O/T Windows Technical Support Scam

I have no doubt that the majority of members here will be aware of this type of scam, but I did receive a call on Friday which went exactly along the lines of that described in this link........

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/i-am-calling-you-from-windows-a-tech-support-scammer-dials-ars-technica/

No harm done in my case, as I am a suspicious soul by nature and insisted on a number I could call the guy back on to verify the authenticity. A quick Google search confirmed what I suspected.

However, I was mildly concerned that the call came in on our private landline here in France. I suppose that could have just have been randomly pulled from a telephone directory, or is it more likely that details have been harvested from MS?

Anyone have any ideas?

I've had similar, even though my old windows computer has been unused for several years as I'm on apple.

Bizarrely, my 83 year old mother in law has also had a few of them, even though she's never owned a computer (she delights in stringing them along for ages before breaking this news to them).

These calls have also come through on private land lines, so I assume they're randomly pulled from the telephone directory.

I am hoping that they were trawling the phone book, but, if so, they must try to identify English speakers, as they called me in France, but spoke English from the outset........

Great work thanks TDA.. I have a long list of pensioner's phone numbers and I really didn't know what to do with it.... Now thanks to your detailed explanation of how to conduct this scam I feel confident enough to go on TripAdvisor and choose the Seychelles Resort I will now certainly be holidaying at this year...