Yesterday I received an unexpected call from someone telling me they had called because of the error pop-ups I was getting on my computer. I told them I wasn’t getting any pop-ups and they informed me that I was even if I didn’t see them. The caller went on to say that these pop-ups were slowing my machine down because they were infecting it with 1 or more viruses.
Although I was skeptical about this call and was having a hard time understanding the person due to their accent, I was also curious about what the caller wanted so I continued with the call. The caller directed me to go turn on my computer. Telling me to turn my computer on only supported my skepticism since I had been working online all morning.
Once I was at my machine I was given the instructions to bring up the run menu. When they started giving me a website address to type in I interrupted and stated I was having a hard time understanding them. The caller asked me to hold on and I assume went to get someone with less of an accent.
While I waited a few seconds for someone else to come on the call I could hear a lot of yelling in both English and another language in the background.
A second, easier to understand person came on the call and gave me the website to type into my run box. After he gave me the url I informed him I wouldn’t do it since I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted. I also stated that I felt this was a security issue since he had called me and I didn’t really know who he was or why he was calling.
With that, the caller directed me to the comantra website. When I got to the site I clicked the pricing button before I told the caller the site had come up.
Their prices are not cheap!
When I told the caller I was at the site he informed me that because I was a Windows user my error pop-ups had been detected and I was entitled to get my pc cleaned up. I asked who was paying for this service since I had noticed the pricing item on the menu and he said it was already paid for since I was using Windows.
“You mean everyone who is using Windows get this service free?” I asked. He stated, “Yes.”
I was then sent to the remote access page on the site and given a “secret” 6-digit number to both write down for future use and enter into the onscreen box.
I wrote the number down and asked, “Does entering this number give you remote access into my machine?”
He said, “Yes.”
I then stated that I had 6 computers in use and asked if I would have to do this for every one of them or if only 1 was infected. He stated that they were all infected and by giving access to 1 machine would clean them all up.
At that point I declined his offer to clean my machines and told him I would not give him access.
Would you believe he then told me that I could never turn my machine off because if I did I it wouldn’t come back on?
Guess what. My machine did turn on this morning and is running normally. Oh, did I mention I run a virus scan every Friday and it was running during the call?
Oh, 1 last thing. I knew there was something wrong with the call when I answered since my caller ID identified the caller as a blocked number. No reputable business except telemarketing services block their number. Do they?
To Your Success,
Susan
Related articles
- Police crack down on computer support phone scam (guardian.co.uk)
