This afternoon my office received a phone call from “800”. I had just finished one project and was reviewing my notes when this popped up. In a good place to deal with random distraction, I opted to grab the call. As the tech-savviest of my office mates, I’m glad I got this one.
Female Robot Voice: “Your Windows license has expired and your account has been compromised…” at which point, I hung up. Now, a malicious part of me thought I should’ve played this up and trolled the phisher, but, no. I do have a ton of real work to do. Stuff that brings money into the company. But I really did want to disturb these creeps.
It’s not the first of these phishing phone calls I’ve received, just the first one like this one. Different verbiage, different delivery mechanism, but, in the end, the same deal.
So, no, this isn’t legit. No, Microsoft isn’t monitoring YOUR computer. Oh, and Windows licenses don’t “expire”. Last but not least, whether it’s a phone call or a pop-up on your browser, your machine probably isn’t compromised. Exception: if the antivirus software YOU installed is telling you this, it might be legit. In that case, along with anything repeatedly popping up on your computer, consult an expert.
