2014, H. RICHARD HEMMINGS says:
He's aaaack.... And very nasty... with and unknown nuname and number - of course....
October 8, 2014, fresh says:
I have been called twice in the last month
October 14, 2014, irene says:
I just had same call but he said he was from talk talk, I asked why he wanted me to do this he said have you done cntrl r yet, I replied no and why do you want me to do this, he said have you done it yet, I hung up and googled. So it's been going on few years then...........
I've had two calls that I'm aware of in two weeks, first time my son answered but thankfully he hung up too.
October 15, 2014, scambaiter says:
called them on speaker phone at work and made fun of them till they cussed me out. I said the most horrible things one can say. Then I kept calling and putting them on hold, making these criminals listen to hold music. They are the worst scammers
October 16, 2014, Tod says:
They even affect France now. I received a similar call this morning. The guy with a strong Indian accent told me that he is calling from Manchester (UK) to tell me that my computer is infected. He wanted me to make me run the ASSOC command. I replied to go to hell and hung up on him!
November 25, 2014, Kat says:
Got a call just now on my mobile phone as I am at work. (in the U.S. by the way) I asked what computer they were talking about. He said, "Well the one you are on right now." My response was "Really? because i'm on my work computer which has significant virus protection and is set up to not allow me to download much of anything." Not surprisingly they hung up on me. :)
February 5, 2015, Marsha H. says:
I am in Massachusetts in the United States and these people have been calling me for the last 2 months.
There is a woman and a man both have Indian accents. They always hang up after I ask them questions about their company. I got yelled at by the man when I asked what company is the International Routing Department a part of...he did say he worked for a department which implies that there is a company or organization :)
February 11, 2015, Freddie samuel says:
I received the same kind of call just some minutes ago..i believe he was pretending to be a worker of england but he got an australian accent..
February 25, 2015, RM says:
Almost 5 years and these tw*ts are still at it. Got a call from some heavily accented Indian woman today (my wife tells me they have called quite a few times). She thinks my windows pc is infected and she got my details from the IRS. She claimed to be calling from some company called BC something or other. I immediately told her that I was registered on the TPS and that she was breaking the law by calling me.......and then the line went dead.
March 11, 2015, MissKitty says:
I've been getting a call from these people on an almost weekly basis. Last caller with Indian accent said his company was 'I-Security-Vep' in Austin, Texas. Told me they have detected a security infection on my windows pc. Telling them I have a MAC did not deter them.
April 30, 2015, CM says:
I got a call today from a man with an Indian accent calling himself "James Matthews" . He said he was from Talk Talk and that he wanted to sort out some internet traffic coming from my computer at midnight to 2.15am. he wanted me to open my computer and go through things with him to cure it. I said I hadn't got time. I asked for his phone number which he refused to give saying they were not allowed to give that out. I then said I would look into it and hung up.
May 13, 2015, Ang says:
Just got the same call, I proceeded to tell him I was a programmer and to get to his point, brave soul continued with his BS, so I just kept say ok and yep and I finally got bored and hung up.
May 20, 2015, Julie says:
This man just called us claiming to be TalkTalk. He told us our full address, name and give a number for our TalkTalk account (which wasn't right). He then told me to press flag and 'R' on the phone, which I didn't as I knew something wasn't right. When I asked him why I had to do this, he told me that my files had been hacked and he was securing my account. Then because I still wouldn't press those buttons on the handset he said that I was "wasting his time" and told me to "f**k off" and dropped the phone. Lesson learned, never answering numbers like this again! Please don't answer, defo a scam.
August 5, 2015, Claytunes says:
Just keep them on the phone for as long as you can stand it, then ask for the supervisor, then keep him on the phone for a bit. Then tell them it would be in their best interest to take your name off their calling list because the next time you'll keep them on the phone for even longer, thereby making it impossible for them to make any money during that time.
November 24, 2015, Frank says:
Just got a call from "David Richards, based in New York". I'm in Toronto Canada.
"David" had a strong India accent, telling me to use a +1 in front of the phone number he quoted as being for his company "technocure.org".
I told him his mother would be ashamed of him for telling lies to people to steal their money. Impressively he stuck to his script.
After 5 minutes or so, I calmly asked to be removed from the call list.
The website actually exists and looks somewhat authentic - it's obvious from reading it, English was not the first language of whomever wrote it.
I called the phone number, and it was answered by a gentleman with an albeit better english accent who admitted the company was located in Southern India. He continued the "virus script" when I told him that I wasn't interested.
They're getting smart by creating a site and a call-back number that will indeed fool some people into proceeding.
Spread the word of the scam.
Keep them on the phone as long as possible without divulging any personal info. Talk jibberish, don't "educate" them on their tell-tale mistakes to make them better con-artists.
May 11, 2016, Humored and Amused says:
It looks as though he's back at it again. Today was the second time in as many weeks that the same caller has identified himself as being from the "International Routing Department", gave a well thought out delivery and ultimately hung up on me when I asked him the second time what Agency he represented. So, beware out there....and stop giving out your personal information to strangers over the phone. (seriously folks)
Salutations from Phx
May 24, 2017, Jeff J says:
I got 3 calls from these clowns yesterday. And I was able to get one to give me his actual phone number under the pretense of "just in case we get disconnected." It was 245-859-4186 x3864669382.
June 13, 2017, Bec E says:
I just got my 5th call from them in a week... They talk so fast and there is so much noise in the background it is hard to hear what they are saying... I asked a few questions the caller then put his supervisor on the phone... I told him I can gone along with them on all this 7 years ago and they crashed my computer... and I was not going to let them do it to me again.. I then asked them (again) to remove my number from their calling list since I was not going to play their games and hung up.. I am sure this will not be the last time I hear from them but I sure hope so.. More people need to know they are doing another round of fake calls like this and to find a way to stop them...
September 8, 2017, Amy says:
I got a called from -248-53-4490.
He said he was from the International Routing System saying there is an error message in their system that my VPN is leaking out information. He hung up when I asked him where he was calling from.
October 17, 2017, Leonard says:
Called from 507-260-7697. He said it was VP Support. Their Marketing Dept. received notification from International Routing System, which "my router uses to go to websites" that my computer was full of errors and causing problems. When I asked how he could face his mother he hung up.
Looks like the scammers are trying to revive a dead meme. I just got a call from 313 241 0525 claiming to be VT Services. They said my system sent messages to the "International Routing Service" but couldn't tell me which machine, my IP, nothing. LOL. Next time they call, I'm answering the phone in spanish.
July 25, 2019, Linda LeBrun says:
As of 10 minutes ago this scam is still in operation. I had never heard of it so I asked the very nice Indian/Pakistani-sounding lady a few leading questions and figured out that yes, it certainly sounded like a scam, so advised her to get a legitmate job, like prostitute or something.
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You are reading "The International Routing System scam", an article posted on 26 July 2010.
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