[CliffordK (OP)]

I got an interesting phone call today.

Someone with a heavy Indian Accent.
Blocked (Private) caller ID.

He said that my computer was sending out error reports.

Anyway, I was intrigued, so I talked to him for a little bit, but lost patience with him after a few minutes.

He never did tell me what the purported error messages were.

He started by asking me what the key next to the left key marked C-T-R-L.  Which, of course, is the Windows key.  I think this question might weed out the Mac users.

Next, he had me me hold down the Windows key, and hit "R".  Of course, nothing happens.  (he expected a run window to open).

I told him I had a console window open, but he wanted me to get a run window with a white box.

Finally he told me to type in:
First type in E.
Then hit the letter V
Next the letter E...  and etc...  N-T-V-W-R     (eventvwr).

Of course, nothing happened.

I eventually told  him that I wasn't running Windows on my computer.   [8D]

He asked me what I was running.  I figured that if he was claiming I had errors on my computer, then he should at least know what OS I was running, and eventually hung up on him.

Through the entire interaction, he treated me as if I was dumb as a post.

I suppose they might as well add the dumb as a post into the script, as they won't be scamming many IT specialists. 

After the call, I went ahead and googled EVENTVWR.  While it is a Windows utility, the top of the list on Google is a bunch of comments about what appears to be a very old scam.  I thought I had a high level of patience, but apparently some other people got further into the calls. 

The idea with the eventvwr is that there will always be a few errors, that they should be able to over-inflate.

At some point in the calls, the scammers try to get the mark to open a remote control session.  I'm not sure if this is vital.  I'm certainly not going to allow an unknown individual in a different country remote access into my computer.  [xx(]  I'd only consider it if I had a firewall isolated subnet, and a completely clean secondary machine that I was planning on reformatting.

Apparently the scam is to convince people that they should buy some very expensive antivirus or repair utility.  Hopefully they aren't asking for a credit card number, or check ID.  []

It may well do what it is supposed to do, but certainly one should treat any call that comes in as an anonymous scam with suspicion as one could just as easily be uploading a virus or spyware, or even "ransomeware".

After the call, I went ahead and fired up a 100% antivirus scan, but so far clean as a whistle.

[Bored chemist]

I got a phone call the other day from someone who claimed that he was calling from the service department of of microsoft.
I said "No you are not, you are committing a criminal offence"
He hung up the phone.
Odd that, isn't it?

[RD]

    ... open a remote control session ...

I never use remote access so I disable those services via MSCONFIG ...

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

[ and disable "secondary logon" while you're at it ]

[CliffordK (OP)]

    ... open a remote control session ...

I never use remote access so I disable those services via MSCONFIG ...
[ and disable "secondary logon" while you're at it ]

If you leave "Remote Registry" open, it is just about the same as leaving all the other options open.  It should never be needed, except for the case of remote technical support. 

I don't know about whether Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is needed, but I doubt it is needed outside of specific programs such as web browsers, and perhaps LOCAL NETWORKING APPLICATIONS if you use them including networked printers.

[syhprum]

whether or not remote access should ever be enabled raises an interesting point with me as I like to have it so that the children can send SKYPE between my two computers.
I recently setup a new drive with what I thought was a quite un modified version of Windows 8.1 but was quite unable to get remote access working, after half a day trying I found out that a vital part of the system had been removed presumably to enhance security.
So it was back to square zero with a different version and much wasted time

The bottom half of this panel was quite blank !!!

I found this much later it might have been the solution

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9413-services-restore-default-services-windows-8-a.html