Don’t fall for phoney phone calls!

I have recently had a high number of customers who have been worried after receiving a call from a company claiming to be Microsoft, or claiming that Microsoft is using them as an agent and has given them their personal details. So far all the callers have had an Indian accent. They state that you have got problems with your computer sometimes resulting in error messages, or your computer running slowly or that you have viruses.

They may ask you if your computer is on and if you answer no, they will request you to turn it on. They will ask you to navigate to “Computer Management”, then to “Event Viewer”.  Most computers will have some error or warning entries within this “view”. (Even a document not printing, because your printer is turned off, will appear in these lists.)

Once the bogus caller has the victim’s trust, they may do one or more of the following:

• trick the victim into installing malicious software on their computer;
• take control of a victim’s computer remotely and adjust settings in order to leave the computer vulnerable;
• download all data to a remote location;
• request credit card information so they can charge for repair services;
• gather personal information, such as bank details and login data.

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the only company who would know if your computer is sending out viruses or spam mail and, to my knowledge, ISP’s only contact their customers via email or post and will then advise you how to solve the issue.

Microsoft or any other software manufacturer will not make unsolicited phone calls to help you with your computer.  They will only contact you by telephone if you have raised a fault using their online service.

Unfortunately, neither Microsoft nor our Security Software such as Norton or AVG, can protect us from ourselves!

If you have become a victim of this scam please scan your computer with your security software. If they had remote access to your computer it is important that you have your system is checked to make sure that they no longer have access to your computer.

If you store your passwords for accounts such as email accounts and social networking, change your passwords.

If your bank details are stored on your computer, change your passwords, then contact your bank and explain the situation to them.