Can you trust Microsoft number computer gives you to call for help when computer is on alarm?

Question

My computer began to alarm blaring and talking and told me to contact Microsoft and not to shut down. It gave me a number to call. My phone would not work. I used my husband's phone and call the number that was on the screen. I did and this person has been helping me. How can I verify who they are. They gave me and ID number and told me not to tell anyone what is happening to me. The secrecy part has me

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concerned.

Answer 1

Hey there, Clarissa Barnett-Stewart

My computer began to alarm blaring and talking and told me to contact Microsoft and not to shut down. It gave me a number to call.

This sounds as though your computer has been infected with a virus/malware. The fact that the computer had sounded an alarm and told you verbally to contact Microsoft, then gave you a support number is the red flag in this situation. The loud alarms, urgent messages and secrecy are classic signs of a scam.

Microsoft will never display any messages asking you to call them. Instead, Microsoft will generally provide an error/stop code and sometimes an official aka.ms link for you to use to get more information about the error. Microsoft always waits for you to initiate the phone call, or support request through the support portals first. They never contact you to initiate this. You can find a list of Microsoft business support phone numbers by region here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/support/#tabpanel_1_work-account

I used my husband's phone and call the number that was on the screen. I did and this person has been helping me. How can I verify who they are. They gave me and ID number and told me not to tell anyone what is happening to me. The secrecy part has me concerned.

The reason why they do not want you to tell people what is happening is so they can continue trying to scam you. Instead, you should stop communicating with them because you are not communicating with Microsoft support. Instead, please report this scam here: https://reportfraud.microsoft.com/en-gb

This will allow Microsoft to investigate this from their side. If you have given them access to your computer, through remote access or using any other third-party program, please treat your device as though it has been compromised. This means disconnecting your device from the internet. Once you have disconnected your device from the internet, uninstall any third-party app they have asked you to install for remote access to your computer/device.

Once you have done this, on another device, please change your Microsoft account or Microsoft work/school account password:

• For personal Microsoft accounts, this can be done through this link: https://account.live.com/proofs/manage/additional
• For work/school accounts, please use this link: https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info

While you are on those pages, please check to make sure nothing has been changed or altered. You will want to check your other accounts for this as well to make sure nothing has been changed.

If you navigate back to your computer, which should be offline, please run a full Microsoft Defender scan, or a full scan using your anti-virus/anti-malware software on your computer. For more information on how to do this, please see this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/defender/how-to-start-a-scan-for-viruses-or-malware-in-microsoft-defender

For information on how malware can infect your PC, please see this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/security/how-malware-can-infect-your-pc

Once the scan has been completed, please check your device for anything that looks to be out of the ordinary. You can right click onto your Taskbar, then click onto Task manager

You will be able to see if there is any processes/services running that don't normally run or causing high CPU usage. On Task Manager, please click onto your startup apps from the left-hand navigation menu

This shows you a list of apps/programs that will start when Windows first starts. Please make sure you don't have any unexpected apps starting up as soon as Windows starts. If you do, and you did not install the app, please go to Start > Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > The app > Uninstall

You can also right-click onto the app/program and select disable. But uninstalling it is the best option.

Once all of this has been done, please restart Windows. Then wait before opening anything. Please open your Task Manager again and check for anything that may look off. You want to check your speed and make sure your speed and performance hasn't been impacted.

If this came from a website you visited, please do not go back to that website or restore your browsing session. This will only make that message appear again. Sometimes you come across sites that have been injected with malware (I won't go into details with the two different types), but they produce a message on the screen by forcing redirects to their website or shows face warnings and pages. In some cases, this could also be popups that show up on the website. So if this was shown on a website, please do not go back to that website.

I know this is a bit of a long winded post, but wanted to provide you with information on what I would do and recommend if I was dealing with an infected device. If you were using your work/school account, please make sure you inform your IT department about what has happened as they may want to do additional checks or be aware of what has happened to ensure no company data/or systems have been obtained/accessed.

Hope this helps,
Nathan

Answer 2

No. A phone number shown in a pop-up, warning, or error message should not be trusted. Genuine Microsoft error and warning messages never include a phone number, and Microsoft does not make unsolicited phone calls to offer technical support.

The behavior described matches a tech support scam. The request for secrecy is a major red flag.

Do this immediately:

1. Stop communicating with that person.
2. Do not share any more personal, financial, or account information.
3. If the browser is showing the warning, close it. If it will not close, press Alt+F4. If needed, restart the computer.
4. If the screen is frozen in the browser, Ctrl+Alt+Del can be used to open Task Manager and end the browser or other active app.
5. After reopening the browser, do not restore the previous page if prompted.
6. Report the scam to Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/reportascam.
7. In Microsoft Edge, suspicious sites can also be reported through Settings and More > Help and Feedback > Report unsafe site.

Important signs this is not legitimate:

• The computer displayed a number to call.
• The message told not to shut down.
• The caller asked for secrecy.
• Microsoft support does not start this way unless support was contacted first.

If remote access was given or software was installed, the device and personal information may be at risk because scammers often use remote access to install unwanted software or steal information.

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• Protect yourself from tech support scams
• Protect yourself from online scams and attacks
• Avoid and report Microsoft technical support scams