I covered this topic some time back – but it seems it needs a refresh! Not a day goes by in our stores where we don’t have a customer come in reporting a phone call from Microsoft or Windows.
For those who are unaware, this is how the scam works:
1) Someone from India, the Philippines or similar will call you and tell you that they are from ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Windows’ and they have detected ‘errors’ on your computer.
2) They will instruct you to do a few things on your computer to show you the error messages.
3) They will then advise that for a fee, they can remotely access your computer and fix these errors for you.
Facts!
• Under no circumstances will someone from Microsoft ever call you about your computer.
• There will ALWAYS be errors in the error log on your computer – this is normal.
• If you give them remote access to your computer, they can access your personal data.
If you have provided one of these scammers with access to your computer, we would at the very least, recommend taking your machine to a reputable computer repair place for a check up and full virus scan.
If you have provided your credit card to scammers, we would recommend that in addition to the above, cancelling the card immediately and reporting the matter to your bank. These scammers are unscrupulous, and based overseas – providing them your credit card details will very likely lead to other unauthorized transactions on your card.
It is best practice to never provide your credit card to anyone who has called you unless you are 100% confident you know who they are, and who they work for.
