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So... is it normal for Microsoft support techs to be using shady websites??

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Persephone

Persephone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,505
Just got off live chat with a MS support agent. I was having trouble downloading Office, so he asked me to use LogMeIn so he could take control of my computer. Sure, whatever, he's Microsoft staff, he's not going to do anything weird. Then he goes onto this website called getintopc.com which is full of cracked/pirated software and starts downloading Office. Then I guess it wasn't moving quick enough for him so he switched off Safe Browsing in my Chrome settings. I was getting v v dubious at this point so I googled getintopc and saw that it was some kind of piracy/malware site, panicked, and closed the screen sharing and made up some excuse about how it totally worked, thanks, have a nice day. But... is this normal? I've googled and apparently this isn't the first time Microsoft Support has taken over people's PCs and tried to download stuff from there. What the fuck, MS?

edit: for those saying i got scammed, this is the link i used https://partner.support.services.microsoft.com/en-gb/contactus/
 
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Maximus

Maximus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,586
I would imagine this was a rogue agent or something went wrong with the support link you followed?
 
True Prophecy

True Prophecy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,925
Mate you have been scammed. You should start watching this guy on twitch https://www.twitch.tv/kitboga tells you a lot about the tactics scammers use.

Persephone said:
Used the "support" link on the official MS website. It got me their helper robot AI thing and that then put me through to the service dude. I'm seriously skeeved out rn tbh
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I've been in the IT industry for over 10 years and never heard of a legit MS agent remotely connecting to a PC... Let alone outside tools... but you saying you used one of the official links mas me wtf.
 
ManaByte

ManaByte

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,087
Southern California
Persephone said:
Used the "support" link on the official MS website. It got me their helper robot AI thing and that then put me through to the service dude. I'm seriously skeeved out rn tbh
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Are you sure it was the official MS website. Did you type in microsoft.com or find it via a search? Because that's not how it works. They don't take control of your PC. You probably have a bunch of viruses now and are on a botnet.
 
hobblygobbly

hobblygobbly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,666
NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
that's a scam... how did you come into contact with this person?

edit: I see you said their official website, that's not possible, you may have fallen for a phishing website. Microsoft does not take control of your PC especially not with third party software.
 
Ebullientprism

Ebullientprism

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,529
Persephone said:
Used the "support" link on the official MS website. It got me their helper robot AI thing and that then put me through to the service dude. I'm seriously skeeved out rn tbh
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You mind sharing the link you got?

Sounds like you may have malware that highjacked that click and sent you to a third party website.

Or it overlaid an ad on the page that looked like the official MS support link.
 
The Pet of the Month

The Pet of the Month

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
3,116
Amalthea
Woof, are you absolutely sure this was the official Microsoft website? I've had engineers written patches for some of my issues with Office/DirectX but never has an MS support agent taken over my PC.
 

Deleted member 3058

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,728
ManaByte said:
Are you sure it was the official MS website. Did you type in microsoft.com or find it via a search? Because that's not how it works. They don't take control of your PC. You probably have a bunch of viruses now and are on a botnet.
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They do, actually. Or at least, they did when I had a problem with the Windows 10 Anniversary update.
 
TalonJH

TalonJH

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,923
Louisville, KY
Make sure you log out(uninstall if you don't personally use it) of LogMeIn.

Edit: I also assume you only gave them the session password.
 
True Prophecy

True Prophecy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,925
Haruko

Haruko

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,644
I had a MS agent take control of my PC remotely once; I believe it was when we had to rebuild my gf's computer and needed help transferring the Windows 10 license since all we had was the old Win 7 key from before it was freely upgraded (and that key was no longer working for us).
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,344
I can totally see a scenario where whatever tech you connected to decided the easiest way to get a piece of software is through a shady means and then just activated it through legit means.
 
davepoobond

davepoobond

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,760
www.squackle.com
I'm very perplexed about why they would use GoToMeeting. Don't they have their own proprietary software


To me, it sounds like a lazy tech who doesn't want to do it the legit way of downloading office cause it's a pain in the ass
 
Jebusman

Jebusman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,099
Halifax, NS
A Google search shows a history of this happening. Maybe outsourced support that just does this to fix issues for customers the lazy way? It's been a thing for a number of years now.
 
Filipus

Filipus

Prophet of Regret
Avenger
Dec 7, 2017
5,148
I've never heard of anything like this, taking control of someone else computer like that seems something that should be totally against policy.
Where did you get the link from OP? An email or google search?

Whatever it is, you should contact official support again and tell them about this. If Microsoft is using a third party support to help with inflow this would be important to be known.
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,344
davepoobond said:
I'm very perplexed about why they would use GoToMeeting. Don't they have their own proprietary software
To me, it sounds like a lazy tech who doesn't want to do it the legit way of downloading office cause it's a pain in the ass
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Microsoft uses Logmein for their remote support. It's one of the best tools in the industry

ManaByte said:
I mean they don't take control of your PC and take you to non-MS websites to download pirated software.
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I've totally don this before (used to work remote support). Needed to just download a client because I had a key and went with that route. I imagine this is a similar case.
 
Replicant

Replicant

Attempted to circumvent a ban with an alt
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,380
MN
ME support will one never remote into your PC, and certainly would never use logmein.

You done fucked up
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,344
Replicant said:
ME support will one never remote into your PC, and certainly would never use logmein.

