My friend Gil received a call from 1-800-298-1834. Someone identified himself as a "Bank of America" employee and needed him to verify some account details. Gil went to 800notes.com - a site that lets the community collect and document calls from shoddy numbers, and mark them as "scam", "telemarketer", and a few other annoying categories.
Searching for that number in the site yielded reports of a scam attempt from that number.
I've been meaning to write a post about this ever since Gil told me about his experience, but what prompted me to do it today was a voice message on my cell phone from "Joe Catalone from Microsoft" at 1-800-215-0948 ext. 4392, asking me to call him back. My company deals with Microsoft (MSDN, licenses and such), but I never personally contacted anyone there (except to report issues). So, I went to the site, and guess what? Different people with different names trying to sell you Microsoft software - from that number.
Conclusions:
- If someone leaves an 800 callback number, validate it before you call back.
- NEVER give personal info over the phone, unless you've initiated the call.
Based on comments patterns, here and on other similar sites, it looks like those phone spammers work harder on certain dates. I'd be very interested to know if anyone ever talked to those bogus "Microsoft employees"? It seems like they only reach voice mails.
And where's Microsoft itself in this story? Why don't they denounce/sue those impostors?
13 Comments:
A human caller left v-mail to callback yesterday. No CID
information (which can be spoofed anyway). The caller was
not a "bot," because I have special requirements, in order
to be able to leave v-mail on the number called, that
screens out 99.8% of the bots.
"Hello, [salutation][last name]. My name is [first name only], callling on behalf of Microsoft. I would appreciate your getting in contact with me at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at [CBN]. Thank you."
Caller knew my gender and last name. Pronounced my last name
correctly, even though a great many people have trouble with
it. Caller left no first name spelling (one of those gender-less fNames) or caller's last name.
Caller had a male voice with an indererminate regional
American accent. I am good with accents. His was "regional,"
without being "ethnic."
CBN given was "800 215 [pause] 0948 extension 4###."
The pause in recitation was like a mental hiccup on the
part of the caller. I redacted the last three digits of the
extension. The entire message was audible and intelligible.
MS is known to use telemarketers for pseudo "cold calls" and
telephone surveys. If/when you download anything from MS that
is a trial, a promotion, a "public beta."
("Community Technology Previews" [CTP] are not directly released to the public; although they are sometimes *illegally* leaked outside of CTP. MS already has your contact info.)
The contact information you provide in order to obtain the
download is part of your consent to be contacted, by MS, for
possible follow-up. Sometimes, but not always, there is a
tiny opt-out checkbox, somewhere on the same web form to
stop callbacks.
I am a MS Partner and I am not normally contacted in this
way by MS. "Badged and flagged" MS employees almost always
announce/leave their full names, unless both parties are
already very well known to one another. Calls and/or
v-mail involving official MS business with Partners *never*
request a callback without also providing the concrete
business reason for the call.
MS "surveys" and pseudo "cold-calls," farmed out to
*telemarketing outfits* can be less forthright and
forthcoming about the nature of the call. The
contractor may earn an additional bounty, depending on
how far along the call-script they can engage you
(in a survey or solicitation). It's all piece work.
I did not return this call. I do not reward
people/organizations that do not provide sufficient
details with the benefit of real-time with me.
Caller ID: no CID displayed
Caller: "Microsoft" (Sutherland)
Caller Type: Telephone Surveyor
Wow. This is the most thorough and detailed description I've seen s o far. I've had the exact same experience.
I don't think this call is from Microsoft. I work for Microsoft's internal help desk, and I have unlimited access to their entire employee, partner, and vendor database. I took the liberty of looking up my caller, and she didn't exist. Additionally, the number is not listed as a microsoft phone number.
I'm going to do a little more digging tomorrow, and if these folks are legitimate, which I doubt, I'll be able to verify. If they're not I'll report them to Microsoft Security and Fraud.
Jon
Jon,
I suspected they don't work for Microsoft per se. They're probably an external marketing company, with access to Microsoft's customer database (which, in itself a bit scary - but probably covered in all the EULA I never bother to read).
It would be great if you report them to Microsoft security, so at least they stop masquarding as MS employees, and even greater if you post the results in another comment here :)
Thanks,
Guy
I received a call like this this morning at work. When I called back, the voicemail said he worked "on behalf" of Microsoft, so I was pretty certain it was an outside company. I never got a call back, so I'm not going to worry about it, especially now after reading up on the phone number online. I'm not allowed to install programs on my work computer, and I don't use Microsoft products at home, so I'm not sure how they got my phone number, though.
I received a call yestreday 02/11/2008 form Joe Catalone at 800-215-0948 ext 4298. Again the number did not come up on caller id. Thanks for the post, saved me lots of time.
Same thing here, got a call at 10am CST on 04/12/2008, my phone was off so he left a voice mail. "He" turned out to be Andre Box (although his voice faded at the end), with Microsoft and he can be reached at 800-215-0948 x4397.
I actually called back, the voice menu sounded legit, but it sounded a little simplistic. Dialed his extension and got his VM.
I was convinced that it was Microsoft, but as everyone commented on, the type of voice mail being left by the "Microsoft" employee was strange.
Thanks for all the info.
I received the same call today. I also attended the Microsoft Heros Happen VS2008, Sql Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 Event Launch. I gave my information and expected this call. I got a call when I attended my last Launch event. They are simply wanting to chat about product needs and would like to help you meet your project goals by purchasing their software. So take off your Aluminium helmets and call the poor guy back.
Liked the aluminum helmets remark :)
But if you read the entire article and comments you'll find:
1. This poor guy doesn't work for Microsoft, despite presenting himself as such.
2. You get his voice mail most of the times you call back.
3. The article also deals with generic 800 scams - not just the "Microsoft" one. There's a link to a site that will tell you all about unrecognized 800 calls asking for personal info.
Thanks for reading!
I have to wonder if they're using data provided on people's MSN Spaces?
I've gotten two of these messages - exact same script - in the last couple of weeks, one from Seth Tarrow and one from Nancy Soffer. Odds are that it is Sutherland, which has locations in the US and Canada and a huge staff in India, calling for Microsoft.
This is definitely NOT Microsoft calling. I used to work there and know people who still do. I suspected it was a scam so I tried the "lookup by name" in their voice system. It didn't recognize a single person, and I've used the real system from Microsoft's real number so I know it works.
I've had a detailed conversation with 800-215-0948 con artist. But since I've been doing business with Microsoft for decades, I called their presales where they politely verifified the scam and also ensured me that another advertiser that I was considering was a valid certified partner.
And the MS presales department just typed the scam number into google and said: "When in doubt, just type the number into your search engine."
Thanks Microsoft and sites like these.
Jesse
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