Support Scam Is Black Eye For Microsoft Partners

Brits have been getting urgent phone calls from Microsoft partners warning that their PCs have been compromised by a dangerous virus that puts all of their personal information and finances at risk. The remediation, the Gold Certified partner advises, is a £185 subscription to fix the problem and for preventative maintenance.

According to the Guardian newspaper, this is nothing more than a scam. And apparently Microsoft has acknowledged that unsavory partners in India and Southeast Asia are perpetrating the social engineering attack. Those falling for the lies are tricked not only into giving up their money (not that the pound sterling is worth what it used to be), but also the keys to their PCs.

Terminating partners

The bad news for legitimate Microsoft partners is that these calls are apparently coming from within the Microsoft Partner Network. The Guardian is quoting Microsoft representatives as saying, “We confirm that we have taken action to terminate our relationship with certain partners who are clearly misrepresenting their relationship with us and using our company name in order to facilitate their telephone scam operations.”

At least one website has been shut down in connection to the scam. But the Guardian is reporting that at least two other websites allegedly connected to the fraud scheme still bear “Microsoft Gold Certified Partners.”

The scam apparently has been operating quietly since 2008. But activity coming out of the group has spiked in recent month. Microsoft says it never calls customers with such warnings, and that users never accept downloaded software from an unsolicited sales call.

The attacks are confined mostly to the United Kingdom and Ireland, but there have been some reports of the group targeting users in other English-speaking countries. Payments for the bogus subscriptions are routed through PayPal and a Canadian online payment service to banks in India.

News of the attacks coming from within the Microsoft Partner Network is a black eye on the Microsoft channel. Unfortunately, there’s not much Microsoft and authorities can do. Investigators aren’t even certain how the scammers are targeting their victims – some believe they’re working with stolen customer databases, while others think they’re just dialing numbers out of the phone book.