phone call scams

Here at Lamas HQ we get some odd phone calls.

Including:

•  the usual Microsoft Technician calling because one of our PCs is infected, which receives either the hang up treatment or I will string them along to see how long I can keep them on the phone with no intention doing as they ask, thus stopping them call someone else.
   
• or will we do a survey and I promise NEVER to call you again (No, you won't, but 6 of the people you sell my details to will!) I did the survey once and gave some absolutely absurd answers.  I'm still getting calls for that name years later, showing that they do sell the details to others or they just don't stop,
• or my pet hate, the silent call or the hangup on voicemail, The other person has cleared - why phone me just to hang up on my voicemail?

None of these calls have been from anyone with any type of british accent. There is usually a long pause and then you hear call centre noises in the background

But I have been getting a new one (new to me, that is!)

A recorded message telling me that my Internet is compromised OH NO!

I should press 1 if my Internet is from BT or 2 if other and I will be connected with a technician straight away.  Our lines are not BT but I pressed 1 and told them in no uncertain terms to take me off their call database and will continue to do that.  

Yes, I know that will not make a single ounce of difference but it makes me feel better!  Or maybe next time I will play along and find out exactly what their game is!

Or maybe if our internet is as slow as it is today I should ask them to fix it!!

Edited to Add:  I have a client who was taken in by this scam.  Please be aware of it.  I know exactly what their game is and it is not funny.  These scammers took a considerable amount of money.  

We need to make more people aware of this.  

1803 update - WiFi Slow

The April Microsoft update is now available.  Update to version 1803.
I have now updated a couple of the Lamas HQ systems, including mine and the Network Managers'.

The systems I have updated so far have happened apparently successfully.  (fingers crossed or your superstition of choice!)

When I say successfully, I mean that the system has done the update and rebooted and then has gone on to work.  No reboot loop or blue screen equivalent, Automatic repair loop or such like.  There are different degrees of successful!

What I have noticed is that my laptop internet connection is slower than a slow thing going slowly.

A major update like this is usually followed by a Disk Clean-up and a driver update and maybe a malware, rootkit and full virus scan to just complete the job.

The Driver update, didn't make any difference.

I found a website that gave some ideas about post 1803 installation but it suggested installing a driver updater that a) gave me exactly one scan then started demanding money to go any further and b) is showing up on Malwarebytes as (Surprise!) a Potentially Unwanted Program!  So it was an Advert rather than an informational piece.

Malware scan found the PuP as above, and the brilliant and marvelous resources on  BlackViper detail the services required to run Windows 10 without any extraneous stuff.

It was still the same after the services check.

The Ethernet adapter works fine and is giving a realistic and proper speed.
An external wifi dongle, once installed and operational, gave a sensible wifi speed.

Lamas HQ systems have a third party security application installed, which includes both AV and Firewall.  So, the Windows Firewall is disabled.

It appears that disabling the Windows Defender Firewall was my error.  Once I changed the Windows Defender Firewall service from Disabled to Manual, my internal WiFi started working as it should giving more than 10mbps closer to 50!