Phone scam

Scams never seem to go away; this particular phone scam has been around since at least 2009 and keeps resurfacing on a regular basis.

Do NOT follow the advice of these unsolicited phone calls, they are scams.

The phone scam starts with a member of the household being asked for by name, the scammer will say they are working for Microsoft or will give the name of what sounds to be a legitimate tech company.  They will then tell you that your computer is infected or that it has errors which will cause the computer to fail and you will lose your data etc.

Most of the phone scammers will get you to open a program called event viewer on your computer and you will see warnings and error messages which the scammer will claim as proof of your computer being infected or its imminent demise.  These errors and warnings are legitimate, harmless errors and do not mean you have an infected computer or that your computer is failing.

Next the scammer might ask you for a payment so that they can repair your computer.  You might be asked to visit a website and give remote access to the scammer, who could then access your personal data, or download software that will give them access.

Do NOT give your card details out to unsolicited callers.  Do NOT give remote access to unsolicited callers.  Do NOT download software or click on links that you are not sure about.

HANG UP.  They might call back, just hang up every time they do.  They will get bored and give up at some point.  If you pay money to these scammers you probably wont get it back and will end up needing the services of a legitimate computer repair company which will cost you more money.

Protect yourself and friends by forwarding this on to anyone you think it might help.