We’ve heard of a lot of these over the years, unfortunately not everyone has. Hopefully this post will reach someone who is unaware so they don’t get stung.
Things to bear in mind:
Microsoft will *never* call you about your PC. We work in the industry, contacting a real human being at Microsoft is slightly more difficult than getting a one to one with the pope.
If “Microsoft”, or indeed anyone calls you about your PC and says it is sending errors on the internet (their typical wording) it isn’t. These scammers are very plausible, if you’re not a computer geek it’s very easy to get drawn in, you will not be the first to fall for it.
The scammer will typically get you to press Windows R and run a thing called eventvwr or Event Viewer and try to scare you with all the red errors in there. They usually get you to count them. Generally speaking these are totally benign and are fairly typical of a normal Windows PC. Windows grumbles to itself quite a lot under the bonnet.
The scammer doesn’t really care about these errors, they are just trying to dupe you into going on their website with a technical sounding but ultimately bogus name to get you to click on their software. DO NOT DO THIS!
At this point they frequently pass you on to their “supervisor” who is a more experienced scammer. Their job is to get your credit card details. This is the ultimate goal of the call, to steal your money. They sound plausible, some of them are even vaguely knowledgeable but they really don’t care about your PC.
We’ve heard of cases where they delete all of your documents then demand payment to get them back!
If you are in any way unsure just hang up the call, shut down your PC and talk to someone knowledgeable to put your mind at ease. Your PC is perfectly safe as long as you don’t do what they say.
The one thing to take from this post is that if anyone rings you up and says your PC is sending errors on the internet alarm bells should start ringing. NEVER go to a website that a random stranger advises you to and never give out your credit card details to a stranger.
Please share this post so your family and friends are forewarned.