Popular Comptuer Scams to Avoid

This month I want to talk about one particular computer based scam that I have seen growing over the past few months. It is the Phone call tech support scam. There are several different variants on this scam but the basic plot goes something like the following.

 You are sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon when the phone rings, you answer and it’s a kind, usually not native English speaking young person who says “Hello I am from IT Solutions (sometimes they will claim to be from Microsoft directly) and your computer has been infected with a virus” (or some other reason it needs immediate attention) they will then have you sit down at your computer and follow their instruction to click here, and click there. Showing you that your computer has a huge number of problems weather it actually does or not. Then, sometimes with your permission and understanding and sometimes without they will have you give them remote control of your computer. Once this happens they will ask for quite a large amount of money to fix these none existent problems. Usually around 150$ If you refuse to pay or are not interested they will lock you out of your own computer or do other untold amounts of damage. Unfortunately this is rather effective for criminals because almost everyone home has a Microsoft computer and almost every one of those has had some kind of issues or problem recently that they can claim to be able to fix or as the reason for their call. It is impossible for them to know what is happening on your computer, so they are just calling phone numbers at random and hopping to get someone with an issue. These calls seem to be target at home numbers and areas with the most seniors.

I have seen more than a few perfectly good computer system rendered unusable because of this scam. If you get a call from someone you were not expecting about problems with your computer you have not experienced yourself or from anyone who wants to fix your computer remotely that you have not met in person first chances are it’s not a legitimate company and your about to have more trouble then you had before, Don’t do what they say, you do not want to become another victim of their illegal scam. The best protection from this kind of crime is to not follow the instructions of a complete stranger over the phone. Remember if they called you, they were looking for business, not coming to a request.

As always if you have any questions about computer scams, viruses, and computer security. Have a question you would like to see answered in an article or any other technology related questions feel free to send an email to: [email protected]