I'm a self employed I.T. technician in the UK and would just like to make members aware of something I've come accross!

This isn't something I recieved as an email and am forwarding on, this actually happened to me today!

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Go a phonecall from a new customer today. A nice old dear who lives on her own and uses her laptop to keep in touch with her family.

Got there and was told the story:

She got a phonecall from someone who said they represented "Windows Advanced Care" ( they implied that they were from Microsoft) and that they had detected that her PC was seriously and dangerously infected with viruses and that she should allow them to clean it up for her by remote control. Being an old dear, and using her PC as her lifeline to her family, she panicked and allowed them to take control of it. And hour and a half later (on the phone to them all the time), they then told her that they had fixed everything and asked her for £79.99 payable immediately by credit/debit card.

Afterwards, she spoke to her family about it, who then told her that they thought that she had been scammed! So she then cancelled her credit card, contacted her bank etc, etc, etc. She then was recommended to call me by a neighbour who is a client of mine.

There was nothing wrong with the PC that i could find ...... All they had done was install ccleaner on it and deleted some temp files!

Just as a precaution, I completely reloaded it for her today, just in case anything had been planted!

Just be aware.... this is the fourth time I've come accross this company. They usually target older people, but you may just be getting a call!

I hope as a result of this post, that someone doesn't get scammed!

Like I said ... this was an actual call I went on today! No one from Microsoft will EVER call you to tell you your PC has a virus!!!

Regards,

shakey

 

And most are from India calling. iYogi is one of those scammers!! they got me for $169.

 

Sorry to her that bud! ... They need to be shut down! .... Bastids!

I take a pride in what I do ... these ***** give my industry a bad name!


If anyone gets a call from anyone claiming to be from Microsoft of anything similar, just hang up .... or give them my number!!!!!!!!

 

I hate to say this, but anyone who falls for stuff like that arent very smart to begin with. Microsoft or any other company for that matter wouldn't be calling you to inform you that you are infected. And frankly they wouldn't know if you were or not unless you let them on your PC to start with.

 

We actually have TV ads here in the US for a company called Double My Speed, and probably others, which claim that they'll speed up your PC by cleaning up virus's, trojans, and registry errors, etc. They direct you to their website for a "free" PC checkup. The problem is, if you download their free software and run it on your PC, the software itself will infect your PC, and then they'll sell you the cure. People have actually tested their software by running it on a PC with a fresh install of Windows, which should be problem free (software wise), and their scan still reports a number of problems that need to be fixed- for a fee of course.

 

I agree and would love for them to call me ... but they seem to prey on the older people who might not be as much in the know!

 

True, majority of older ppl are clueless when it comes to computers, they only use them to keep in touch with family etc.

 

If you hate to say so then DONT bro. Your inferring that I'm not smart, what do you really know?????? Ive noticed after almost every comment I make on here, you follow me up with your "hate to say so" comments. Do you follow me around or whats the deal??

 

And that's exactly the point I was trying to make bud! ... These people are preying on older people who dont know chit! ... And scamming them for all they can! ...

 

The phone call is a new one. Wonder how they're getting their target's info to make the call. Prolly got a hold of a list the person themselves signed up that attracts senior citizens.

I already know MS would never call me. They're prolly still recovering from the support calls I used to make back when WFW was the business OS