they called to say my operating system was not working correctly and wanted to fix it on line

Same thing, they wanted to fix my computer on line.  I called Dell, McAfee, and Microsoft.  None of them know who these people are.  They said that they work with Microsoft technical engineers.  Gotta be a scam.

We had the same thing. When I didn't go along with them, they also said they would have to shut down my computer because it wasn't just mine that was getting infected every time I used the internet, but that it was infecting others on the www. I get this call about weekly. The person always has the same thick accent, I'm guessing India, today with the name of "Brad". The more information I collect from them, they eventually hang up on me.

I just had the same thing happen to me. They told me that they were "Windows Technical Dept." and that my computer was rigged and was sending out a lot of error messages. I figured it was a scam and asked to take his name and number down. He would not give me his name but gave me 201-259-2658. I told him that I'd have my husband call him back. I immediately "googled" the number to learn that others had been called by this scammer, too.