Following coverage on Monday night’s Panorama, a further stark warning to unsuspecting computer users, as well as a plea to regulatory authorities, comes from UK Computer Repair and Support provider, PC PAL.
Jat Mann, Managing Director of PC PAL commented “I am pleased that a national television program such as Panorama has brought this matter to the attention of the public and hope that it might help to kick start the regulatory authorities to take the matter more seriously to do more to protect vulnerable consumers from these out and out scams.”
“Whilst the Government is putting resources into bringing the benefits of the Internet to individuals and businesses, via initiatives such as the GO ON UK Partnership, there is also the need to protect people when they are online as most won’t be aware of the potential ways in which rogue individuals and organisations can target them. It’s more than simply installing Internet Security software to protect yourself nowadays, as this protection is by-passed by these types of scammers, who are using the telephone to target the victims. ”
After numerous calls and emails from customers, as well as some who have called out their engineers to address the resulting damage, PC PAL is continuing to advising members of the public and business owners to be on their guard if they receive a telephone call from an individual alleging to be from Microsoft, advising them they had “detected problems with their computer” which they can fix remotely.
These unscrupulous individuals are not from Microsoft but instead are criminals hoping to gain access to the individuals’ computer. They ring up the unsuspecting computer owner usually at their home number saying they are from Microsoft and that they have noticed security problems with their computer. They will direct them to the ‘System Log’ and show them the errors listed there. This in itself is designed to mislead as there are always errors here, and they are generally benign!After they have convinced the person that help is urgently needed, they attempt to gain authorisation to access the computer and ask for credit card details to “fix” it. If this is granted the “Microsoft Engineer” on the other end would have full remote control of the computer and could do almost anything to ‘repair’ it such as installing a virus, removing anti-virus or stealing all of the data on the PC. Potentially they could install a small piece of software called a key logger and monitors everything such as online banking passwords.“Our advice is that if you receive such a call you put the phone down immediately and never, ever give out your credit card details or any other personal details for that matter, to these individuals no matter how convincing they sound. If anyone has suffered identity theft or financial loss as a result of this they should also report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040” concluded Jat.If readers have any concerns about this scam or are experiencing problems with their computer or laptop, please get in touch with your local computer repair engineer via our website. We are part of a long established, trusted national brand and all Engineers are CRB vetted, Microsoft qualified and fully Insured.