Microsoft Will Not Automatically Call You
By Richard Hay for Windows Observer
Everyone has surely read about this scam right? What happens is a phone call unexpectedly comes into your home and a supposed representative from Microsoft tells you that there is an issue with your computer which they just received a notice about.
They then typically ask you to turn on your computer and will give you some instructions to access a website and download a program that will fix the issue with your PC that they say you have. That download is usually a piece of malware or a form that you then fill out to provide personal information such as name, address, phone number, credit card, etc. They may also tell you that they need to charge your credit card so they can fix the problem for you.
Once you submit that form to them they now have the information necessary to access personal accounts and make charges against your credit card.
Like many of you, I have read the warnings about this type of scam in the past however, I have never known someone who actually received one of these calls. Well last night that changed as a good friend of my wife’s, whom I do some computer work for, received a phone call that was attempting this scam.
This excerpt appears with permission from Windows Observer.
