I have just received a call from 'Microsoft' technical support, who were attempting to allow me to allow them to 'Take Over' my PC.

There were incredibly persistent to the point of trying to keep a straight face.

They said that my computer was in danger of being destroyed from the Windows Reporting Error codes the computer had been sent to them at Microsoft.

I explained it was not possible that they could have received any Error Reporting codes

So first my questions were.

i) How did you get this number.
i1) What IP address was on the Error Reporting codes.
iii) Their Telephone number so I could call them back
iv) The address of Microsoft Centre they were calling from.
v) The OS I was currently using.

The only information the agent could give was that they were based in New Jersey (no further address details) in the USA. As all the other information was not able given due to security policy by Microsoft.

To which I asked if they were calling from the US Government National Security Agency. To which he denied.

I explained I needed to authenticate who was calling.
I was then told that if I was not compliant to the Microsoft callers commands then my Microsoft License would be revoked.

That is when I went 'Very Angry' and demanded to the speak to the Microsoft centre Manager to complain about the threat.

Two Managers later I then explained that after speaking to the Captain, that I needed either a CRM-144 code or an NSA authentication token as we cannot allow anyone to access the SLBM fire control computer due to liability issues as the UK Government doesn't actually own the missiles.

The Senior Manager from Microsoft still demanded that he would still need to access the PC, to which I said that a GHCQ phone trace had been started as I couldn't authenticate that they were from Microsoft and that I had now had enough time to complete the trace. The phone then went dead.

This has become a common scam. If you don't have the time and inclination to go as far as AFLM did, hanging up is a good move .

Lately I started getting emails supposedly from ATT informing me that I needed to sign into my Yahoo account (ATT piggybacks on Yahoo) or my email account would be canceled. BS says I and called ATT. After discussing my problem with the 'bot, I finally got a person on the line, confirmed BS and was told to forward said email to their abuse address.

If you get a similar email, investigate the embedded link, it does not go to Yahoo. It goes to a sign-in page on a third-party website so you can very conveniently sign in and give them all they need to have access to your account.

Your ETS posts must have gotten someone's attention. The caller probably worked for one of the myriad of intelligence-related private companies that sprung up after 9/11 and sub-contract to the government, so technically, he was telling the truth.

This post will self-destruct in five seconds...

I have had the same in the UK.

Pity I use a Mac.

Does anybody else besides me put tape over their video camera and microphone?

Tape over the microphone is not effective in all cases. I have an app that runs that both disables the hardware microphone and shows me an icon of its status.

Tape over a camera is frequently a good idea -- however many computers can't turn on the camera without also turning on the little light next to it.

Tape works -- simple, can't be hacked.

most Americans would have no idea who GCHQ, or DSD even are... and I never did see anyone wearing an iridescent green clearance badge have a firearm...

I got the Microsoft support call this week. I played along for a bit then when he couldn't figure out why nothing was working I finally told him I was running Kernel 3.10.17-smp