What kind of scam do you think this was?

[MoonCat]

Had a call last week at work from a woman who wanted to speak to our IT dept.

I told her we don't transfer calls to that dept. She tried asking in several different ways and I kept telling her we aren't allowed to transfer calls there. Finally she said, "I'm not selling anything."

She also asked for the number to that dept. so she could call it herself. I didn't give it to her. We really aren't supposed to transfer calls there, and this just reeked of some kind of scam.

Do you think she was lying about not selling anything? Or was it one of those "Your computer has a virus" things, or what?

[Buzzard]

One of the stock scams involves calling up a business, getting information about equipment/supplies used there, and a NAME in the right dept...
Then ship & bill (at outrageous prices) supplies to the business with a suitable name authorizing/requesting on the invoice. No actual ordering gets done, but someone gets stuck with a WTF bill.

Something similar may have been in the works.

[lordlundar]

Do you think she was lying about not selling anything? Or was it one of those "Your computer has a virus" things, or what?

No, thoce callers go after unaware computer illiterate people. They so much as catch a whiff that their mark knows about computers they hang up. Chasing after an IT department is essentially suicide (mainly because the IT people know EXACTLY how to screw the scammers up and have no problems doing so).

That said, you're on the right track with that. I'd bet good money it was someone phishing for access. Weakest link into a network being the admin after all. It's why most IT departments have a policy that consists of "you'll get access to my network when you pry the codes from my cold dead hands."

[MoonCat]

Ha, I'm not even Admin, I'm sales. Most people who want access to IT are people who are having trouble using our website; if we transferred every person like that to IT they wouldn't have time to get any actual work done!