Dell fraud? Or not?

Today I received a phone call from someone claiming to represent Dell Computers and calling about my computer. His number showed up in my caller ID as “+537” (i.e. an incomplete fragment). When I picked up the phone, I heard a long silence on the line before someone finally picked up on the other end of the line. He claimed to be calling on behalf of Dell Computers about my Dell computer. This sounded exactly like dozens of fraudulent calls I’ve received claiming to be from “Microsoft Technical Department,” so I was suspicious. I asked “Which Dell computer?” He then correctly identified that I had a Dell XPS-13 computer and said he was calling about that computer’s extended warranty. I asked whether he could give me his name and a phone number where he could be reached at a more convenient time. Usually fraudsters hang up immediately in response to this. Instead, he identified himself as David Morrison, despite having a very strong accent that sounded as though he was very unlikely to be named “David Morrison.” He said I could ring him back at 1-800-248-6749. When I googled that number, I found nothing about Dell.

So instead I called the number for Customer Service on Dell’s website – 1-800-624-9897. After going through a phone tree and hold music, this got me through to another guy named Ajay who did not give a clear answer about whether the first caller was really from Dell or whether Dell might have called me about my extended warranty, but he offered to extend my warranty. He asked for my Service Tag Number. When I provided it, he then had lots of accurate information about me – my name, street address, email address, approximate date of purchase of my system. But he also had inaccurate information (similar-but-not-quite correct order number and customer number, and not-quite-correct-and-self-contradictory information about the status of my existing warranty). I may have misunderstood him at points, however, since his accent was so strong that I could scarcely make out what he was saying. He said my warranty was expiring in August 2016 (I believe this was NOT true), and he offered me a “very deep discount” to extend my warranty until 2019 for $289. When I wanted to think about it overnight and call back tomorrow, he shifted into a very aggressive hard-sell mode, saying that his discount would not be repeated in future, and offering to discount it further to $250, but only if I did so immediately with him on the phone now. This seemed totally out of character for Dell agents with whom I’ve dealt in the past, and I began to doubt whether he was really a Dell agent or not.

So I politely ended that call and instead called the customer service phone number on the original invoice for my computer – 1-800-695-8133. After going through another phone tree and hold music, this got me through to another guy named Rajiv who assured me very strongly that the first two calls were certainly NOT legitimate. He urged me to call the FTC to report the fraud attempt. He gave me the number to call at the FTC – 1-877-382-4357. He told me that Dell would never ask for my personal information or credit card information over the phone, and that Dell would never call me to offer to extend my warranty. The problem with this is that Rajiv himself had just asked me for my Service Tag Number and then had asked me to confirm the name on the account, so he himself asked me for personal information. And other Dell agents in the past have legitimately asked for other personal information over the phone in order to confirm my identity (when I called them). And OF COURSE other Dell agents have legitimately asked for my credit card information over the phone when I was ordering products from them. So what Rajiv said made no sense. I then asked Rajiv why I had reached a fraudster when I called 1-800-624-9897, which was a number I got from Dell’s own website, and he then simply contradicted himself – insisting both that Ajay was clearly a fraudster and that any call made to 1-800-624-9897 would certainly get me through to a genuine Dell agent.

I am now completely uncertain about which of these three “Dell representatives” were legitimate and which were fraudulent. But this has totally undermined my trust in Dell as a trustworthy company from whom to buy my next computer in the future. If Ajay was not a fraudster, then why was Rajiv so certain that he was, and why did some of Ajay's information about me seem inaccurate? And if Ajay WAS a fraudster – as seems probable – then how did he have so much information about me? Has Dell’s database been hacked by fraudsters who have stolen personal information about Dell customers? Are there rogue employees or former employees of Dell who are seeking to defraud Dell customers? I have many questions, but I have no confidence that another phone call to Dell will lead to trustworthy, accurate information. Meanwhile this has wasted more than an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back again.