Legitimate Microsoft Website?

Question

I'm having an issue with possibly being scammed?

I went to the website below because I couldn't sign in to my Microsoft account so I can get extended support for Windows 10 as my computer doesn't have capacity.

I spoke with somebody on the phone yesterday when I dialed 1-877-868-4558 supposedly a Microsoft number for support. Is this a good Microsoft number???

This is the website and the engineer I found the number for Microsoft which appears to be legit?

https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/?s=Call+%2B1+%28877%29+868-4558%09Microsoft+Customer+Service+Desk+24x7&gad_source=1&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23300666317&gbraid=0AAAAAqZeNn6VoYmcfXoknFhOt8WG39zIX&gclid=Cj0KCQiAoZDJBhC0ARIsAERP-F8Vrg5TqRyvIyVwS3Gk37EmpoTKjPErX51gBvGOQ7Zz2zSgdgqX8dwaAlcEEALw_wcB

Adam Evans - Microsoft Engineer

I.D.  A143202

425-477-2772

Anyone let me know if this is for real. He tried to have me move large sums of money from stock market account to my bank account which I did not. I blocked the number yesterday but he called back today.

Thanks!

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Moved from: Microsoft Security | Microsoft Defender | Microsoft Defender for Identity

Answer 1

This is 100% scam. I hope you didn't fall for it. The trick they used here is extremely sneaky.

The Microsoft page you saw is a real Microsoft website. The confusing part is how the scammers made it show a fake phone number.

On that Microsoft page, there is a search box. If you type anything into that box, the site will display what you typed as a “search result.” For example, you can type your name there, and click on the spyglass icon, and your name will show up under the search box.

Here’s what they did:

1. You probably clicked a Google ad or something that looked like a Microsoft support link, as the URL you shared shows that you clicked from some paid ad (it contains the ad campaign ID).
2. That ad sent you to the real Microsoft website, but it added extra text at the end of the web address, that's what we call URL variable. That extra text told the Microsoft page to automatically search for a specific phrase. The phrase the scammers added was “Call +1 (877) 868 4558 Microsoft Customer Service Desk 24×7.” Because the page was instructed to “search” for that phrase, the website simply showed it on the screen — making it look like Microsoft posted that phone number.

So the number wasn’t on Microsoft’s site at all. It was just "typed" in by the scammer, by transferring the phrase via URL variable, and the website displayed it because that’s how its search feature normally works.