Quite a few people in the P-O  are receiving these calls

Microsoft phone scam: how it works

Scammers call you, and asks for you by name. Some are English speakers albeit poor ones, and may target English sounding names in a phone book. They say they are a computer security expert from Microsoft (or another legitimate tech company). The ‘security expert’ is plausible and polite, but officious. They say that your PC or laptop has been infected with malware, and that they can help you solve the problem. What happens now depends on the particular strain of scam with which you have been targeted.

Some crooks will ask you to give them remote access to your PC or laptop, and then use the access to harness your personal data. Others get you to download malware that will do that task for you. A more straightforward scam is to simply ask for money in return for a lifetime of ‘protection’ from the malware they pretend is on your machine.

Here’s the important bit: no legitimate IT security pro is ever going to call you in this way. For one thing, they can’t tell that your PC is infected. They’ve got your name from the phone book, or any one of the thousands of marketing lists on which your details probably reside. They know nothing about your home computing set up – it’s a fishing trip to see if they can hook some low-hanging fruit (forgive the torturous mixed metaphors).

Basically, somebody is sitting in a room calling number after number hoping to find a victim. It’s not personal, but it is potentially dangerous to your financial and technological health if you bother to give the caller the time of day .

Microsoft phone scam: what to do if you are called

☛ Put the phone down. Get rid of the caller and move on with your life. It is not a legitimate call and it is not personal.
☛ During your conversation, don’t provide any personal information. This is a good rule for any unsolicited call. And certainly never hand over your credit card or bank details. Just don’t do it.
☛ If you’ve got this far, we can only reiterate point number 1: get off the phone. But whatever you do don’t allow a stranger to guide you to a certain webpage, or instruct you to change a setting on your PC or download software.
☛ If possible get the caller’s details, although most will hide their number. It is worth reporting  this scam to the police if you have mangaged to obtain any details.
☛ Finally, change any passwords and usernames that could plausibly have been compromised, and run a scan with up-to-date security software. Then ensure that your firewall and antivirus are up to date and protecting your PC.

Microsoft phone scam: what to do if you have been a victim

First of all don’t beat yourself up. This could happen to anyone (and does). Change all the personal data that you can change. As much as you might like to, you can’t change your date of birth, and changing your name and address seems extreme. But you can change all your passwords and usernames, starting with your main email account and any bank and credit card logins. Also, contact your bank to ask them to be on the look out for anything dodgy.

Again, use up-to-date security software to scan and cleanse your PC, and if the scammer did get you to do something to your PC using System Restore to roll back the settings is always a good idea. And tell the police. If you have lost money, it’s possible your credit card company or contents insurance will cover the loss.

For more information from Microsoft themselves – click on THIS LINK

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