Microsoft DO NOT phone home users. If someone phones claiming to be from Microsoft, hang up straight away. Please refer this page to anyone you think might benefit, because it is important to get this message out there.
Microsoft themselves state “Remember, Microsoft will never proactively reach out to you to provide unsolicited PC or technical support. Any communication we have with you must be initiated by you.”
Unfortunately we are seeing people falling for this scam on a regular basis, many parting with hundreds of pounds. The people who do this can be extremely convincing, they may have personal information and they may sound very professional. They may call multiple times and put on a lot of pressure and can even get aggressive or make threats. The best course of action is always to hang up.
Do not feel bad if you have fallen for this scam, many very intelligent people do! If you are a victim then there are some steps you should take. Some of these may seem a bit extreme but it is better to be safe than sorry.
- Contact your bank to see if you can get a refund. Banks or card providers will often refund victims of fraud
- Change your bank cards
- Back up your data and restore your computer to factory settings, or ask a friendly local I.T. company to do this for you
- Change all your passwords
- Install a reputable antivirus software to help prevent future attacks
I would recommend the above steps even if the attackers did not have remote access to your computer. The personal information an attacker uses often has been obtained from malicious software that has been installed on your computer without your knowledge. A misconception is that Mac users are safe from this sort of software, this is not true.
If you have been a victim of an attack and need some free advice feel free to call us on 028 9146 9751.
