Phone Call IT Scams

Beware of scams

Over the last couple of weeks I have had to fix several machines which have been affected by bogus phone calls.

Please read the following to keep your computer safe:

If you ever receive a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, saying your computer has errors or viruses, just hang up. Microsoft will never contact you directly, unless you have contacted them first. The purpose of these calls is to get easy money by scaring you into thinking there’s something wrong with your computer and that they can fix it for you. These telephone scams – Cold Calls, have been going on for many years and the scammers sadly keep robbing innocent people, because their success rate is worth their time and effort. These caller’s numbers will be withheld, so that they cannot be traced or identified.

This scam is a well-oiled machine, it starts off with the alleged Microsoft representative asking you to turn on your computer to perform some checks for errors. They essentially make you open different applications which will give the impression that your machine has problems.
After they have convinced you that there are problems with your machine, they will offer to fix it for a cost and then pass you over to one of their “Technicians”. The “Technician” will ask you to install some software. This is remote access software, usually something like “Team Viewer” or “LogMeIn”. Both of these applications can be set up to run whenever you start your machine, which means they can then gain access to your machine anytime it is switched on.

Once they have access to your machine they can remove files, install malicious software and generally cause or create issues, which they will then try to charge you to fix. Please remember that if you follow their instructions you are giving them access to your machine. They have NO ACCESS to your machine unless you allow it.

If you are worried that you may have been affected by one of these calls then please contact us.

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