Aaahh.... That was satisfying! Just got off a call from a "Microsoft technician" who was helpfully guiding me through the process of eliminating the "many, many viruses" infecting my PC.
It was, of course, a scam: Microsoft DO NOT call users to warn them of viruses. Nor does any other computer company.
The first thing he did was try to persuade me of the veracity of his claim: he got me to enter "cmd" in the Run box (windows key + R). This brings up the old-style DOS box. Then I had to type in "assoc" and hit Enter. Assoc basically lists file associations: which type of file runs with which program. This list is stored alphabetically, which means that one of the last entries in the list is ".zfsendtotarget", which has what he called "an ID unique to my computer."
In reality, pretty much every PC is going to have the same value, which is this:
ZFSendToTarget=CLSID{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062}
After a bit more faffing around, he directed me to this website:
www-supremocontrol-com (with dots instead of the dashes)
I didn't actually GO to that website: instead, I entered it into the Google search box to see what was going on. Apparently, it IS a legitimate website that's being unfairly used by these fraudsters - they have nothing to do with it, they just want to look legitimate.
The helpful chap then tried to persuade me to download and run a program that would "solve my problems."
It was at this point that I figured I couldn't keep faking my way through the process, so I let him know that I knew what he was up to. For a few seconds he tried to protest his innocence, but when I told him that I'd been running a trace on the call, the line went dead.
I managed to keep him on the line for almost eighteen minutes - next time, I'll try to beat that. After all, if I'd hung up immediately he'd just have phoned someone else, someone who might not be aware that it's a scam.
So, if you get one of those calls, and you've got the time to spare, do your best to waste THEIR time... Pretend that the computer isn't on at the moment and it'll take time to boot up. Then, halfway through, pretend that there's someone at the door and just set the phone down for a few minutes.
