Was at the mother inlaws earlier and she had a call from the "Windows Service Centre". Sadly I wasn't in front of a PC, but the scam was quite intriguing.
Basically, they read out a number (Which turns out to be a GUID) and tell you that this is your "PC ID" along with some half-coherent back story about hackers.
To "verify", they then point you to the command prompt and get you to type "assoc" to list the file associations on the machine. The number they give you is simply a GUID which appears next to "ZFSendToTarget" and is the same on all Windows versions, but they tell you this is your ID.
Next step is to send you to a website (which I won't post) that simply has a bunch of links to TeamViewer and other remote access solutions. I really want to get one when I have a VM up - has anyone actually seen what they do?
As I was stuck, once I got that far I just abused the shit out of him until he threatened to call the Police and hung up :D
We've been getting those calls for years. I used to ask them to wait while I turned on the pc. And wait. And wait... "Sorry my pc is really slow. Must be the virus! Shouldn't a light come on or something? Oh, it's not even plugged in. Wait a minute..."
Now I just hang up on 'em straight up.
The vm thing has been done, I'm sure people have youtubed it or whatever. They usually charge for the fix, often also install a bunch of actual malware too.
My own favourite responses are:
1 - panic. "Oh shit, I've just touched my computer. Have I caught it?"
2 - perv. "Could it be the porn sites I use? Some of them are disgusting, animals and everything. In fact, can you log into my computer now? I've got a site up as we speak and my trousers are around my ankles. It's really juicy. You'd enjoy it. Hello?"
I never thought to look on YouTube :(
There's just no way I could be bothered taking it so far! I have heard people enjoy putting their kids on the line to chat to any cold callers so I might try that, although maybe not as I guess the scammers could say naughty words.
They tried the same shit on my mum. While not super PC-savvy, she is suspicious enough and said her son takes care of all that. He wanted to know when the son would be home. She said he lives in Florida (brother), so not for some time. Then she said she had another son (me). He wanted to know when I'd be there, so she said she didn't know, give me the number and I'll have him call you. She's retired, so I have given her plenty of things to ask should he call back. She will enjoy jerking them around for five or ten minutes while she also enjoys a cup of tea. LOL
Fuckers.
Some of you guys are wicked. lol
And knowing might actually be more frightening than not. :-P