This week, our clients have been receiving phone calls from Microsoft saying that they are offering to fix their PC.
It has been known that this said modus operandi has been going on for year now and is still being done by unscrupulous companies and individuals to scam people.
If you receive a phone call from a security ‘expert’ at Microsoft offering to fix your PC – it’s a scam. Here’s how to avoid the Microsoft phone scam, and what to do if you fear you have fallen victim to it.
Despite having gone on for years now – When they call, the first thing they tell people is -“I’m from Microsoft and you’ve got a problem with your PC”
The scammer calls you, and asks for you by name. They say they are a computer security expert from Microsoft (or another legitimate tech company or a Microsoft ‘partner’). The ‘caller’ is plausible and polite, but a bit shady.
They would normally claim that your PC or laptop has been infected with malware. With that planted in your mind, they will let you know that they can help you solve the problem.
What happens next would depends on the particular strain of scam they would chose to use on you.
Most of the time, these cyber criminals will ask you to give them remote access to your PC or laptop. From this point on, when you give them access, they will try to get hold of your personal data.
Others might tell you to download a tool which they say is the “fix” for your problem, but is actually a trojan or a malware.
Some would right off the bat tell you to pay up a certain amount of money for computer security services or software after showing you supposed errors on computer on your machine which they might pass off as malware.
Here’s the important bit: no legitimate IT security company – certainly not Microsoft – is ever going to call you in this way. For one thing, they can’t even tell that your PC is infected.
Your phone number might have been sourced from a phone book and just started a cold call to try to scam you or any one of the thousands of marketing lists on which your details probably reside.
For sure, they know nothing about your home computing set up – they’re just taking a chance or gamble calling you up.
Basically, they are just fishing around calling number after number hoping to find a victim.
Just a reminder, be vigilant with these type of calls.
