How to prevent scammers accessing your computer and then charging you.

Recently, several of our customers have reported receiving telephone calls, some claiming to be from Microsoft, saying they have received a report from our customer's Internet Service Provider, telling them that they have a serious virus problem.

The caller then scares the customer, by saying that the computer will become unusable if nothing  is done to remove the viruses. The customer is then directed to a Windows utility, called Windows Event Viewer, where a list, looking very much like error messages, is displayed.

Once the caller has convinced the customer that their PC is infected with viruses, they talk you through a procedure for installing software so the caller can take control of the computer, remotely. After the caller has installed, what they describe as "various fixes", they ask for a fee, often around £79.00, and become very aggressive if the customer indicates they will not pay up.

The problem is that there wasn't a problem with the computer, the caller doesn't work for Microsoft, and, through installing the remote access software, the caller has had access to all data on the customer's computer.

Luckily, the customers who reported this scam to us, realised the call was not genuine, before parting with any money.

We hope that this article will help prevent our customers from falling for this particular scam, in the future.