Called and left no message. I do not know anyone in Canada so likely a scam, telemarketer or wrong number.

the man, from India, said he worked for microsoft and wanted to get into our computer.  He said he was in India but that the company was in Texas.  We hung up on him.  The call was from Robert's Arm, Canada.

This person, "Victor," has been calling every day and I let it go to the answering machine but no message was left.  My husband answered the call this morning and Victor said he was calling from Microsoft and our computer was pumping out spam and malware.  My husband said good-bye and hung up.  I am in California.

Caller ID read "Miles Cove." A man with an accent sounding like he was from India told my husband that my husband's computer was sending them (don't know which company he cited) messages that something was wrong. My husband asked for his name, the man said "John" after pausing. My husband hung up on him, but not before asking what the man was trying to sell and did not get a clear answer. Seemed scam like for sure.

This is the fake PC tech confidence game.

Essentially some fiend in a boiler room, usually in South Asia, wants to coax you into dropping your firewall and security measures and play havoc with your system, possibly with the goal of then selling you the ''solution'' to the problem they caused. Worse yet they might plunder your hard drives for whatever can be sold or used against you. If your credit account data are volunteered or captured, there is no end to the trouble which may follow from all their criminal friends.

The scammers count on most computer owners being ''appliance users'' who don't understand what's under the hood and being easily misled. They may claim to have a pile of complaints because your system is spewing spam, or else instruct the user to open a shell and look at perfectly innocuous system feedback and claim there is something dangerous happening. This is the PC equivalent of the crooked auto mechanic who squirts oil on your axle and wants $1600 to ''repair'' the non-damage.

The dumber ones claim to be from ''the Windows Corporation'' or the ''Microsoft legal department'' or something as implausible. Their actual knowledge of personal computers is always pitifully low, as reported many times when real PC techs are called. (Sometimes their command of English is little better.) Often the reps become hostile and curse you out if you indicate any sort of informed resistance.

Microsoft is not running any constant emergency alert system and is surely not going to run a reverse tech support call center devoted to writing each of us a trouble ticket. If a billion dollar global corporation won't monitor your every mouse gesture, *why* would you grant such invasive access to some two-bit "repair shop" you've never heard of? DO NOT follow any instructions from these goons and don't give them any satisfaction of making you upset.

Here's the verdict straight from Microsoft:

Avoid tech support phone scams
https://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx

Strange call pretending to be from Microsoft tech support
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/f ... 2e-2ab81645553d

Some relief came the first week in October 2012 as the FTC spanked whole gangs of these creeps with damage awards.

FTC Halts Massive Tech Support Scams
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/10/pecon.shtm