Received the call tonight that my computer had a virus. I asked how he knew and he said there was a chip installed that was sending Microsoft a message. He asked me to go to my computer so he could fix it. I said I wasn't at home and then asked me to call back when I was in front of my computer. I asked how I knew if he was in the up and up...he hung up.

Cot a call from someone who could barely speak english and said they were from Microsoft and my computer was sending out crash notices.  This is absolutely a scam!!!  Don't have a windows system.

Yes. these people are thieves. It is good that the respondents here realize that fact, although some call them scammers. They must be able to manipulate people into allowing them to take control of their computers. Once they have achieved that control, they render the computer inoperable, until you pay a fee to have them restore it to working condition again. It is surprising that they are able to succeed. Another place to be cautious, is using google to search for phone support say for a Canon printer. Scammers manage to manipulate google to place them at the top of the list, and they try to look like a genuine support site for Canon. In this instance you have to look carefully at the address of the site to make sure that it is a real Canon site, or whatever site you are looking for. Excuse the preposition.

Didn't leave a message for me but if as others have stated they claim to be from Microsoft this is a well-known and long-running scam.

Of course Microsoft isn't going to call you up because they detected a problem with your computer.

Microsoft even addresses this on their website:
     https://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx

[quote]
Neither Microsoft nor our partners make unsolicited phone calls (also known as cold calls) to charge you for computer security or software fixes.
[/quote]

Got it too, this hacker scam is well k own to microsoft a d the u s atty office.  DO NOT ANS CALLS OR QUESTION OR LET THEM INTO YOUR COMPutor or wifi