ADVICE FROM P-O LIFE FORUM
| Had a call from an indian call centre yesterday claiming to be from Microsoft, having detected some serious viruses on my computer. They knew my name address and telephone number and said they had my license number.
I was given instructions to open some log which showed various threats they said would not be removed by anti virus software and that their technicians would remove for me. I was then passed to the ‘technical manager’ who gave me a Manchester number I could contact him on and asked me to allow them access to the computer to make the changes. They logged on and he then sent me to a payment screen with no apparent security lock to add my card details which I queried and he said it was 3d technology which made it secure. I then said I’d call him back and investigated the number which came up on Google as a scammers number. When I went back to the remote access screen they were downloading files from my computer so I cancelled it immediately, shut down and ran the virus scanner and changed all my passwords. This morning a new icon was on the computer and having looked at the contents which include a contract, this is with an outfit called Ruben Marketing Ventures based in New Delhi not Microsoft at all. Beware! |
| I wanted to let you know that I have had a second person contact me saying that they have been telephoned by someone claiming to represent a company associated with Microsoft/Windows and then talking them through enabling remote control on their machine (ostensibly to clean the non-existent virus) before, in the first case, charging them 500€!
It looks like a gang could be targeting Brits, in France or in our region, with a view to scamming the victims for supposedly cleaning their computers. Could you put some sort of warning on the Forum, and perhaps in your weekly newsletter, to alert as many people as possible about this scam? |
