An old scam is doing the rounds again with islanders giving unknown people in India access their computers and exposing personal and sensitive information.
Victims of the scam receive a cold call from India. The callers say they have been alerted to the fact that the person’s PC has been infected with malicious software.
One islander received a call at home from a company which claimed to be a department of Microsoft. They installed programs on her computer and changed her system configuration to allow remote support software to connect to the computer on boot up of the PC. The company then convinced the concerned users that the details are not safe and that they can fix all the problems for a one off change ranging from £10 to £300
The lady, who we have decided not to name told the Isle of Wight Chronicle
I cant believe I fell for it, he was telling me how there was loads of problems that needed to be fixed. He was asking me really strange questions like am i the only PC user and is anyone else there with me”
I became suspicious when he told me to not touch anything for 5 minutes while he made a glass of water, strange thing started happening to my machine and he started sending messages to my PC so i put the phone down on him and disconnected the router. I feel so silly but after a look online I see I’m not the only one”
We discovered that the remote software installed is available for free. The software manufacturer told us that it was not associated with the company and offered to help in any way he could.
Have you had this happen to you? Please let us know by getting in contact!
