Phone Number 425-635-2970 – Is it a scam?
The phone number 425-635-2970 is registered by Microsoft Corporation. You might receive a legitimate call from this number if you previously opened a Microsoft support ticket or if you’re an active participant in the Microsoft Bing Ads. However, there are reports of scammers and telemarketers that are spoofing this number (and a few others numbers) to trick Microsoft customers into handing out personal and credit card information.
What is Caller ID spoofing?
Caller ID spoofing is the practice of fooling the telephone network into showing a different number to the receiver than the originator of the call. In the beginning, this technique was frequently used by law-enforcement agencies, private investigators and collection agencies. But with new regulations in most countries, now caller ID spoofing is almost exclusively used by scammers and resourceful pranksters.
How to tell if it’s a scan
It’s pretty easy to figure out if the call is legitimate or not. If you previously opened a support ticket on an official channel and where promised a callback, there’s a high chance that this is not a scam. Keep in mind that Microsoft is not known to call their customers out of the blue. So if you were not expecting a call from Microsoft, it’s probably a good idea to avoid handing out any personal information.
Warning: Be very careful where you submit your support ticket. There are a few so-called “online communities” that look very similar to the official Microsoft support. Their whole purpose is to extract the victim’s information in order to make the scam more believable. This is the official link (here) for Microsoft support. If you opened a support ticket on a different website, contact a legitimate answer tech and ask him to investigate if you went through a valid procedure.
From what we gathered, Microsoft is notorious for missing out on the agreed call back time. Some users have reported answer techs missing the agreed time by several hours or even days, so don’t pay much attention to these delays. As long as the call is expected and you have a support ticket number, you should be fine.
You can usually verify if this is a legitimate call by checking if credentials of the answer tech that opened the support ticket are corresponding to the caller’s supposed name. Also, if you received multiple calls and haven’t answered any of them, check your voicemail for further validation. Usually, if there’s a pressing concern, the answer tech will leave a voicemail with the purpose of the call.
