Bogus Microsoft Caller Cleans Virus
Don’t be fooled by technicians from India claiming they must clean up a computer virus on your PC otherwise your Microsoft warranty will be invalidated.
It’s happened to a number of people in Australia and could be coming to the UK. It’s a simple and effective con. A person cold calls – believed to be from India – and states your PC is infected by computer viruses. They infer that they are working alongside Microsoft and that unless you take action, the warranty on your Microsoft software will be revoked.
The charge for this ‘clean-up’ is around £200; a huge boggling sum, bearing in mind antivirus software costing at most £40 would be all that was needed to fix any computer viruses on your machine. But most computers targeted by these callers naturally have no virus problems.
And once your credit card payment has cleared they, with your permission, take remote control of your computer and a box appears which says that your computer is now virus free.
Of course, it’s a con and once the £200 is taken, a small file is downloaded onto your computer via the remote control which displays a virus clear-up box on your screen. All very simple and all very effective.
And the callers have no connection with Microsoft whatsoever, who are at pains to point out that they would never cold call a customer an ask for control of their system; nor do they employ, or ask other firms to do so.
What worries a number of computer security experts is that the remote control part of the con might really be trying to achieve, as all manners of computer viruses could be downloaded and secretly installed in that period of time.
So, be warned, if someone rings up and says that your computer has viruses, don’t be tempted to ask ‘…how do you know that…’, just put the phone down? If they call again, ask them for their contact details, as you are sure the police would like to know of their plans.
What to do if you have been a victim of the computer virus scam
If you have been unfortunate enough to have been conned by this computer virus scam, or one similar, you may now actually have a virus on your PC. To ensure you remove any harmful copmuter viruses the scammers may have left on your PC, during the brief time they had access to your computer, make sure your antivirus software is up to date with the latest virus definitions. If your computer does not have computer virus protection you will need to get some fast to prevent the scammers doing any more harm. Read our latest anti virus reviews or visit our shop for the latest antivirus discounts.
Guest Article by Neil Camp
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My name is Alan Potts and I'm the Editor of the Antivirus-BUYability web site and Managing Director of BUYability Limited. You can connect with me or keep up to date with new posts on this blog via the following social media sites: 
