Suspicious phone call alerting me to a virus!!

[dangmalware]

About a week ago I received an anonymous (caller ID didn't ID) call. I answered it because I have a few friends that block their outgoing info and thought it might be them. There was a man on the other end with a foreign accent (could have been fake) that identified himself as a "Microsoft Certified Professional" and that one of my home computers was possibly infected with a virus. That piqued my curiosity since one of my computers had picked up the Security Scan 2012 hijacker thing and I had been trying to get it cleaned up. However, it had been off line for a while since I wasn't satisfied it was totally clean and hadn't worked on it in a few days. Anyway, back to the call.

I asked the caller how did he know my computer was infected? He replied with saying "is XXX-XXX-XXXX your phone number and do you live in XXXXX zip code?" I said yes since he knew this info already. He said "then you probably have a virus. PLease go to your computer and I will help you determine if you have a virus". I again asked how can you know this, how do you know if it's my computer that's infected? He said "you are in the XXXXX zip code and you are at a high risk of being infected!" He started to get a little agitated and explained again that he was a "Microsoft Certified Professional and I need to check my computer for a virus!" I told him I didn't have a virus and hung up.

A little later I checked one of my other computers that as far as I knew was clean. I started getting search redirects and then BAM, the Vista Security hijacker popped up! I immediately went to work and got it cleaned using S&D, Malwarebytes in safe mode, Kaspersky Rootkit scan, ESET on line scan.

So my question is, how do these f*&% know the area I live in and that I have a virus? Has my personal info been compromised or was the virus targeted to my area using local search info? They haven't called back but it's got me worried that my identity has been jacked!

[shelf life]

link (http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx)
link (http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowssecurity/archive/2011/06/16/dealing-with-fake-tech-support-amp-phone-scams.aspx)
link (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387138,00.asp)

[dangmalware]

I didn't realize that this was becoming that big of an issue. I knew better than to give any personal info or jump on the computer with the guy. I guess it was just coincidence that they called when I was having computer malware issues.:D:

[TechDud]

I found it effective to delay the scammer as long as possible just to keep them from scamming someone for real.
After an uncomfortable span of time, i finally told them that all i had was Windows 98; they had to ask a supervisor if it was supported. That took a few minutes.
Finally they just hung up! :)

[tashi]

Neither Microsoft nor our partners make unsolicited phone calls (also known as cold calls) to charge you for computer security or software fixes.http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx

If a scammer calls please hang up, never allow them remote access to your computer. :)