Last Updated on: 28th February 2018, 09:13 am
This happened last Monday, and I’ve been meaning to write about it ever since in the hopes that it might help someone else.
The phone rang, and the caller ID said number unknown, but I decided to pick it up anyway. It then rang in my ear. Auto-dialer fail! Then, a heavily accented voice started to talk to me. This is what he said, as best I can remember.
“Hello. I am calling you from computer maintenance. It seems that your computer has caught a little virus…”that’s as far as he got before he found himself talking to the dial tone.
I had just heard about this phone scam, but the version I heard said the person phoning pretends to be from Microsoft and claims you have a virus. But I figured this was similar enough.
If I had allowed him to continue, he probably would have either asked me to download something which would then give him remote access to my machine, or he would have started asking for my passwords or banking info. Either scenario would have been no good.
The point is that no one is going to phone you up and tell you you have a virus, and then offer to fix it for free. If you need phone tech support to fix a virus, you have to initiate the call and you would have to pay.
So, if some random person from a random company phones you and tells you you have a virus, don’t give them what they want. No good can come of it.
