Scammers are phoning people in the St. Johns area pretending to work for Microsoft
An alert reader has contacted the St. Johns Independent to report that he has just fallen for a malicious phone scam. According to New Look Computer and Data located at the corner of Business 27 and M-21, they have seen at least four infected computers just today. This has been going on for a while.
The caller, often with an Indian accent, asks for the householder, quoting their name and address before saying “I’m calling from Microsoft”.
They will tell you that they report from their ISP of “serious virus problems” from your computer. Then they ask you to open a program called “Windows Event Viewer” which lists errors, (some “critical” errors) which causes most people to make the fatal mistake of trusting the caller. (Seeing errors in Windows Event viewer is perfectly normal and does not mean you have a problem)
You are then directed to a website where a download awaits/ This is a program that hands over remote control of your computer, and the caller “installs” various “fixes” for the problem.
The bogus “Microsoft” rep asks for a credit card number for a “subscription” to the “preventative service”.
Action: Never let another person at a remote location take control of your computer unless you yourself have contacted a tech support site that you trust. In this instance simply do not give away any information and hang up.