Have you been phoned by “Microsoft”?  In recent months we have seen a huge rise in the number of customers saying they received a phone call from Microsoft, claiming to have detected a problem with their computer. 

Fair enough you think, that’s very nice of Microsoft to care so much about their customers.  Unfortunately it’s not Microsoft on the phone at all, it’s one of what seems like an ever increasing number of scam artists preying on the unsuspecting.  

These scam artists usually first ask you to visit a website, this allows them to install a program on your computer that lets them take remote control of it.  After fiddling about for a while, pretending to do repairs, they will then ask for a sum of money anywhere between $50 and $300.  Whatever you do, do not give them card details, bank details or in fact any details at all.  Although Microsoft have given us the ubiquitous Windows operating system and they do very much like you buying their other products such as Office, they will never, under any circumstances phone and offer you help without you phoning them first!

If you have already fallen foul to this scam, immediately phone your card issuer and inform them.  Depending on what type of card you have, you may be able to get a full refund on the amount they charged, but also they may want to cancel your card to prevent any further fraud.

The bad news is that this may not be the end of the story. You may have either received this phone call as a result of an infection already present on your system or while these guys were in control of your system they may well have compromised your systems security.  Please contact a local Aberdeen computer repair business such as ourselves and ask about their virus removal service for advice on how to undo any damage done and how to prevent it happening again.