Hello AUG Members,
I would like to let you know of a terrible computer scam experienced by a good friend of mine. I was at her house for four hours, trying to help her out. Please be aware and remember what I am about to tell you.
A few days ago, a friend of mine received a call from a woman with an Indian accent, who claimed to be from Microsoft. She told my friend that her computer had been infected with a Trojan virus, and she was calling from Microsoft to help her get rid of it. My friend asked how she knew her computer had a virus as it wasn’t even turned on at the time and had been unplugged for two weeks prior while she was away. The caller said Microsoft knew by the way she reported those Microsoft errors recently to the company whenever they happened. My friend being a novice on the computer believed her. The woman asked for permission via email that would instruct her to download a little program that would allow her to come into her computer remotely to help clear up the virus, and my friend complied thinking this would be to her advantage. (Wrong Move).
She watched as she saw her desktop being taken over remotely and going into all her programs. My friend became alarmed at this point and told her to get out of her computer immediately, which she did. Then she immediately hung up on the woman , and shut down her computer.
She called me to ask me if she should be worried. I said “Yes, you should be”. Letting this strange woman take over her computer was not the right thing to do and I would be over to see if anything was amiss and hopefully I could help her.
When I looked into her computer, I found that as a result of the incident I could not open her Norton’s anti-virus program, but was able to get onto the Internet. I downloaded a free anti-virus program thinking I could check out her computer, but the computer would not let me run a check. I tried a system restore, and the computer would not let me complete a system restore either.
We decided to call Symantec, Norton’s Anti Virus software parent company, and gave the technician permission to remotely enter the computer to check it out. We watched in awe as the technician checked her computer. He informed us that over 7,000 programs had been installed on her PC and we could see them scrolling right on her desktop as he checked. These programs opened up her computer to anyone that wanted to use it, worldwide, and there was nothing to stop them from getting into her bank accounts and any other accounts she did business with on the NET such as Amazon, Ebay, PayPal, etc.
I asked the technician if it would be wise to do a computer reformat, and the tech said that the virus would not let me reformat the computer even if I tried to.
To cut to the chase it costs her $199 for Norton’s to fix the problem and reinstall her anti-virus software.
I know this was a lot to read, but I thought it was worth warning you that this is a terrible scam going on right now, and after speaking to a few people that I know, some of them told me that they had similar calls, but thankfully didn’t fall into this trap. Just thought I would pass this along to you.
Remember Microsoft would never call and offer help in any way to fix your computer. Especially for free. For that matter no reputable company would do so either.
Sandra
