Here's the latest scam phone call. They called and asked me if I am the owner of the computer, and said they were calling from "windows support". They said they had received error messages from my computer and they were calling to "fix" the problems. They had me open a DOS cmd window and type in the command 'assoc'. Then they claimed that, because they could tell me the CLSID number (a very long alpha-numeric string) that we had the correct computer, implying that this number was unique to this one computer. So then I started up my bench-test computer and ran the same DOS command: the CLSID is identical. When I told them this, they claimed it was because they were both on the same network, and same Internet connection. (This contradicted their first statement, but I let it pass.) So then I connected remotely to another computer across the Internet, which thus has a different network and Internet connection: same CLSID again. When I told them their statements have been proven to be false they hung up on me.
In general, unless you have a maintenance agreement in place with some tech support group, you will not receive any calls to help you fix your computer unless, at a minimum, they are looking for you to pay them for their time. However, I would never do business with a company that calls people they have no prior business relationship with and solicit computer support in this way. Consider all such calls to be a scam. You should absolutely never give them account numbers or download and install any software that they recommend.
I recommend you simply hang up on them. I didn't because I find it vaguely entertaining to talk to them, and of course I wanted to learn more about this new wrinkle in a very old scam.
