re: #8 lawhawk

Snicker.

Meanwhile, had a most odd phone call. Someone claiming to be with Microsoft Support claimed that they got messages and wanted me to access my computer to make adjustments. That just smells like BS and phishing or some similar action.

MSFT notes as much on their site.

Someone less savvy could fall for this - the guy on the other end, who sounded like he was in India - was very persistent as if reading from a script even though I demanded to know how I could trust that he was representing who he said he was (the number came up as private, so caller ID wasn’t a help).

MSFT does not make cold calls to demand software fixes/patches, or access to your computers.

Speaking of which: great article on Ars Technica wherein the author trolls a would-be scammer.