Microsoft Gold Partner Busted for Running Telephone Scams

Microsoft has stripped Comantra, a computer tech support firm based in India, of their “Gold Partner” status due to numerous reports that they were participating in  telephone scams.

According to PC Pro, Comantra has been cold-calling users in Canada, Australia and the UK since 2009, telling their unsuspecting victims that they’ve received report from Microsoft stating their computer has been infected with a virus. Comantra would then offer remote desktop support to remove the computer virus – and fix whatever other imaginary issues they can come up with –  for as much as £ 185.

Sadly, it seems as though Comantra’s scamming efforts were not in vain, as search engines are littered with blog posts and forum rants exposing their evil-doings by victims who later wised up to the scam.

Despite online reports, it took until now for Microsoft to actually step-in and revoke Comantra’s “Gold” status.  People who fell for the phone scam often stated that Comantra’s reps “boasted” their Microsoft Gold Partner status to make their spiel seem more legit.

Microsoft issued the following statement regarding the accusations against Comantra:

"We were made aware of a matter involving one of the members of the Microsoft Partner Network acting in a manner that caused us to raise concerns about this member's business practices.

Following an investigation, the allegations were confirmed and we took action to terminate our relationship with the partner in question and revoke their Gold status. There are no circumstances under which we would ever allow partners or any other organisations to pose as Microsoft.

We view matters such as these extremely seriously and take immediate action if such behaviour is brought to our attention and found to be the case."

When asked about the allegations regarding telephone scams, Comantra’s director, Rajesh Bajaja, stated that the phone scam reports were all false and merely a part of their competitor’s evil marketing practices to drive potential customers away.

That seems a little too far-fetched if you ask me.

Either way, the cat's out of the bag now, so hopefully Comantra will refrain from engaging in any dishonest business practices in the future and consumers will hang up on anyone that claims to have detected a virus on their PC only to offer their all-too-convenient virus removal services.

Also, in case you were wondering, Comantra removed the Microsoft’s Gold Partner badge from their website earlier today.