You done fucked up
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This is wrong. I deal with Microsoft pretty frequently (I have a lot of clients using Office 365) and on occasion I need them to remote in and observe an issue. And they do use Logmein. This is their page they use for remote support:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/29289/receive-remote-assistance-support-from-microsoft

After you accept you put in a 6 digit code and it loads Logmein.
 
OP
OP
Persephone

Persephone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,505
Stinkles said:
You should take a screenshot of the history surrounding that click tbh
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a triptych:

yPfrjI6.png


I hit "Contact Support" which brought me here:



ZD8Tf6M.png


I clicked "Contact support in browser"

huMlZGR.png


"chatted" with the robot until it gave me the option of talking to a real person

That's it.
 
Ebullientprism

Ebullientprism

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,529
I feel like people are focusing on the wrong thing. Taking control of your customer's PC is pretty normal and is done by all major companies. LogMeIn is the most commonly used tool (although some large companies do brand it to look like their product).

Its the shady website (most likely hosting pirated content) that is cause for concern. Support reps wouldnt normally do that. Usually anyway.
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,344
Persephone said:
a triptych:

yPfrjI6.png


I hit "Contact Support" which brought me here:



ZD8Tf6M.png


I clicked "Contact support in browser"

huMlZGR.png


"chatted" with the robot until it gave me the option of talking to a real person

That's it.
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Dude, you're fine. Anyone ITT saying Microsoft won't remote into your computer doesn't know what they're talking about. They have a pretty robust customer service model for Office 365 including break/fix and remote support. Everything you did is correct and legit. The support agent you dealt with was just lazy and probably knew of a way to get the offline installer easily through the site you mentioned. They're all outsourced anyway so it's probably something they circulate internally at that office. If you tried again you'd just get someone else and they'd probably do something different.
 
fick

fick

Alt-Account
Banned
Nov 24, 2018
2,261
Fistfulofmetal said:
Dude, you're fine. Anyone ITT saying Microsoft won't remote into your computer doesn't know what they're talking about. They have a pretty robust customer service model for Office 365 including break/fix and remote support. Everything you did is correct and legit. The support agent you dealt with was just lazy and probably knew of a way to get the offline installer easily through the site you mentioned. They're all outsourced anyway so it's probably something they circulate internally at that office. If you tried again you'd just get someone else and they'd probably do something different.
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No way in hell is it fine for a MS support rep to install pirated software on your computer.


edit: but that's my guess as well. Probably some idiot who thinks he's slick with a shortcut without realizing how idiotic it is. Or he thinks it's an actual MS site. Who knows. Either way, I'd report it
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
I know that agents can (with your permission) remote in - but without knowing more about the weird unlicensed software page I am not sure what happened or where they took you.

There is no version of installing pirated software on your computer that should ever happen though and if you can dig down and make sure that's what happened, I'd call them directly and explain - because they should have a log of that agent's process.
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,344
fick said:
No way in hell is it fine for a MS support rep to install pirated software on your computer.

edit: but that's my guess as well. Probably some idiot who thinks he's slick with a shortcut without realizing how idiotic it is. Or he thinks it's an actual MS site. Who knows. Either way, I'd report it
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Never said it was. I wanted to make sure the OP understands that he didn't do something stupid or wrong and wasn't talking to a scammer. The rep did something stupid by trying to download pirated software - but the OP didn't make a mistake.

Everyone here is giving the OP bad information and making them think they got fooled into letting some scammer access their machine. The OP did exactly what they should have done when they needed help and they did exactly what they should have done when they weren't comfortable with what the rep was doing.
 

Deleted member 9290

User requested account closure
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Persephone said:
Just got off live chat with a MS support agent. I was having trouble downloading Office, so he asked me to use LogMeIn so he could take control of my computer. Sure, whatever, he's Microsoft staff, he's not going to do anything weird. Then he goes onto this website called getintopc.com which is full of cracked/pirated software and starts downloading Office. Then I guess it wasn't moving quick enough for him so he switched off Safe Browsing in my Chrome settings. I was getting v v dubious at this point so I googled getintopc and saw that it was some kind of piracy/malware site, panicked, and closed the screen sharing and made up some excuse about how it totally worked, thanks, have a nice day. But... is this normal? I've googled and apparently this isn't the first time Microsoft Support has taken over people's PCs and tried to download stuff from there. What the fuck, MS?

edit: for those saying i got scammed, this is the link i used https://partner.support.services.microsoft.com/en-gb/contactus/
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LOL this sound exactly what kitboga is getting every time baits the scams.

Check kitboga on Youtube
 
Kyougar

Kyougar

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Member
Nov 3, 2017
9,414
True Prophecy said:
Mate you have been scammed. You should start watching this guy on twitch https://www.twitch.tv/kitboga tells you a lot about the tactics scammers use.



I've been in the IT industry for over 10 years and never heard of a legit MS agent remotely connecting to a PC... Let alone outside tools... but you saying you used one of the official links mas me wtf.
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I worked MS support for 8 years. taking remote control is the first recommended action you should take as an agent. Makes the calls shorter for up to 90%. (because most people who call MS support are PC illiterate. And even clicking on the start button is a challenge for some.) Also, makes it easier on the support agent when he is not as experienced on MS products.
personally, never liked remote control, because you had to be active with your voice AND your mouse, without it, you could just talk and do other things on the PC.
 
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